Reflections on modern drinking, real conversations, and drink recipes. All part of making proof truly optional, so everyone can sip what they want and show up as they are.

New issues twice a month. 
The latest is below.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

THE DEFAULT
IS CRACKING

For a long time, alcohol wasn’t just the baseline for a night out, it was the night out. But defaults only stay defaults until someone cracks them. Here’s what’s breaking, and what comes next.

1. THE SHIFT

Not Drinking Doesn’t Have to Be Weird

We’ve all been out with friends or co-workers, and it’s time to order drinks. Everyone rattles off their orders: “Beer.” “Glass of red.” “Negroni.” Then it lands on you.

You don’t want alcohol tonight. But saying “just water” feels like a letdown. Ordering a mocktail usually means syrup or sugary juice in a coupe. And somehow, the question “what are you drinking?” can feel less like ordering a drink and more like a pop quiz you didn’t study for.

You’re not alone. Gallup reports only about half of Americans drink alcohol today, the lowest level they’ve ever recorded in nearly 90 years. People are drinking less. The data makes that clear.

What hasn’t changed yet is the pressure around it. Some of us drink. Some don’t. Some shift depending on the night. Everyone deserves the freedom to drink or not drink without explanation, apology, or judgment.

And that change in how people are choosing? That’s the shift.
We call it Proof Optional, where alcohol isn’t the default and the old norms don’t run the show.

Everyone gets to choose freely.
Nobody gets to make it weird.
This is how we drink now.