Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom

EP 82 Life, Loss, and Becoming A Mocktail Author With Derick Santiago

• Deb, Mocktail Mom • Season 1 • Episode 82

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I'm so thrilled to have Derick Santiago back on the podcast today. Derick, one of my favorite guests and an all-around fabulous human, is here to share more of his inspiring alcohol-free journey. If you haven’t listened to our first episode together, I highly encourage you to go and listen to more of his story. In this conversation, Derick briefly recounts being a social drinker to eventually becoming a master of mocktails, even creating the incredible Mocktail Wiz on Instagram. 

We chat about dealing with grief and how he uses mocktails, new traditions, and a whole lot of grace to navigate those tough times. Plus, Derick gives us the scoop on his latest creation, the "Make It a Mocktail" recipe deck. This gorgeous deck is full of delicious mocktail recipes, including 20 brand-new ones not featured in his book, The Mocktail Club. It's perfect for any bar cart—whether you drink or don't—and makes the most amazing gift that you can share with others. Tune in to hear more!

Get in touch with Derick!
Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok

Recipe Deck: Make It A Mocktail
Recipe Book: The Mocktail Club

EP 30 Meet Derick Santiago: Mocktail Whiz


Order a copy of The Happiest Hour: Delicious Mocktails for a Fabulous Moms' Night In

A huge thank you to the sponsors of the Thriving Alcohol-Free podcast!
Sunnyside | Giesen 0% Wines

You are loved. Big Time Cheers!

Deb:

Buckle up, friends, and welcome to the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast. I'm your host, deb, otherwise known as Mocktail Mom, a retired wine drinker that finally got sick and tired of spinning on life's broken record called Detox to Retox. Let this podcast be an encouragement to you. If alcohol is maybe a form of self-care for you, where you find yourself dragging through the day waiting to pour another glass, I am excited to share with you the fun of discovering new things to drink when you aren't drinking and the joy of waking up each day without a hangover. It is an honor to serve as your sober, fun guide. So sit back and relax or keep doing whatever it is you're doing. This show is produced for you with love from the great state of Kentucky. Thanks so much for being here and big time cheers. Okay, hey friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol-Free. I am so excited. Not only do we have a faithful listener, but we have a repeat guest.

Deb:

Drek Santiago is in the house. Well, not literally, he's in his house. I'm in mine, kentucky, he's in California, but we're here recording together. Derek, how are you?

Derick:

I'm doing good. Thank you for having me back. I am such a big fan of the podcast I was telling you offline that I listen to it. I wait for the new episode to drop every week because it's just part of my routine and I feel like I can do your intro. I've memorized it.

Deb:

If you memorize it, you probably know it better than I do now. I filmed it back in like January of 2022. No 2023. Yes, january 2023.

Derick:

Time flies, yep.

Deb:

It does fly. I can't even believe this will probably be like episode. I don't even know what we're going to be on when this comes out, but in the 80s, which is?

Deb:

easy, yep, yep no-transcript about your story. A little bit of your background again. I know you were on episode. I think it was episode 30 was the episode. So if anybody wants to go back and listen to the full length episode, they can do that episode 30. But we're going to talk today about your new recipe, deck, which is brilliant. It's beautiful, it's so cute. This is the perfect gift for anyone who's interested in mocktails, even if they have your book. So I'm so excited to talk to you about what you have going on. Yeah, okay, Do you want to share a little bit about, like, how you got into mocktails? Give the CliffsNotes version of how you got to where you are today, I think it's been rolling for you.

Derick:

Yeah, it's just, it's been a blast and I thought my life would be boring when I stopped drinking. Yet here we are it's like the exact opposite of it. So just a quick version of the story is I grew up in the Philippines, born and raised there. Drinking wasn't a big thing in my immediate family, although I've seen my uncles do it, and sometimes my dad. When he goes home, he worked abroad majority of my life, so every time he came home for vacation I would see him with my uncles. But, like my immediate family, I didn't see drinking a lot. I was raised by my mother and my aunt and they just didn't drink. And so I moved to the US in 2013 for a job, and that's when I found myself in the middle of happy hours and I didn't know what to order. I didn't know what to drink. I always tell this story of my first happy hour. I was asked by my colleague what I wanted to drink and in a panic, I just blurted out champagne and they laughed.

