Going sober? Meet the communities that make giving up drinking fun
Summary
Choosing to be sober in a culture where social lives are intricately associated with drinking can be an isolating experience. But today, there is a growing community around sobriety
On a recent Friday night in Bengaluru, Green Theory, a cafe that serves plant-based food and drinks, turned into a retro-futuristic space for a silent music party. As neon lights shimmered and kitschy visuals reminiscent of 1970s movie posters played on transparent curtains, a crowd of around 100 headphones-clad youngsters moved to lo-fi disco music spun by DJ Joel Sakkari on the console. You may think this is a regular Friday night scene in Bengaluru, and it is, with one key difference: There is no alcohol in sight at this party. Instead, people drink zero-proof cocktails made by the in-house bar, Practically SoBar. The menu features drinks like Manisha is Complex made from non-alcoholic gin, clarified watermelon and jasmine tea; Pickle Me Crazy, concocted from non-alcoholic gin and pickle brine; and beverages like ginger ale and a guava chilli spritzer.
Bikash Parik, founder of Green Theory and Practically SoBar, calls himself “sober-curious", the term that describes a mindful approach to alcohol consumption. He says the prime focus of Practically SoBar is to serve non-alcoholic cocktails—“I won’t call them mocktails"—that employ the science and skills of professional mixologists. This is just the first step for Parik, who wants to create “a lifestyle brand and community" around sober events. From hosting barista takeovers with unconventional coffee cocktails and sundowners like the Sonic VHS 2.0 party to morning raves where people meet to dance, play games and have conversations, Green Theory’s yard has seen it all since December when Practically SoBar was launched. It hosts two-three events every month that largely attract crowds in the 16-40 age group.
In the post-pandemic world, experimenting with sobriety is not an uncommon behaviour pattern among millennials and Gen Z in Indian metros. With a sharp uptick in awareness about health, wellness and fitness, it was perhaps inevitable that people would start looking askance at alcohol, even as its ill-effects became bigger talking points in the global discourse around health.
“I drink very rarely," says 25-year-old Vivek Kamath, who works at a fund for early-stage startups in Bengaluru. “I have never liked the after-effects of alcohol, and I feel more and more people of my generation identify with this. The whole prestige and societal signalling that used to be associated with drinking earlier—you know, the wealthy businessman taking a sip of expensive whisky at a party—this doesn’t appeal to us as much. All around me, I see people who are more into using health and wellness as an indicator of status." Kamath and his friends don’t go to the pub after work to destress—they meet at 6am at a running club or play pickleball in the evening and compare their scores on social fitness app Strava.
Not everybody who gives up alcohol or starts drinking more mindfully does so because of serious health issues. Sure, there are people teeming into pubs and bars in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru every day, but there is also a growing number of people who are abstaining full-time or part-time. Sober culture is having a worldwide moment, and the messaging around it has peaked.
Via podcasts, Instagram Reels and threads on X, health influencers, fitness champions and doctors have been talking about what alcohol in any amount does to the human body, and people have been questioning drinking “socially"—never alone, never as a compulsion, but as a way to get together with others. There is a growing realisation that you don’t need to drink in order to let go of inhibitions and have fun—the overwhelming messaging around social drinking that has prevailed for generations. Nor is going sober an isolating experience anymore; in fact, people are actively building communities around sobriety, and there is much less questioning of one’s decision to experiment with it or embrace it.
Sarah Nicole Edwards, 39, moved to Bengaluru from the UK eight years ago with a job in the non-profit sector. “I was absolutely delighted at how much of a drinking culture there was in Bangalore. I fit right in," says Edwards. Over the next few years, Edwards veered towards her first love, healthy eating, and started a meal subscription service for plant-based food that eventually led to her opening her cafe, Copper + Cloves in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar. “But the one anomaly in my life was always alcohol," says Edwards. “Even when I was exercising six days a week, eating healthy and focusing on wellness, I would still make time to drink at least once a week. It was very driven by my social circle— if I didn’t do that what else would I do?"
It was during the pandemic that Edwards started getting sober-curious and didn’t drink for months because she didn’t want to drink alone in her apartment. As soon as the lockdowns lifted, she was going out to pubs again—it felt life-affirming in a way, says Edwards. But slowly, the dissonance between her life as an advocate of healthy eating and being a weekend binge-drinker grew. “I got sick of feeling hungover or worried about what I said or did," she recalls. Towards the end of 2023, Edwards decided not to drink for a whole year, stuck to the resolution through all of 2024, and has not had a drink since.
