Club Soda Community Podcast

Here's episode 3 of the Club Soda podcast where we talk all things dry January including personal stories from members and our guide to where to socialise this month.

The post Where to drink this January + real stories – Podcast Episode 3 appeared first on Club Soda.

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Denise has produced 18 editions of her new magazine dedicated to low and no alcohol drinks. Something she would never have considered if she had no re-evaluated her relationship with alcohol.

Welcome to the next round, where we speak to people about the next stage of their life once they have reviewed how alcohol impacts them.
You don’t have to be totally alcohol-free to gain benefits from rethinking your drinking. But as this week’s guest Denise Hamilton Mace has shown, you need to have a determination to change your life, and some ideas to get going with.
Denise has moderated her drinking habits, which led her to a degree in sports fitness and then she got brave, and started writing – something she was told way back when, that she may not be suited to. We love it when a guest proves their nay sayers wrong!

Exploring the Low and No Alcohol Revolution: Denise’s Journey of Discovery and Innovation

The rise of low and no alcohol options is transforming how we think about drinking, and Denise’s story provides a unique perspective on this cultural shift. As a hospitality professional turned advocate for mindful drinking and editor of Low and No Drinker magazine, Denise shares her journey of personal growth, career transformation, and creative exploration.

Redefining Life Through Moderating Alcohol

For Denise, the decision to cut back on alcohol wasn’t a dramatic turning point but a series of realisations.

“I started to notice how alcohol affected me over time. It wasn’t just the hangovers; it was the brain fog, the mood swings, and feeling like I wasn’t operating at my full capacity”
Her journey began with small lifestyle changes.

“I stopped eating red meat because it made me feel moody, and alcohol was the next thing I recognized as not serving me.”

Denise emphasises that she doesn’t identify as teetotal or in recovery but rather someone who found more balance by drinking less.

“It’s about discovering who you want to be and whether alcohol helps or hinders that.”

Find Club Soda:
The Club Soda Tasting Room is at 39 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5RR
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Looking back it is easy to see how alcohol drains your time, but for a long time Anna couldn’t quite admit what the problem was.

But Anna is not looking back, and her positive attitude is helpful for us all.

Welcome to the next round where we explore how you fill the space once occupied by wine, hangovers, and the mental weight of drinking culture.

When Ex advertising exec Anna Donaghey stopped drinking, she found herself with a new problem – time. What do you do with it? For Anna, the answer lay in something she’d been drawn to for years but had never quite pursued – podcasting.

Anna launched The Big Drink Rethink, a podcast exploring our relationship with alcohol, the culture around it, and what life can look like without it. It was a creative outlet, a way to channel her curiosity, and, unexpectedly, an anchor that kept her steady in her alcohol-free life.

But her journey to this point wasn’t smooth. It was a long, slow unraveling of drinking habits that had once felt normal, even essential. Anna’s story isn’t one of dramatic rock bottoms, it’s one of creeping dissatisfaction, of realising that drinking wasn’t just stealing her time, but also her sense of self.

Advertising, Drinking, and a Life on Repeat

Anna spent over 25 years in advertising, an industry where drinking wasn’t just acceptable – it was expected. She remembers long lunches, late nights, and the endless socialising that blurred into work.

She wasn’t an outlier. Alcohol was woven into the job – client meetings over wine, celebratory drinks, networking events. It was an industry where drinking was both professional and personal, making it even harder to see when it had crossed the line from social to habitual.

When she got married, her drinking didn’t slow down. In fact, it ramped up. Parenthood brought a new challenge: identity loss. Motherhood was disorienting, and the reality of maternity leave was nothing like the glowing, fulfilling image sold to women.

The loneliness, the shift in identity, the quiet grief for the life she had before, Anna managed it the way she had always managed difficult feelings: with wine.

You can find Anna on instagram at bigdrinkrethink and The Big Drink Rethink podcast on all platforms

Find Club Soda:
The Club Soda Tasting Room is at 39 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5RR
Find us on Instagram

Tabbin is on a mission to shake up booze-soaked workplace culture -but her own journey with alcohol was anything but smooth. After going alcohol-free for years, a cancer diagnosis sent her back to the bottle, even though drinking may have played a role in her illness.

Like so many, her drinking started at work – where long lunches and late nights weren’t just accepted but expected. Now, she’s challenging the norms that make alcohol a workplace staple, so others don’t fall into the same trap.

Welcome to The Next Round, where we dive into why we started drinking, how that history shapes our future, and what an alcohol-free life can really look like. From personal challenges to changing the world (or at least your office happy hour), there’s more on the other side than you ever imagined.

Meet Tabbin Almond -an ex-advertising pro who knows firsthand how the industry’s macho, drink-fuelled culture can spiral out of control. She yo-yoed between sobriety and drinking for years, but now she’s free and fighting to create healthier, more inclusive workplaces. Let’s get stuck in!

She believes that drinking should not be an expectation in corporate environments, nor should it be a measure of professional success or sociability.

“It starts out as a perk of the job, but it becomes a requirement of the job.”

For years, she worked in industries where drinking was not only normalised but encouraged. Client entertainment meant keeping up with drinking expectations, and refusing a drink could be seen as a lack of team spirit.

“Do you check with somebody before you send a gift, whether or not they drink alcohol? The most common reply is, no, who doesn’t love a bottle of bubbly?”

She challenges workplaces to rethink corporate gifting, expense policies, and the psychological safety of employees who may struggle with alcohol. She argues that alcohol should not be the default, nor should abstaining from it come with stigma.

“If leaders don’t lead on this, there’s no psychological safety for people saying, ‘Do you think I could have a bit of help?'”

You can buy Tabbin’s Book: Bottling Up Trouble: How alcohol is harming your business... and what to do about it

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Find Club Soda:
The Club Soda Tasting Room is at 39 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5RR
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What's happening for mindful drinkers in NYC? Beyond Booze went on tour to find out.
In this week's special bonus episode of Beyond Booze, Noah chats with Aqxyl Storms, founder of Minus Moonshine, a non-alcoholic bottle shop in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights.
For more on mindful drinking in New York, check out last week's episode with Shea Gomez of No Booze Babes and sober nutritionist Dr. Brooke Scheller, founder of Functional Sobriety. Listen to our back catalogue of episodes.

Find Club Soda:
The Club Soda Tasting Room is at 39 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5RR
Find us on Instagram