000: START HERE: What do you drink when you're not drinking?

So, what do you drink when you're not drinking?

Meet Ciara and Shantel, two friends and former party girls who are on a journey to answer that very question as they taste and review the latest and greatest no-alcohol, low-alcohol, cannabis, CBD, nootropics, and functional beverages out there.

In this foundational episode, we discuss how we met, our different drinking styles, and how the first episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City inspired us not to drink tonight.

You're probably wondering why we, two socially inclined ladies who both admittedly still drink alcohol (with no plans to stop), trying to answer this question?  Because sometimes, we  just want to sip socially without the spirits, simple as that. And we suspect we aren't alone. From workout regimens to pregnancy to just wanting to have a clearheaded morning, there are tons of reasons not  to drink, at least sometimes. 

These days, we're are more likely to be having wine with a great steak or bellinis at brunch than to be doing shots at the club, so why not find they best ways to relax that aren't 20% ABV? 

Join us for the journey and drink along! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I'm Ciara and I'm Shantel and we're, and we're not drinking tonight.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome

Speaker 1: 0:26

Episode zero. Um, this is our, our test run. This is our beta<laugh>. Yep. It's a beta. We are not<laugh> we're not drinking tonight. Um, and you probably can hear me pouring a drink, but it is not a alcohol. So we decided to start this podcast because we realized that we don't always, we both, we realized we both had like, kind of the same experiences sometimes when it comes to, to drinking. Like maybe, maybe you want to, maybe you don't want to. I think we do come from two, two different perspectives though. I would consider myself a recovering party girl mean I enjoy, I think that's where we bought. Yeah. I mean, we are, but we, we do definitely have, I think we have two different, you know, aesthetics. Like I am, I am the double double shot in martini kind of girl. Drink more dream more exactly like you're you're like gearing up for a long night. Let me drink a spritzer or like a nice water. Cause you're not heavy. You you've never been like a heavy consumer of alcohol. No, my dirty secret is that I've never been able to really drink like that. I am known well by myself. I'm known for coming up with tricks to sustain myself through a long night. Like some people can drink 10 shots in a night. Me<laugh> I'm not, I'm not the person who can do that. I have to moderate myself. I follow all the precautions, like have a glass of water after every drink. That's so the way we uncovered this, how did we uncover this information about each other? I think just by like hanging out, like, I mean, we went to business school together. Let's back up. Let's take, lets take let's start there. So I think business school is the place where you either become an alcoholic.<laugh> not by choice or you start to really stand your ground on like, you know, I'm not a big booze person, so I'm gonna find alternatives. I'm gonna figure out like how do I still remain on the social scene without like ostracizing myself? You know? Yeah. So this is the case in just for some context, this is the case in a lot of full time NBA programs, which is, um, how we met. There is a culture around drinking and socializing, which, you know, it's a master's degree program. So you are still expected to perform academically, but it's it's business. Part of it's a key part of it is, you know, socializing and that frequently includes drinking, drinking. So that might include a networking event or multiple networking events followed by standing weekly drinking appointments. And that is not a joke or an exaggeration. That's a real thing. And at our, in our business school, it was called beer blast, unlimited beer and wine. Yeah. Let's be very clear here. There was like a couple of beers that would be available and one wine and cider, which is one wine and cider and then water. That was it. And it was unlimited from six to 10. Yeah. It was like, oh my gosh, my goodness. And so it was like, it's a Thursday, no one has class on Friday. Everyone's super stressed out between just like schoolwork, recruit, recruiting the stress of being in a business program, just like the stress of living in New York. And so then on Thursday, everyone would go balls to the wall, like just in one to four hours, whatever fit your schedule. Wait. Yeah. And it was only$10. I think it was like, no, it was$10 to be paid. Oh, I, I think, but not we paid I for two years I think front. So yeah, it was like a hundred dollars. It was$10. Something for every Thursday for two to go get for four hours. You did not have to do all four hours did it. But I was the girl who was like, OK. Yeah, my cup's empty. So I'm gonna go get a refill. Um, maybe that first week I went like every, like at six o'clock or six 30. Yeah. But then I started to like at, there was one semester I had a class that didn't end until nine, but I did dip out like during our, our breaks to go get a drink at beer blast. Mm-hmm<affirmative> I did do that. