You're not getting old.

Happy Thursday, Clubbies,

📖 You're not getting old. You're getting three drinks a night. Tired at 2pm? "I'm getting old." I had a whole narrative built about my thirties, and none of it was true. This week's read is the list of things you're blaming on your birthday, and the seven day experiment that settles it.

🖖 The alcohol-free category is splitting in two. There seems to be a clean divide: brands that replicate booze (dealcoholized wine, na beer, zero proof tequila) and brands that reinvent it (tea-based ferments, electrolyte mocktails etc.) So where does this put us, the clubbies? Club soda on the rocks has been quietly winning both categories since forever, and it's still mostly free or worst case scenario $3.50 if you run into a new bartender.

👻 "Stealth pints" are a thing. The latest term I’ve heard, and I almost like it even better than Zebra Striping. Four in ten people now order alcohol-free at the bar without telling anyone^[1]. Here's the interesting part: the stigma is actually down. So who's the stealth for? Not your friends. It's for you. A club soda on the rocks with a lime keeps the ritual and skips the round — your hand never knows the difference.

⚜️ Next week, the Thursday Spark comes to you from New Orleans. Scott Nixon and I are heading to Tales of the Cocktail, a.k.a. the biggest cocktail festival on the planet, to order club soda at every bar in the French Quarter. Two guys who drink bubbles, five days, several thousand bartenders. We'll be asking every one of them for their best club soda on the rocks and the mocktail they actually love making, and meeting the people building the alcohol-free side of the industry. Scott's bringing camera glasses. Follow along on Instagram or wait for the full dispatch next Thursday.

⚽ The World Cup final is Sunday. It has been a special tournament, and I experienced all of it fully present. I'm sure the old me would've had a bunch of fun too, but with foggier memories. South Florida was a host region, and the whole world showed up, including the Tartan Army. If you missed it, here's my case for why the Scottish ARE part of the Club Soda Club. Everyone's invited!

produced by Scott Nixon

Jacob Stevens is back — and he just hit two years this week. You might remember him from episode 7, when his daughter was the reason he made the change. Two years later, he's got a different perspective. The biggest shift has been in his relationships. He loved everyone and everyone loved him, but when he was drinking he was always the bad guy — and never took accountability for it. It was never his problem. It was always someone else's. Facing himself changed everything. He'd been spending all his good time chasing the next drink, when that was the exact thing pushing him further from happiness. Now? He gets to enjoy everything.

Know someone who's thinking about it? There's no membership requirement.

Part-time members, full-time members, "I'm just curious" members. All welcome. So whether you've got a friend who's been saying "I should probably cut back" every Sunday morning for the last six months, or a friend who's already all-in on the alcohol-free life and just hasn't found their people yet — send them your link . They subscribe to the free newsletter, you both win. No pressure, no program, no weird pamphlets.

Basically, if they've ever ordered a club soda (or anything else non-alcoholic) and felt like they had to explain themselves... they're already one of us.

👇👇👇

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