Derick:

No, shut up, you didn't I did, I was like champagne because I didn't know. Um, and they laughed and and they basically what are we in a wedding or something like I didn't know. And so after that, you know, it was funny, but it was also kind of embarrassing because it was my first time and so I did my research. I'm a research kind of guy, so if I need to get better at something, I would research and, you know, do all the work and, sadly, I trained for happy hours and I got really really good at it. Also, sadly, you got too good, too good, got too good, and now I'm retired.

Derick:

That was 2013 is when I realized that oh, there is some use to alcohol. I used it to kind of turn off my brain at the end of the day, because I am an IT, we implement cloud solutions, I'm a project manager and it's a high stress. We're consultants, so it's fast paced, high stress kind of job and I find myself having trouble sleeping because I'm already worrying about the next day or sometimes offshore is pinging me at night. So I used alcohol then to kind of turn off my brain and just go to sleep, but I didn't really abuse it. I just knew that it worked at that time. So I was a moderate. I moderated my drinking. What do you call it? That's not a moderator.

Deb:

How do you say that? Yeah, I guess you moderated your drinking.

Derick:

A normal drinker whatever that means A normie, yeah, until I suffered big losses in my life and this is in 2020 when I lost my mom, and that's when the moderation went out the window because I thought I deserved it. It's now funny thinking about it, that I thought I deserved alcohol and, yeah, that was not correct. But I also give myself grace when I look back at it, because, you know, as humans, we just use the tools that we know how to use and are available to us, and at the time, alcohol was the tool that I used, and now I know better that there are other tools that I can use to cope with grief. And so that's in 2020. And then I kind of I think from the gray area spectrum I'm entering into the dark, gray part of it, just because that's what I use to cope with grief.

Derick:

The days leading up to it, or months, those are harder days than the day itself, and so for a couple of years, I found myself drinking more. When it comes, it starts Mother's Day, may, and then her birthday is May 14th. Sometimes her birthday is Mother's Day and you just see all these advertisements for Mother's Day and celebrating mom and you just feel so lonely. So I drink more and then leading up to June 4th, which is her death anniversary, and so in 2022, I did that.

Derick:

I drank a lot leading up to June 4th and then June 6th is the Monday and that's when I said you know what, you need to pull yourself together, because I was starting to not feel good about myself anymore. I don't feel good physically, mentally. I felt like I was very slow and it takes a while for me to ramp up and I have meetings very, very early in the morning that I'm driving, so I need to be on like first thing in the morning and I I found that challenging if I had a rough night. So I just thought you know what, maybe let's go back to moderating. And that's when I read the book this Naked Mind, or when I see, say read, I listened to it on the book.

Deb:

Yeah.

Derick:

Yeah, and and I resonated with her because I felt like, oh, these are my people, those who are maybe have not met or reached a rock bottom, still doing good professionally. I just resonated. I've attended 12-step program meetings just because I have friends in the program, and so I've been a visitor in those meetings and I find them very inspiring. The meetings that I've been to are vibrant, and I go to a gay meeting somewhere close to me, sometimes with my friends, and it's vibrant, it's lively, everybody's huggy, so I feel the community.

Derick:

But when it comes to the story, it's just not my story. But when I listened to this naked mind, that's when I resonated with the story of Annie Grace, the author, and so somehow it stuck with me the the not drinking aspect and the truth about alcohol. But even though I decided that I'm not going to drink anymore, or at least for now, I still wanted a drink because of the habit Five o'clock hits, on a Friday I need something to drink. Or during the weekends, when I meal prep, I like to have some drinks. That's when I created my first mocktail and then, a month later, I created Mocktail Whiz on Instagram, because I think I was in a pink cloud moment, I had a lot of ideas for recipes, and so I started posting on Mocktail Whiz. And then now here we are, two years later.

Deb:

Amazing.

Derick:

It's just been a blast and it's kind of like a blur, even though I'm fully sober the entire time.

Deb:

It is such a blur, isn't it? It's like, yeah, creating content and having fun, all the connections on Instagram. I mean you and I would never know each other if it wasn't for Instagram.

