Zero Proof Choice Awards: What Makes an Alcohol-Free Drink Worth Serving

Picture your opening reception. One guest is pregnant. Another is in recovery, another is training for a race, and another just doesn't want to drink tonight. What are you handing them?

Too often it's still a soda, a bottle of water, or a sugary "mocktail" nobody planned, and nobody wants to drink (yuck!)

That's why I'm so glad Derek Brown and Laura Silverman are joining me on this week's Eating at a Meeting Podcast LIVE. They just judged The Daily Pour's 2026 Zero Proof Choice Awards, blind-tasting hundreds of alcohol-free spirits, wines, beers, mixers, ready-to-drink cocktails, and functional drinks from coded glasses.

Derek was head judge. He ran Columbia Room in DC, once named Best American Cocktail Bar, wrote “Mindful Mixology,” and has been championing mindful drinking for years. Laura founded Zero Proof Nation, a global resource that maps alcohol-free bars and bottle shops, and she's been pushing restaurants, workplaces and events to give non-drinkers real choices.

Planners, a medal list gives you something concrete to take to your catering manager when the banquet bar offers one NA beer and a Diet Coke. Hotels, caterers, and venues: guests will pay for a well-made zero-proof drink. I want to know if your bar packages are built and priced for that.

There's a safety side too. "Non-alcoholic" and "alcohol-free" don't mean the same thing on a label. Hemp-infused and THC drinks even have their own awards category now. Does your bar team know the difference?

What's the best alcohol-free drink you've been served at an event? The worst?

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