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty common. It was common. But again, this goes back to the whole thing of like in only in business school, is it not a problem to watch someone drink for four hours nonstop? Well, yeah, like, or just like just consume so much. I alcohol in such a small concentrated amount of time, like four hours, people are like 10 bottles of beer up almost like it's just really bad. Um, but then also not only that, I think like outside of that one social gathering, it was also all the recruiting circles. Yeah. And the dinners and all that kinda stuff and not complaining by these. I think we're like kind of going in around about way of saying like, why are we even interested in looking at alternatives right. Or just trying out on like, why are we not drinking tonight?<laugh> yeah. I mean, I guess we should probably answer that question. So I know for me, I, like I said, I've always been kind of a T Toller. Is that the word where you're you drink some, you can't drink a lot. Like I can't do shots<laugh> I enjoy, but I do enjoy cocktails and I do enjoy wine. I consider myself like an Eile. Oh my goodness. Worked in a bar. You're gonna have to explain an HIL is a wine lover. Oh my God.<laugh> and a file. You're gonna have to get you your own segments where you, I can give vocabulary, you vocabulary lessons and Fil is a wine lover. And that is me. I do consider myself a wine lover. I consider myself an enjoyer of spirits. Uh, I really like whiskey. I really like tequila. I really like champagne. I just can't drink a lot of it. And you know, from, and that's fine. That feels fine. I used to work. I put myself through school, uh, and after, uh, bartending. So I'm very comfortable with alcohol. Don't wanna sound like, you know, not in, into it at all, but I have always found the need to moderate, you know, and continue to remain social. So why I am not drinking tonight is because I think there are, there's a world of alternatives. I don't wanna ramble, but the way we decided to, to link up and start talking about this, like in the most recent times was, was watching an of real Housewives as I'm known to do<laugh> I think choices, especially right now. Uh, yeah, right. I was watching the premier of the Housewives of salt lake city and I don't, but the tequila tequila was like, I a tequila, but I, and I thought, well, can I do the same if I drink? And don't make a lot of money somehow, while not drinking, like<laugh>. And so I called Chantel with that anecdote and Sheed me as she is known to do. And then we started talking about out some of her challenges of drinking lately and it let us here and I'll let her tell you about her, her side. Not nearly as dainty. I think we would be like a weird, definitely the human being to one another. So yeah, like, I mean, I, for lack of better words, like, you know, my, my family's Caribbean, I've grown up around alcohol my entire life, but the, I had my first drink when I was six. What, uh, yeah. And I mean, I'm not gonna out my auntie, but<laugh> Hey, auntie Joyce<laugh> so yeah, she let me, uh, taste alcohol and I was like, it was my sixth birthday. And so we, like, I just always grew up around like alcohol consumption and us folks, how to party, we love partying and rum and things like that. So I think I've always had this very comfortable relationship with alcohol, but as I get older, I'm realizing like, you know, I don't want the groggy mornings. I don't want, you know, I, I don't wanna feel like, you know, my fun the night before is cutting into my productivity the next day. Now that being said, I'm not, you know, looking to go completely alcohol free, cuz I, for one still enjoy a good drink. Unlike Sierra, I do not have a refined palette. And although I love tequila, whiskey champagne and all those things, I can't tell you what tastes good or what doesn't taste good. I can tell you what I, you know, gets you drunk the quickest or what drinks, um, you know, is better to do a double versus a single. But yeah, I don't really have a super refined palette, but what I'm definitely in the, you know, market for right now, as I said, like, you know, it's just more so developing a healthier relationship with the wind down socialization without the like six or seven drinks that night. Oh yeah.