Derick:

Yeah, yeah, that's my favorite part of it is the community and you know, being able to talk to you and to other friends all over the world and make genuine connections that we actually remember and not, like you know, the connections made in a bar.

Deb:

Yeah, where you feel like you really, oh, I really connect to that person and then you're like no idea what you talked about.

Derick:

Who was that? Who was that? Yeah, who did I?

Deb:

talk to. So what was the first mocktail that you made when you first stopped drinking? Yeah, who was that? Who did I talk?

Derick:

to. So what was the first mocktail that you made when you first stopped drinking?

Deb:

It's spicy pineapple margarita was the first one yeah, I love the spicy yeah.

Derick:

And it wasn't. So I do have some background in mixology. I attended a class in back in 2016. So I've always been into mixing drinks and at the time I needed something to drink because I was doing my meal prep and I just used the ingredients that I had on hand. So I had some jalapenos, pineapple juice I didn't have lime at the time, but I have those lime packets, yeah, the powdered ones. Actually, they work too so I used that one and then just shook them all together, added some agave nectar and then I just topped it off with sparkling. So using my soda stream, that I love.

Deb:

I love it. Yeah, you and I are big fans of the soda stream.

Derick:

And that was it. And then I did my tajin rim and I was like, oh my gosh, this feels like there's alcohol in it because of the spiciness. And so that's what kind of opened up my world to you know the possibilities. I'm like, oh, I can work with this.

Deb:

I can still have a drink, yeah, yeah. So, as you came up to, because I know you and I have talked about this, but having lost both of my parents, my parents passed away. Both of them passed away in the fall, 11 months apart, and so I know exactly what you mean and I, you know, I know our listeners can understand that of somebody that you've lost. And when that date is coming, that anniversary is coming up, it is like you said, it's almost harder as the day approaches than the actual day, for whatever reason. For me, the fall, the season, is always hard. So that first year 2023, as you're approaching your mom's birthday and Mother's Day and the anniversary of her passing, what tools are you using now to implement, coping, strategizing?

Derick:

to get through. Yeah, that's it planning, planning ahead Mocktails. At the time I was really holding onto the mocktails. Now I'm good and I don't know what we'll do with my followers that I don't drink mocktails all the time because I think I'm good now I've worked on my tools and so to me it's keeping busy and having a plan ahead of time.

Derick:

And then my sister and I started a new tradition and so now we go bowling just so we can take our minds off of it. It's our way of I know we are doing and having fun, but to us it's an activity that will keep us busy. And then sometimes we go to the beach too and just have quiet time with no distraction, and just reflect and just honor her memory. And I feel like it's a much better way to honor her memory than just numbing. And I remember the last death anniversary that I was drinking. She wouldn't have been happy to see what we were. We were still doing bowling at the time because we're like, oh, this is going to be our new tradition and I was still drinking. I remember I got so tipsy at the bowling alley that when I swung my ball the bowling ball it fell behind me instead of Wait, we're going the wrong direction.

Derick:

Yeah, that's not how you bowl, derek. So it's like you know I was escaping the feeling instead of confronting it. I've made it a point to just give myself grace, because I feel like it's hard to cry because it takes a lot of energy Physically, it drains you, and so now I've just, you know, if you feel like crying, cry. If you don't feel like crying, that's fine too. So just taking it are crying, that's fine too. So just taking it one breath at a time, I guess, during that day, and just going with where the spirit leads you.

Deb:

I think that's good, yeah, giving yourself grace. And, boy, she is so proud of you, she's so proud of you.

Derick:

Oh, thank you.

Deb:

What do you think would have been her favorite recipe? From your book or from the deck? I know the deck has new cards.

Derick:

New recipes yeah. What would be her favorite? Of your recipes or from the deck? I know the deck has new cards. New recipes yeah.

Deb:

What would be her favorite of your recipes, do you think?

Derick:

I actually have a recipe that's dedicated to her in both. It's available in both the book and the deck and it's the citrus rose martini. And the reason why I chose that was and this is funny because in the Philippines, when I was growing up in high school, there was this one drink that was popular amongst the kids and also the adults, called gin pom. It's basically gin and pomelo juice, and pomelo is like a cousin of grapefruit, so it's a little bitter and they call it gin pom and it's very like, I would say, lowbrow, because it's not even fresh juice, it's like tang, I think, like powder, it's like a crystal light yeah, the powder, and then water and then gin and then lots of ice. And so I connect this with my mom because, like I said, she didn't really drink a lot.

