8 Nonalcoholic New Year’s Drinks to Serve at Your Party

8 Alcohol-Free Drinks to Ring in the New Year

8 Alcohol-Free Drinks to Ring in the New Year
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New Year’s Eve is practically synonymous with a champagne toast as the clock strikes midnight. But plenty of people are looking to celebrate without alcohol, for a variety of reasons.

Anyone interested in a healthy lifestyle may want to consider sticking to nonalcoholic beverages, says Grace Derocha, RD, a spokesperson for the National Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Luckily, an ever-increasing number of nonalcoholic options are just as festive as bubbly.

With some of these healthier alternatives on hand on New Year’s Eve, everyone will feel invited to the party, including pregnant or nursing moms, those on medications that don’t mix with alcohol, designated drivers, and people in recovery.

Here are eight festive nonalcoholic New Year’s drink options that get Derocha’s stamp of approval.

Instead of Champagne

You can go alcohol-free and still enjoy a celebratory glass of bubbles. Any of these three options will fit perfectly into your best champagne flutes.

1. Topo Chico

Derocha’s favorite alternative to alcohol is also the simplest. “I love sparkling mineral water,” she says. “It’s practically calorie- and sugar-free.” Her go-to brand is Topo Chico, which has lime and grapefruit flavors, or you can do as she does and add a splash of your own fresh juice to their unflavored sparkling mineral water.

2. Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Alcohol-Free Sparkling Riesling

This fresh, fragrant sparkler tastes very much like regular sparkling wine. The big difference is calories. “A standard glass of champagne, depending on the brand, is about 110 calories. This has only 25 calories per serving,” says Derocha. She also notes that Leitz Eins Zwei Zero's very low sodium content is a plus.

3. Noughty Alcohol-Free Sparkling Chardonnay

This is another great swap, especially for Chardonnay lovers. With only 14 calories per serving, it’s hard to overdo it on Noughty. “It’s not unusual for partygoers to drink the equivalent of a bottle during the long evening,” says Derocha. “If you switched to this instead, you’d save hundreds of calories.” You’d also be sparing yourself a rough New Year’s morning.

Instead of Beer

If beer is your drink of choice, you’re in luck when it comes to nonalcoholic brews. There are more and better-tasting choices than ever before these days. “In general, the calories are lower, but people who are counting their carbs will want to look at the carb content in these — it can run pretty high,” says Derocha.

She has one other caveat when it comes to nonalcoholic beers: Most do contain trace amounts of alcohol. By law, nonalcoholic drinks can contain up to 0.5 percent alcohol by volume.

 One study found that about one-third of the nonalcoholic beers tested had more alcohol by volume than the label claimed.

Nonalcoholic beers make for a perfectly healthy swap for many beer lovers, but if you want to be sure you are avoiding alcohol completely, another drink option may be best.

4. Wellbeing Heavenly Body Golden Wheat

“Though it varies brand to brand, most wheat beer has more than 150 calories per can or bottle, while this Wellbeing one has just 44 calories,” says Derocha about their 16-ounce can. “When you think of coming into the new year, people have weight loss resolutions, and these beers can support that.”

5. Athletic Brewing Co. All Out Stout

Regardless of other factors, Derocha says it’s always healthier to choose a nonalcoholic beverage over one with alcohol. This Athletic Brewing stout has fewer calories than traditional stout, but a lot of carbohydrates (at 21 grams [g]) compared with an average can of beer (12.6 g).

 Fifteen grams is considered one serving of carbs, so if you are counting that macronutrient, you’ll want to be aware of what you’re drinking, says Derocha.

Instead of Cocktails

An assortment of bottled and canned nonalcoholic cocktails are starting to fill shelves, all of which are an improvement, healthwise, over alcohol. “For any alcoholic drink you replace with a nonalcoholic drink, you’re avoiding the damaging effects of alcohol,” says Derocha. On the other hand, nonalcoholic cocktails can contain more total sugar than other drinks Derocha suggests thinking about your goals, looking at the label, and putting it into context for yourself.

“I recommend keeping it to 10 g or less per serving,” Derocha says. “[But] a drink with more than 10 g of sugar can still be a healthy choice, especially if you are enjoying it instead of a sugary dessert,” says Derocha. “The healthiness of what you’re choosing to drink is always relative to what it’s replacing, as well as what you’re eating with it.”

6. Curious Elixir

Curious Elixir's bottled nonalcoholic cocktails include six drinks that riff on the flavor profiles of traditional concoctions like margaritas and negronis. Calories top out at 85 per serving, and none have added sugars — though there is natural sugar from fruit juice. “I love the No. 4,” says Derocha. “It’s citrusy and very flavorful, it has very natural ingredients, and it’s not overly processed.”

Instead of After-Dinner Drinks

These sophisticated sippers are inspired by Italian amaros such as Aperol and Campari. Mix them with sparkling water to turn them into a spritzer.

7. The Pathfinder

Based on fermented hemp, this nonalcoholic spirit is surprisingly complex in flavor, with assertive herbal notes. The Pathfinder contains 8 g of sugar per serving and just 35 calories.

8. Ghia

This floral concoction is pleasantly bitter and aromatic. Ghia has just 20 calories per serving and only 3 g of sugar.

A growing number of Americans see even one to two alcoholic drinks a day as unhealthy.

 It’s no wonder then that nonalcoholic drink sales continue to grow, with a 29 percent increase in 2023 over the year prior.

This is in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations of one drink or less for women, or two drinks or less for men per day.

The Takeaway

  • There are nonalcoholic versions of nearly every seasonal drink available.
  • Pay attention to nutrition labels on certain drinks, as they may have more than a serving of carbohydrates or a lot of sugar.
  • The CDC recommends one drink or less for women per day, or two drinks or less for men, as a moderate level of alcohol consumption.
Lynn Griger photo

Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES

Medical Reviewer

Lynn Grieger is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified personal trainer, and certified health and wellness coach. She completed requirements to become a registered dietitian at Valparaiso University in 1987 and completed a dietetic internship at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, in 1988. 

Lynn brings her expertise in nutrition, exercise, and behavior change to her work in helping people reach their individual health and fitness goals. In addition to writing for Everyday Health, she has also written for websites and publications like Food and Health Communications, Today's Dietitian, iVillage.com, and Rodale Press. She has a passion for healthy, nutrient-dense, great-tasting food and for being outdoors as much as possible — she can often be found running or hiking, and has completed a marathon in every state.

joy-manning-bio

Joy Manning

Author

Joy Manning is a health writer and former nutrition editor for Prevention magazine. Her writing has appeared in Men’s Health, EatingWell, and Shape, and on WebMD, among others, and has garnered a James Beard Journalism Award nomination. She’s also the author of the books Is Our Food Killing Us? and Stuff Every Cook Should Know

Manning talks about plant-based cooking and nutrition on her podcast, Local Mouthful.

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
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