‘Tis the season of Christmas parties, family get-togethers and catchups with friends, but not everybody feels the need to go hell for leather on the mulled wine and pints.
While the amount of alcohol consumed by Irish people is in general decline, some are finding creative ways to reduce their intake. Consider “damp drinking”, or “zebra striping”, for example.
Damp drinking? What on earth is that?
Damp drinking is a lifestyle trend that revolves around moderating your alcohol intake. Unlike abstinence trends such as Dry January and Sober October, damp drinking allows a person to reduce their alcohol intake while still having the option of enjoying a beverage.
The way damp drinking is approached can differ from person to person: some restrict alcohol consumption to the weekend; some only drink on special occasions; others might just stick to low-alcohol drinks.
RM Block
Zebra striping is another approach to damp drinking which involves alternating between alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks – so you might order a cocktail and then a mocktail and repeat the pattern for the night.
What are the benefits of damp drinking?
With so many social gatherings around Christmas, there are more occasions than usual when people have a drink, or 10.
Damp drinking approaches such as zebra striping reduce your alcohol intake, which is better for your health and your wallet. But you can still have a couple of drinks, so you won’t feel like you’re missing out.
If you are zebra striping, having a non-alcoholic drink after every pint or glass of wine can also help to keep you hydrated. So, when people are jumping from one festive event to the next, approaches such as this may seem like an attractive option to avoid yet another December hangover.
How have pubs been reacting to damp drinking?
While more and more establishments are offering zero-alcohol options, others have been mixing things up, literally.
The Palmerstown House in Dublin offers what it calls a 60/40 pint: 60 per cent zero-zero Guinness and 40 per cent Guinness 4.2 per cent. Described on the pub’s social media channels as having “all of the Guinness character, just a little lighter”, this is being promoted as an option for when you’re in the mood for a pint but “with a little less alcohol”.
Costing €6.40, the 60/40 pint was introduced after the Palmerstown House found consumers were interested in lower-alcohol pints. “We tasted many variations of different measures, and we arrived at 60/40 as being one of the creamiest pints that I have tasted in years,” said Louis Fitzgerald, the well-known publican and hotelier who owns The Palmerstown House.
The pub is finding consumers are more regularly opting for low- or zero-alcohol drinks, and the 60/40 pint provides another alternative for those looking to cut back. While you might not find many people drinking 60/40 pints this Christmas, “it seems to have caught on” and the Louis Fitzgerald group will be rolling out 60/40 pints across all its pubs in January, including the The Stag’s Head and Kehoes in Dublin.