Derick:

I connect this with my mom because, like I said, she didn't really drink a lot, and the only time that I saw her kind of like funny was because our neighbors invited us over and they were drinking gin pom, and so I was kind of like, oh, this is funny, because you don't see this every day, and she didn't do anything. You know crazy. But I was like, oh, this is kind of like a different side of my mom that's pretty loose today. She's like laughing a lot and I just remember this picture of her just like laughing, and that's the only alcoholic drink that I remember her consuming.

Derick:

So I created this I would like to say elevated version of it, so it's also non-alcoholic gin, and instead of pomelo, the powdered drink, I use fresh grapefruit juice and then to add a little bit of floral notes to it, I added rose syrup, and red roses are my mom's favorite flowers. She was so into flowers she loved it so I would always send her flowers, and so to me, the citrus rose martini reminds me of just. I created that for my mother and I'm so happy that it made it into the final cut of the book and also the mocktail recipe deck. It's that one drink with a small rose as a garnish.

Deb:

I love that. I love that. That's so beautiful. Okay, as you guys know, I love Giesen 0% wines. Their Sauvignon Blanc is my go-to on a regular basis, but they recently launched a delicious sparkling brute 0%, which is quickly becoming a fan favorite. I am so proud to have Giesen as the exclusive non-alcoholic wine sponsor of the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast.

Deb:

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Deb:

My personal favorite although I do love them all is the Sauvignon Blanc, coming in at only 100 calories for the entire bottle. And, not to be missed, the other members of their 0% family, the Riesling, the Premium Red Blend, the Rosé, the Pinot Gris. With Giesen's 0% wines, there's a de-alcoholized wine for everyone and every occasion. Give Giesen a try and let me know how much you love it, and if you want to meet their winemaker, go back to episode 33 of the podcast, where Duncan Shuler joined me to share about the Giesen story. All right, do you want to talk about the book? It's so beautiful. This is like you've set the standard for Montaigne.

Deb:

This is going to be somebody who has a book coming out.

Derick:

Yeah, I'm so excited for that yeah.

Deb:

But I'm like I'm okay to take second place people.

Derick:

No, we will all share the podium if there is a podium.

Deb:

Yes, yes, we're all having just a good time. You know a good time not drinking, and there's so many. I just think it's so fun. There's so many good things to drink. So, yeah, do you want to share a little bit about how it came about writing this book? How did this all happen? Okay, how did you go from IT project?

Derick:

Yeah, and I'm still doing that too. I'm still doing that as my main day job, and then having fun in the evenings and the weekends mixing mocktails for you all, that's awesome. So the book came about not even a year in. I've been posting on Instagram since July of 2022.

Deb:

Happy two-year anniversary.

Derick:

Yeah, two years it's been a blast. And then I got an email from Adams Media they're an imprint of Simon Schuster. This was, if not February, march of 2023. And they reached out and they were looking for an author to write a mocktail recipe book for them. And so we hopped on a call and my main question was can I use my spirit alternatives? Because, in my opinion, that's how you get close to the real thing. I know that I do still have recipes without any spirit alternatives. And then we talked about the vibe of the book and it was just a match. I felt like it was meant to be. So, yeah, so we signed a contract and went into recipe development. So it was like an intense few months of having my day job and then spending the entire weekends for three months just doing recipe development and testing and stuff like that, and just saying yes to the opportunity. I always say that in the beginning I was not sure if it was legit, because you know, we all know not to believe everything that you get from the internet, right.

Deb:

Emails come in all the time, yeah.

Derick:

Yeah, but it's legit and it was. It's been a great experience writing the book and working with the team at Adams media. So the first book, the mocktail club, came out January 2nd of this year. So I'm so, so grateful. I still can't believe that all this is happening just all from the decision to stop drinking. I feel like if I didn't stop drinking, I would have none of this, and so I'm so, so grateful for sobriety and just that, the ability to say yes, because I have time. Now I don't numb out in the evenings anymore out in the evenings anymore. So, yeah, so the first book came out, but what was happening in the background was around September. I remember there's a holiday in September. I can't remember which one it is. Is it like Labor?