<laugh> yeah. You know, and it, I was never drinking stuff. Exactly. Like I just I've always had like a higher tolerance too, which is, which makes it even worse. So like I could consume like a lot of alcohol and just be sitting there straight face and yeah, it's, it's something that, you know, like when you get to a certain higher, like when you get to a higher level of tolerance, it, it does become problematic. Cause you're like, I just consume, you know, 20 ounces of, of, of a toxic liquid, you know, like essentially poison alcohol is poison. Right. So I was like, I just consumed 20 ounces of poison. And on the flip side, I wouldn't drink 20 ounces of anything during the day. Like I wouldn't drink 20 ounces of soda. Well water, yeah. Water. But that's it like, I wouldn't drink 20 ounces of like, I wouldn't just fit still in like a, you know, casual settings, like, Hmm, let me have 20 ounces. My body only participates during like my birthday or if I'm on a trip, like if I go, if I travel, then my body will allow, it seems to know it's your birthday, go out, enjoy yourself. Um, but other than that, like it just, it just doesn't and mine is like, well, it's the slipper slope. It's like, if I take a shot, then it like, oh, it's a drinking. Yeah. It's like, oh, unleashed a crack it's night.<laugh> so yeah, just looking like I social and fun, but also like I'm, I'm not trying to nurse water at the party. I haven't<laugh> I haven't gotten to that stage in life. I feel like I said that I drink a lot of water and it's true. I just, yeah. But I dunno if I'm nursing in water at the party, I feel attack. So that led us to, so we found our common ground mm-hmm<affirmative> on, you know, meat feeling like we wanna moderate our drinking. Um, and that led us to another point of, uh, connection, which was, we started hearing a lot about CBD and like th and you know, different like ways to just like naturally. Yeah. Naturally kinden out. And it's of those things where if you're not a, like, if you're not a drinker, you might be more into THC or CBD. And so we started to kind of think about this and you know, when I really, I wanted to bounce ideas off someone, the first person I thought of was Chantel because she really made a splash<laugh>. Um, our first I did her first week of business, she became semi-famous because when I met her, we met in the summer. Yeah. So we met just before business school started. And when we met, she was saying, I don't remember what she were saying. I wasn't recruiting manager. And that I wanted to, I can't remember what you said you wanted to do, but I know by the first week of business school that should changed. She went from, I am, I'm Chantel, I'm a dope operations manager to I'm Chantel. And I'm looking to get into the medical marijuana business. Yeah. And, and, and she like this, our, our class was like, what? Like, they were very, I think it was just more thought it was just like, it was shock, shock, jock reporting type thing for me, because yeah, I always knew, like I used to say, uh, you know, not used to say, but like, I am very much interested in the marijuana industry, but everyone thought I was like, interested in like growing the plan and like starting my own business, like focused around like the actual plant and selling, uh, a product that was marijuana based. But I was actually interested in FinTech. So the financial payment systems, which threw everyone completely off, I'm like, no, no, no, I'm still very much interested in operations. Mm-hmm,<affirmative>, I'm still very much interested in like, how do we make this cash strapped industry more automated, a lot, uh, easier to enter and things of that. So like, I was still focused on marijuana, but not in the way everyone was like, oh, marijuana, wanna grow, wanna grow some bud. And I'm like, what? Really? Yeah. Not really. Just wanna figure out how to pay for it. Help people pay for it. Yeah. But, uh, what was so funny though, is that once I said that out loud, everyone just assumed that I smoke weed. Like everyone was just, oh, that, that girl, like she's, she's like, she doesn't. And I'm like, just cause you're interested in the industry does not mean that you're like, I don't know, like I'm, I'm not necessarily interested in getting high, high every day. Right. Or consuming weed on, on a regular basis. I, I, I can even roll blunt. So let's, let's go ahead and throw, I can't roll. I can't tell you what's good weed from bad weed or anything of that nature. But everyone thinks that like, oh, if, if, if she's interested in marijuana, because she has like, she's big weed. Yeah. She's a big weed at, she wants to eat brownies and get high at the table and it's like, uh, no, not actually not at all. Well, you know, I don't really think there's anything wrong with being like a weed hair also. Yes. Not saying that there's anything wrong. Oh yeah, no, no, just I don't. I know, I know.<laugh> um, I don't think there's, I, my feelings though have actually changed on this, so I didn't have any interest in, in cannabis at all. And I, I don't know. I'm trying to think about how to tell this story ly, but basically I, you used to write quite a lot and I picked up freelancing for a website and had to learn a lot about cannabis in the industry to do it. You know, I have family members who are deep into it and, you know, kinda talking to and talking to, I know that were really, and really exploring some of the complexities around cannabis and how it affects, you know, people, color people, you know, women, like it just affects a lot of different people. And my mindset really shifted on it. And I really only in the last, like short while became open to cannabis as a way of a method