No booze? No problems. These six drinks will see Perth through Dry July

Does anyone else feel like they need a reset? While the month-long temperance movement Dry July has been steadily gaining traction since its first incarnation in 2008, this year’s instalment feels especially timely following the turmoil and chaos of the first half of 2024.

Some of these are drinks you can make yourself and enjoy on the couch for nothing or close to nothing. Others are drinks that you’ll have to get out of your trackies and leave the house for. All will help you stick to your pledge to get through a break from the hard stuff.

Water

The original – and still the best – non-alcoholic, zero-sugar beverage on the market. While we’re lucky to live somewhere where you can drink water straight out of the tap, WA’s “hard” water (a reference to its high mineral content including chlorine which helps control bacteria) isn’t to everyone’s taste.

One workaround is an inline mains water filtration system to soften the water and remove unwanted elements, although leaving water out on the bench can also help dissipate chlorine. (The Water Corporation, incidentally, has other advice for dealing with tap water that tastes different.)

Chilling water can also help get rid of minerals, plus I reckon cold water tastes better too. Seasonal citrus juice is another way to level-up your H20. During autumn, doctoring water with a squeeze of yuzu conjured memories of the Tokyo outpost of New York’s legendary vegan institution, Superiority Burger. White grapefruit juice works as well here as for cocktails, too.

Sparkling water

“Do you carbonate your own?”

For fellow diners hoping to soften their carbon footprint, asking for this clarification to the customary still-or-sparkling question is an easy win. Carbonating sparkling water in-house isn’t just a win for the planet (consider the resources to produce glass bottles, fill them with sparkling water and transport them around the planet): it’s also good for businesses’ bottom lines with savings on freight and waste management helping offset the initial setup costs.

Domestically, carbonation systems from (Australian-owned!) SodaKING and SodaStream let households produce fizzy water at a snip of the cost of buying. The key to good house-made sparkling, I reckon, is getting the water as cold as possible before pumping the bottles with gas: cold water absorbs more carbon dioxide. Sparkling water can also turn cordials into something a little fancier. Just carbonate the water and then add it (gently) to your flavour base rather than mixing your cordial then trying to carbonate it.

Non-alcoholic beers

There was a time when this was more a punchline than a preference, at least in Australia. Thankfully, the genre is no longer a curio in the supermarket aisle and has become one of the beverage industry’s fastest evolving sectors, thanks in part to the influence of pioneering brand Heaps Normal, and in WA, Michael Payne and his label Lightning Minds.

Produced using pasteurisation, dealcoholising and made-for-purpose yeasts, the non-alcoholic beers found in bottle shops and bars around WA do admirable jobs of mimicking the characteristics and flavour profiles of their full-strength cousins. You don’t just have to drink them straight up, either. A powerful Michelada – Mexico’s famous beer, lime and tomato libation – made with Heaps Normal’s Half Day Hazy is one of many fond memories of much missed Busselton eatery, Alberta’s.

Tea

Just as a wine can reflect the growing conditions of its grapes, so can tea. Tea grown in cool, high mountain regions and produced in the semi-oxidative oolong style are light, delicate drinks. (This style of oolong, meanwhile, is showcased by TINA, a Melbourne-based producer of wild and thrilling booze-free beverages.) Denser heavier styes such as pu-erh are right at home cutting through the richness and fattiness that lurks within the dim sum trolley.

Matcha – Japan’s famous green tea – continues to maintain a presence throughout the city, while kombucha, a flavoured tea fermented using a SCOBY, maintains its steady moment.

Not that tea is strictly an Asian thing. Northbridge’s South Bird, for one, makes sweetened pea and lemon ice teas: the perfect foil to spicy, crisp fried chicken.

Mocktails

For close to a decade, the once fringe zero-proof distilling and bartending movement has grown steadily globally. As distilling know-how and technology gets better, zero-proof spirits are slowly getting more like the high-octane spirits that they’re modelled after: so much so that bars can offer teetotallers de-fanged versions of their full-strength cocktails by swapping out one main ingredient or/and by making some minor tweaks.

Locally, Songbird at the Ritz-Carlton and Wildflower at COMO The Treasury are among two of the hotel bars and restaurants with excellent mocktails (check out the latter’s imaginative native Australian non-alcoholic beverage pairing option alongside the tasting menu.)

Forward-thinking regional venues such as the Parker Group’s Busselton Pavilion also getting in on the act: helpful in areas where taxis and ride-sharing services are thinner on the ground.

Global drinks

A wide world of zero-proof beverages is available at the state’s wealth of regional ethnic eateries and groceries. Sometimes packaged, like the lush Iranian apricot juice stashed in the fridges at Southern River’s Mazaj Foods, home to the city’s only Detroit-style pizza shop. Or the juice packets of The Botol – Indonesia’s legendary sweetened jasmine tea that’s helpful for taming chilli spice with – at Vic Park’s Batavia Corner.

Other times, they’re made in-situ, such as the sodas, ginger ales and other kissa-style drinks at Fremantle’s tender-hearted Japanese cafe, Hinata. Or the high-definition meyer lemon soda – one of many seasonal soft drinks – Natasha Brownfield and team Teeter Bakery offer alongside A1 baked goods at their homely East Perth storefront.

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