Her own journey of giving up alcohol prompted her to start events focused on sobriety and community at Copper + Cloves, which hosts “sober sundowners" almost every weekend, where people show up to talk, dance, listen to music or attend intimate performances over interesting zero-proof drinks and good food. “People are looking for a tribe that can support them to give up alcohol and not be around people who are telling them they have become boring," says Edwards.
It is interesting that these communities have started appropriating the language of drinking only to subvert it—from “sundowners" to “raves", which would in an earlier era have indicated an entirely different kind of party (one heavily dependent on substances, legal or otherwise) these terms are being cheekily appropriated by the sober samaritans.
Party clean
Business mixers, book launches, fashion shows, morning running meets, baby showers and weddings... these are just some of the events that Mumbai-based premium non-alcoholic cocktail brand Sobriety Sips gets invited to host their dry bar at. “Late last year, we had set our dry bar up at the Extra Butter boutique for a preview party (of Japanese high streetwear brand BAPE). The crowd was largely late millennials and Gen Z... we sold out in an hour," says Ruchi Nagrecha, who co-founded Sobriety Sips with husband Mohit Vadel in November 2023.
“People are zebra striping (a moderation practice where you alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at a social event) and want tasty alternatives that go beyond diet coke, tonic water or fruit juice," says Nagrecha. In fact, it was a personal need for interesting low-sugar, non-alcoholic alternatives to cocktails that motivated Nagrecha to start Sobriety Sips. “I had decided to cut down on my alcohol consumption but I am not an energy drink or soda person. I missed the complex flavours of a cocktail and spoke to mixologists about making non-alcoholic versions of popular cocktails," she says. Sobriety Sips’ current catalogue of zero-proof cocktails has six flavours: Jungle Gin, Rum Voyage, Whiskey Elixir, Decaf Martini, Smoked Picante and Velvet Cosmo.
“In India, you have only two extreme options: all alcohol, or energy drinks and kombucha. There’s potential in the non-alcoholic drinks space that’s waiting to be tapped," Nagrecha says.
Hitesh Shah, a 32-year-old security operations centre analyst, who refers to Sobriety Sips as his “go-to" brand, says he enjoys drinks once in a while, but prefers making healthier choices. “Zero-proof cocktails are a great alternative as they allowing me to have a similar experience without the alcohol," he says.
Delhi-based corporate executive Sameer Bawa, 45, alternates between drinking in moderation and abstaining. He moonlights as a food writer and consultant and regularly has to attend events that serve alcohol, whether it’s a restaurant launch, a wine tasting or the opening of a new bar. “There’s no way I can stop drinking, and I don’t want to because it is linked to my work and my passion. But I wanted to balance things while still being part of this lifestyle, which I enjoy," he says. For the past four years, Bawa has created a schedule for himself. He doesn’t consume alcohol over two 50 and 40-day stretches six months apart: the longer one starts on 1 January and the shorter one on 1 July. “It is about making conscious choices around drinking and doing it mindfully. It’s all about knowing that I can say ‘no’ when I want to. It’s not a punishment," explains Bawa. “People have a lot of questions. Why, what, how... I see a lot of curiosity and willingness to listen."
Curiosity about sobriety has created a demand for sober events in many Indian metros, from coffee raves to sober sundowners. Kavya Peerbhoy, co-founder of AndShine, a morning music, mindfulness and dance movement, has seen a visible shift in the attitude of people towards sober fun in the last five years. She recalls the reactions she received from her friends when, in 2019, she decided to host morning dance parties in Bengaluru inspired by the Daybreaker parties she’d attended in New York City. The responses ranged from “Are you crazy?" to “I’m not going to wake up early on a Sunday because I’m going to be hungover." It didn’t deter Peerbhoy—the serotonin high of dancing clear-headed in the mornings was too irresistible. Peerbhoy went ahead and founded the company with business partner and DJ Vachan Chinappa. She ran it for a year, till covid-19 put the brakes on it. She left the idea on the backburner till the beginning of this year.
“I started hearing about people doing coffee raves and running raves and it struck me that people were ready for the concept now," she says. It’s all about gathering people on the dance floors of popular nightclub spots—but in broad daylight, with sunlight streaming in and no furniture. AndShine’s format for these morning sessions vibe with the current “wellness decoded" generation’s needs: they begin with a fitness activity led by a professional followed by unapologetic dancing to music being played by a DJ, all of it wrapped up with breakfast.