of relax other than alcohol, because for me, I mean, you know, yeah. Alcohol is very straightforward. It's legal cannabis. Isn't exactly legal, but you know, that's all BS. It really should be, should be absolutely. I mean, you think the complexities of it are intentional. Exactly. Yeah. There's intentional complexity around cannabis, for sure. Versus alcohol, you know, everyone, anybody can go purchase alcohol, but not every has access to like legal cannabis and things of that nature. Right. So we were aligned on that thinking like we, I kinda came around to where she was, where I don't smoke or anything a lot or anything like that. I've known to have edible. I love how whispering it audience. Should I say that? I know, but, or two are<laugh> I like the overarching thing that like, I mean, so what we're trying, we're what we're hoping that everyone understands is that like, Hey, we are two women who absolutely love a good time. We can have a good cocktail and, you know, wind down, but we're also looking for more healthy altern. So we're still wanting like the social experience, but in a more natural or yeah. Natural is probably the, a good way to put. Yeah. I'm a more natural way. Right. So I think, and, and the reason why we'll probably talk more about like CBD less THC right away, just because THC sometimes can be a little bit tricky with dosing. Like when you talk about gummy or any type of ingestible with THC, it's like, you can go from having a really great day to be like smacked on the ground.<laugh> it's very, it does. And so, you know, with things still being, it's still, yeah, it's still a little bit unpredictable, so it's hard to say like, oh, you know, I'm gonna swap out alcohol for like a THC drink because there's still some ambiguity there of like what that experience will look like for me. Um, I am not one of those people who are productive when they smoke or do anything. Like my body takes THC and it goes to sleep. And everyone's like, how does that work? Because alcohol's also a depressant. So when you go to sleep, like I'm like, it does not work the same for me, legit. I can sit around, leave for too long. And the next thing I know, I'm like sleepy. Yeah. I need to enter the world. Um, so I don't want, I didn't wanna, I don't wanna drink. That's gonna make me go to sleep. I wanna a drink. That's going to maybe unlock some of those anxieties. Cause I, I, I can't speak for everyone, but I definitely have like social anxieties when you're out. And you're trying to be like, yeah. When you're expected to perform and talk and be so like overzealous. And I think that's where the alcohol, you know, really helps. But replacing that was something that keeps me social, keeps me alert and awake and definitely not a downer. And I don't wanna be, I've crossed over I'm I'm in a polite age where I don't wanna be slurred.<laugh> like, you know, I don't wanna be like, I don't wanna be out and, and like slur at my speech and drunkenly falling outta Ubers. Well, especially if there's a requirement, if there's like a socializing or socialization requirement around your expectation of the, so like, as we progress in our careers, we anticipate there, there will be more social situations that require some sort of social lubricant mm-hmm<affirmative>. But I love that word. I know<laugh> I love, um, but we, we anticipate that there will be some expectation that we can, you know, it's seen as kind of a marker of sophistication, right. That you can like drink and do business deals. Oh yeah. It's almost that like the, the, the man on the golf course with the martini, like the image of this or the guy who's like, you know, you watch him on the movie. He, he takes the whiskey straight. Yeah. He's so composed and still having like a meeting at two o'clock in the afternoon, like there's some allure around that. And I think that's the reason why we don't, we're not saying we wanna take drinks out of the picture whatsoever. Drinks are like having a drink with someone is a social end. It's like, oh, let's go grab a drink after work. Absolutely. No one's ever like, let's go, let's go grab some it, I can't thinks never's some ice cream after work like that. I mean, that would be nice. Be like, Hey, let's go grab some ice cream after dollar deal day. Let's see. What's<laugh> yeah. You're let's celebrate this billion dollar Bill's closure. Let some ice cream. So, so some like, it never happens that way. All the more deals might close.