Ways to enjoy Dry January all year long

I love the culture of alcohol. I love pairing wine with food, going on distillery tours, visiting local breweries, attending wine tastings, discussing the ingredients in an elaborate cocktail, etc. I love it so much that I’ve based two series around the culture of alcohol: my first series is about a winegrowing kingdom, my second takes place in a family bar.

But the reality is that I have alcoholism in my family. My grandmother was one of the top drug and alcohol counselors in our county. We’ve all seen or experienced alcohol’s dark side. One of the issues my sisters in After Hours on Milagro Street and Full Moon Over Freedom struggle with is how their father’s alcoholism affected their lives. It’s even addressed in a mock-cocktail menu in Full Moon Over Freedom.
 
Like many people, I embarked on Dry January as a re-fresh for the start of the year. This has been the longest I’ve gone without a drink since I was pregnant with my youngest son two decades ago. 
 
I’ve learned that I enjoy going out, whether or not I have alcohol. I’ve learned I’m totally okay with other people drinking when I don’t. I’ve learned I’m comfortable choosing not to drink and still prepared to go out and have a ball.
 
Most importantly, I’ve learned there are lots of tasty non-alcohol options. Here are some that I’ve enjoyed this month.

Fancy mocktails at bars

Thank God for the mocktail movement. I’ve had some delicious drinks here in Houston at Angel’s Share, Hugo’s, and Bar 3. They were made so beautifully that I didn’t even feel like I was missing out. They fulfilled that enjoyment I have of sitting at the bar sipping something delicious. Even without a mocktail menu, I’ve learned that bartenders are pretty helpful coming up with something non-alcoholic on the fly.

Non-alcohol beer

I’ve tried a few non-alcohol beers during this month. The best, by far, have been from Athletic Brewing Co., a brewery whose entire focus is no-alcohol beers. If you like IPA, I highly recommend the Free Wave. I can find this beer at my local grocery store.

Alcohol-free stores

If you can’t find good non-alcohol beer at your grocery store, then you might have a shop focused on no-alcohol drinks in your area. Here in Houston we have Sipple. Rather than wasting money on something loaded with sugar or no-alcohol wine that tastes like grape juice, it’s great to go to this shop and get recommendations from the experts!

No-alcohol spirits

At Sipple, I discovered that there are lots of no-alcohol spirits that you can sip alone or with a mixer and feel like you’re having a cocktail. Because I also decided to embark on a healthy form of keto this January, I didn’t want something with a lot of sugar. The folks at Sipple recommended Pentire Seaward, this junipery, briney tasting spirit that tastes amazing by itself or mixed with club soda. It has zero calories and zero carbs.

Fake your brain

In lieu of all of these, I’m a big fan of Topo Chico and lime. I saw a TikToker who cleaned out a Miller Lite bottle, kept it handy, and filled it with sparkling water whenever she wanted to feel like having a beer. Sometimes it’s just the procedure of relaxing with a drink that signals to your brain that it’s time to take a load off.

I’m glad I’ve figured out some healthy habits to cut back on my drinking as I age without cutting back on the fun I like to have. With all that said, I am super looking forward to February 1!!!!

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Take a Tour of D.C.'s New Chocolate Factory

As my family and I drove up to the Harper Macaw chocolate factory off Bladensburg Road NE in D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood, my wise-cracking teen son observed, "There are no tubes full of chocolate coming out of the top. Zero out of ten."

I imagine many families with young children will take a tour of this newly opened and locally owned chocolate factory hoping to re-create a portion of the Willy Wonka experience. But the website recommends that only those 10 and over go on this $10/person tour for a reason. Rather than displaying rivers of chocolate and lickable walls, the Harper Macaw tour is all about displaying the intentions of its young owners to save one corner of the planet with cacao beans planted, harvested and transformed into chocolate the right way. 

Head chocolate maker Sarah Hartman and her husband, Colin Hartman, began producing fine chocolate in September and opened the factory to tours in December. They were drawn to D.C. because they liked the manageable size of the area, the fact that they can see the sky, the food scene, and the relative absence of local chocolate. 

They source their cacao beans exclusively from three farms in Brazil, Sarah’s home country. Brazil has lost 90 percent of its Atlantic Forest, which provides a necessary canopy for cacao beans, and has slipped from being the third largest producer of cacao beans to sixth. By supporting farmers who are producing cacao in a sustainable way and re-investing a portion of Harper Macaw profits into rainforest restoration, Sarah and Colin see an opportunity to make an impact while producing really good, distinct-tasting chocolate.

Owner Colin Hartman handing out cocoa nib samples as he stands next to the roaster.

“Without good cacao beans, you can’t make good chocolate,” Colin says at the beginning of our 20-person tour of the factory. It’s the same sentiment winemakers use about their grapes, and — like winemakers — Sarah and Colin give “single estate” status to chocolate bars sourced from individual farms in Brazil. The 77 percent Amazon Rainforest bar is from Tomé Açu and the 74 percent Atlantic Forest bar is from Vale do Juliana. The two other bars Harper Macaw is currently producing are the 67 percent Dark Blend and the 52 percent Milk Blend.

Colin leads the tour with chocolate dust on his blazer and an apology for “going into a lot of details on these tours.” No apologies are needed. The hour-long “bean to bar” tour — from seeing the bags of beans fresh off the boat from the Philadelphia harbor (Colin drives there to pick them up), to seeing the equipment used for cleaning, roasting, winnowing, refining, grinding, conching and tempering the chocolate — is a fascinating, in-depth story of how a product is made with love and care. 

The tour ends with a chocolate tasting: samples of all four chocolate laid out with crackers and seltzer to cleanse the palate and an entertaining explanation of how to enjoy the chocolate with all five senses. The little ones may not like it, but us big ones certainly did.

Take a Chocolate Factory Tour

Entrance to Harper Macaw's chocolate factory

An amazing number of treats and samples are available in the cafe

You can sample this...

Or this...

Or have as much as you want of this...

Harper Macaw is currently selling four bars

An ode to Brazil

Owner Colin Hartman starts the tour in a room where the beans are stored and cleaned

Yes, on the tour you must wear a hairnet

Colin hands out even more samples standing next to the roaster

The winnower

The conveyer belt where the chocolate cools in it molds for twenty minutes

Chocolate tasting

Tasting the chocolate

Stop by the wall at the end to pick up even more chocolate

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Harper Macaw

3160 Bladensburg Rd NE, Washington, DC 20018

Get to the tour early so you can sample Harper Macaw's amazing treats while you wait

Tours of the Harper Macaw chocolate factory occur every Saturday on the hour between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis. People have already discovered this gem, so arrive by the :30 if you want to go on the next hour tour.

Harper Macaw's four fine chocolate bars are currently available in their shop and at a variety of locations around the D.C. area, including the Red Apron shops at Mosaic and Penn Quarter. They plan on releasing more products in May.