Five Stars for the Greenbriar X Santé Dry Bottle Shop Workshop
Written by guest participant Emily Lundy
The new year always brings a nice reset - some of us recommit to our habits, some of us set big goals and resolutions, and some of us keep the momentum we’ve been intentionally building for months. I always like to kick off the new year with a dry January! After all the holiday parties and late nights over the holiday break, it’s a great pause for my mind and body to physically reset.
But if you know me, you know I LOVE a fun drink — but of course, that doesn’t mean it has to be alcoholic! I love playing with flavours, textures, and different tasting notes. This dry January, I was absolutely thrilled to take part in Santé Dry Bottle Shop’s non-alcoholic cocktail making workshop at Greenbriar Market. It raised the bar on both my cocktail-making skills AND what I’ll be expecting in a good mocktail, at home or in a restaurant.
Our workshop facilitator, Jon, had several years of experience in the hospitality industry, ensuring the cocktail recipes were expertly crafted. Jon also shared a ton of tips for how the cocktails come out like they do (helping us better create them), details on all the tasting notes, and interesting facts about the non-alcoholic spirits themselves. We created four delicious cocktails, each unique in their flavour profiles and style of cocktails. Don’t worry, Bond, in this workshop, you can have your mock martini shaken or stirred — and we did both!
The two things that really stood out to me at this workshop were the glassware (because what’s a great cocktail without great glassware?!) and the intention behind the selection of the spirits. If you’ve ever had a mocktail at a restaurant, or even bought them from the grocery or liquor store, you know not all mocktails are created equal. Sometimes non-alcoholic options just taste like expensive (and sometimes kind-of-gross) juice. All of the cocktails we made were sophisticated, elevated, and tasted absolutely amazing. Jon explained that they’re extremely intentional about the spirits they choose to carry, as they too want to avoid this gross juice situation I’ve just described. This is incredibly meaningful for those who don’t want to skip out on the fun, but do want to skip out on the alcohol.
Overall, the attention to detail Santé puts into the spirits they choose to carry (as well as non-alcoholic wine and beer options) and all aspects of the workshop really demonstrates the care they have for the people in this space, as well as what they do. While dry January is the way I kick off the year, I take regular breaks from alcohol throughout the year, so I’ve been fortunate to try the Colibri Spumante Rosé, the Wild Folk Sparkling Negroni, and the Fiesta Margarita - the latter being one of the best canned mocktails I’ve ever had. Out of the four cocktails we made, the Daiquiri was definitely my favourite — the HP Spiced Cane Rum we used was top tier.
The Luminara Cabernet Sauvignon came so highly recommended by both Jon and the Greenbriar staff that a bottle had to come home with me that night! It was so good that I’m strongly considering signing up for their non-alcoholic wine pairing workshop, just so I can try more of their exceptional wine choices. And if you’re more of a beer drinker, they’ve got you covered — they’re also hosting a non-alcoholic beer tasting on January 29. Whether you’re going dry or not, I highly recommend trying out one of these exceptional workshops.