<laugh> full less tension if people did have ice cream after I dunno. I dunno. Maybe not. All I know is James Bond fights crime, I guess, and is never drunk, although he drinks all day long. So this is the image we're up against. So I dunno if we too can do anything to get rid of. Well, I don't think we're, I mean, we're, I'm not, I'm not trying to fight against the machine neither. I'm not trying to fight against the machine. No, actually, I, I, I like it. I think it's great. I think everyone should continue to consume it. I just think that there should be alternatives. Yes. When you are looking to have fun, but also like have your wits about you. You shouldn't have to be downgraded to a dag on Shirley temple. Right? You should be juice. Yeah. Here's someone offer you juice because just, or water, just because you say, Hey, I'm not drinking. And this goes for like a large group of people. It's not just the folks who are like me recovering party or who are trying to be a little bit more conservative in our drinking it's for the pregnant mom. Who's like, I could really just, I would love to, I would participating, you know, sip something other than this water right now. Right. I mean, there's so many different instances and look again, I'm not saying that alcohol's gonna go away and I don't think we think we don't want it. I just think we want, let's be, we wanna introduce a fun, alternative something. That's not like boring for. We wanna explore that. Like we know that there's this emerging movement of, you know, people who are launching these alternative beverage. So we really wanted to explore that through this podcast. Like just what's out there, you know? And not only that, like, I think we both figured, like we figured out really early that education was like a gap in this market. And it's because a lot of businesses try to, they try to talk about the ingredients and the effects and things like that. And a roundabout kind of course, it's mainly because of like legal issues and not wanting to like put themselves into a box and kind of minimize their market. Yeah. But anyway, we think of this podcast as a way of just thinking, or is it like our talking? Cause we're just talking, we're talking are just our conversations off the top, but we're not drinking tonight. So we're gonna talk to you. Yeah. Um, but a lot of educational gaps out there where it's like, you know, us, like when we, when we're learning about neutropics and we're learning about formulations and like the consistency of formulations and packaging and all this kind of stuff, because as we're going on this journey, like we're going on this journey ourselves to try and find like, is there something else, is there something else out there for the night where at everyone's like, oh, we're gonna do such and such. And I'm like, yep. I'm prepared because I've got X, Y, and Z. Yep. And I don't have to worry about like, you know, feeling like crap tomorrow, but I also am not gonna be standing on the wall nursing at Shirley temple. Right. That's where we're. Yep. So we wanna discover, is there something out there, you know, if it exists, you know, wanna find it, if it doesn't exist. Well, we're gonna find that out too.<laugh> yeah. So, and bear with us on our journey. Like we're still, we're, we're definitely learning as we go. Definitely. This is, and don't think either one of us is gonna claim to be like, I am no doctor. Yeah. I know something matter expert. I will say, you know, our, our, our professional backgrounds do give us credibility in, in research and think about markets and people and responses. And, and that'll probably come across very, uh, vividly, probably just the right. Like there's some areas of this that we can both be considered markets kinda well specialist. Oh, market. OK. Well, yes. In our day jobs, which we won't discuss, we won't be talking about our day jobs. We'll stay away from those things. We'll talk. We, yes. We'll stay away from our day jobs, but basical, what we wanna do, this is something that we are personally interested in. We figured some other people might be interested in it. Yeah. We're going on a journey to try to understand what's out there and we're going to see where this goes. So, you know, we're very excited to see that. Um, and we hope you'll continue on with us and learn what we're learning. Learn a little bit more about social drinking without the drinking. Yeah. So it's like social being social we'll we'll we'll figure that out. We're well, we're just fun social people, but there's gotta be a better way. That's the boogie without the boo boogie without the boo<laugh> There's gotta be a way to do this, not just with alcohol. Yeah. So we're curious, just bear with our be very she and sleek. Oh, oh yeah. That's even another thing. Like, if you wanna, if you're like working out all the time and you don't you up at like 5:00 AM to go meet a trainer or whatever, and you don't wanna be drunk. No, you can't be. I mean, realistically speaking, there's, there's not that many opportunities. We have to be like carelessly hungover the next day, unless you're on vacation or if you drink on Friday and even if you drink on Friday, Saturday, we typically have so much that we have to do or get done because it's like the one true weekend day or whatever mm-hmm<affirmative>. Um, so it's like, even if you go out and have a great time on Friday night, it feels good in the moment, but then Saturday you're like dragging and you can't really, and you might drag all day. Yeah. And then, so now your Sundays bombarded with it's like a really horrible yeah. If you're not 21, if you're not, this is like, you have to start finding acceptable social ways to, you know, just enjoy yourself.