“There’s a bar takeover too but instead of cocktails, you are served kombucha mocktails and mushroom booster shots," Peerbhoy says. AndShine has hosted two events this year. The first at Pebble, a dance club in Palace Grounds in February, had 70 guests—not counting kids and dogs the attendees brought along—turn up at 8.30am. In March, the event at popular watering hole Watson’s drew repeat customers.
Twinkle Jindal, 34, who attended the event says, “There was a yoga flow routine before the dance. I loved how everyone just fell into the vibe and we danced like there was no tomorrow. My mood was absolutely euphoric at the end of it without a drop of alcohol."
If dance is AndShine’s raison d’etre, techno music and coffee are the propellers for Chennai-based event company Cybervoid Collective. Founded by friends and partyheads Skandhan Pravin Herve V, Joshua Kirubakar and Yuvraj V, Cybervoid Collective organises coffee raves and, someday in the future, will add supercar raves, where petrolheads gather to discuss supercars while grooving to music and sipping on coffee.
“We have been active in Chennai’s party scene since 2021. With coffee raves taking off in the country, we decided it was time to start our own version of it in Chennai," says Skandhan. They had their first event, Mocha Motion, in February at Halt coffee shop in Anna Nagar. Three DJs took over the console and people danced with only coffee as the drink of choice.
“I am a DJ who doesn’t drink nor have I ever felt the need to rely on any substance to enjoy or create music," says Joshua, 30, before revealing that plans are underway for the next Mocha Motion party mid-April. “We want to create a sober club culture scene in our city," says Yuvraj.
In Mumbai, it was the virality of coffee raves that caught DJ Aaryan Gala’s attention enough to have him start his own IP, Coffee Raves, and trademark it. Gala performed his first coffee rave in Nagpur early this year. While he confesses to have done it “to get good content", what had him sold on the idea and planning more of them is that a coffee rave is clean, sober and healthy. “Unlike clubs that can get crowded, coffee raves are hosted in cafes which exude safe vibes. And since people are not consuming anything more potent than coffee, you don’t have to worry about things getting out of control or messy," says Gala.
The intersection of the coffee rave culture with the sobriety movement is hard to miss. “With people in their 20s and 30s facing severe health issues, there’s a pivot to healthier lifestyles and coffee raves offer a more wholesome outlet," says Gala, who is a teetotaller.
Talking about parties moving out of clubs to cafes across cities, including Hyderabad, Raipur, Nagpur, Indore and Guwahati, Yahvi Mariwala, executive director of Nandan Coffee in Mumbai, says, “People are looking for experiences beyond clubbing where you just sit, eat and drink. They’re not consciously avoiding alcoholic experiences, rather they’re looking for more sober experiences."
The gaming high
“For a city that offers its residents different kinds of activities, including music jam sessions, it’s hard to ignore how drinking ends up becoming a large aspect. So when my partner Anu and I decided to set up HSRmeetups in 2022, we were clear that we wanted it to be centred on an activity that could stand on its own to rope people in instead of relying on alcohol," says Sam (he prefers a mononym), co-founder of the Bengaluru group whose members meet two-three times every week to play popular board games such as Azul, Ticket to Ride and Splendor. These are ticketed events that participants can join by either paying for one session ( ₹200-350 depending on the venue) or paying membership fees of ₹1,500 per month.
Named after the south Bengaluru neighbourhood where they hosted the initial sessions, HSRmeetups, with a 18,500 members-strong following on Instagram, describes itself as “the largest substance-free meetup community in Bangalore with guaranteed safety." And if there were any qualms about the vibe of their “strictly no alcohol" setting, Sam rather proudly says, “Each session lasts 3.5-4 hours but the nature of the games is such that it tends to get really noisy and we find it difficult to get the participants to wind up on time." It’s a diverse crowd that signs up for the board game sessions. While 20-35 year olds make up a significant chunk, Sam says people in the 50-55-year range also sign up. There are requests coming in from Pune and Mumbai for similar board game sessions.
Let’s be clear about one thing— casual drinking is not going away. An August 2024 Mint story called India “the toast of the global alcohol market", noting that the country’s alcohol consumption is set to expand at over 4% annually till 2028, according to data from international drinks consultancy IWSR, riding on a growing young demographic and disposable incomes. New pubs and bars open every day and rarely go empty. But somewhere in this mix, the number of people who are making the connection between sobriety and health is also going up, even as they take baby steps on a sober journey with a kombucha or sober cocktail in hand.
Priyanko Sarkar contributed to reporting for this article.