Deb:

Day, labor Day.

Derick:

Labor Day, september. Yeah, we were vacationing. We were. I remember. I haven't told this story before, but we were at the San Diego Safari, vacationing for that weekend and just enjoying. And I remember we were at the restaurant there and I asked for a mocktail and they did a good job. It was a spicy pineapple margarita. Basically just remove the alcohol.

Deb:

Back to the original.

Derick:

Yeah. So it was just a nice day looking at giraffes and what have you. And then I got this email. I don't know why I checked my email, but I checked my email and there was another opportunity and that was for a recipe deck. And I'm familiar because I've seen the other recipe decks that Adams Media published before I actually have. When I got that email and they asked me if I'm interested and of course I was interested, so I said yes to that I bought their. They have a whiskey recipe deck and I feel like a lot of us with whiskey alternative can benefit from from these types of decks too. But I thought it was so nice to have our own recipe deck that's focused on mocktails and how you can be creative with different ingredients without the booze, and so I said yes to that. And again, just the ability of of having the ability to say yes, and I was just grateful. I just remember that day that I was having fun on vacation and the book wasn't even released yet at that point, because it was September.

Deb:

They're like let's do something else yeah.

Derick:

And I was like, oh my gosh, this must be it. I was just that's. The overwhelming feeling was I was just grateful, and I would like to relate that to being sober, because I feel like in that moment I was sitting there watching the giraffes having my spicy pineapple margarita and then learning about this news. It was just like the gifts of sobriety that keeps on giving. I feel very fortunate to have had these opportunities and I hope that people who are considering sobriety, even if it's just for a month, that they, you know, consider it and they they try it, because you just never know. Like I, when I stopped drinking, I didn't expect any of this, not in my wallace dreams like it's gonna be so boring.

Deb:

What are we gonna do?

Derick:

yeah, what are you?

Deb:

gonna do like you're not drinking. What are we doing? Yeah?

Derick:

yeah, and it's been the last two years has been the complete opposite of boring. Also, I feel like I've become braver. I'm naturally a shy person, but I feel like, yeah, just the gifts of sobriety. I'm forever grateful.

Deb:

Interesting. It's just saying like being braver, I mean, it's so true, right, and you're able to say yes to things. Because I know like you're not like thinking, well, that'll cut into my drinking time or well, we were planning on, like I mean right, like you could have been there and been three cocktails in looking at the news yeah.

Deb:

Whole different story. Whole different story. Yeah, the opportunities, and you're totally right, Sobriety is absolutely the gift that keeps on giving. You know, whether it's for, like you said, like for a weekend a month, whatever, take a little break. A weekend a month, whatever, take a little break.

Derick:

Yeah, and no matter how quick the break is, having a break is always a good thing.

Deb:

I've never, ever, ever had anybody say to me oh my gosh, I'm so bummed, I took a month off of a drink.

Deb:

I haven't never met somebody. That's like sorry they did. There's always benefits that somebody finds from taking a break. Okay, let's talk about, do we? Okay? So it's called the recipe deck is called Make it a Mocktail. The photos are beautiful, the cards are beautiful. They're like this okay, I don't for anybody who's just listening. I mean, it's this cute, cute card deck. This is the most perfect thing for any bar cart, for any bar cart. Somebody who's a drinker or non-drinker obviously non-drinker, but you know what I mean Like this is this can be right alongside the cocktails. It really really can be, because people want to maybe have a mocktail in between their cocktails, you know.

Derick:

Yeah, and the recipes. The recipes will work too, because I for for most of it. I use spirit alternatives. I will just recommend that, if you're going to substitute that with the real alcohol, maybe put a little less, because yeah, we put in more usually, yeah, yeah usually we I do. My standard is I use two ounces of the spirit alternatives just to get that flavor and account for dilution. So I know if you're just dabbling with you. You know, maybe I've heard of the term zebra.

Deb:

What's that?

Derick:

Zebra stripes, where you have an alcoholic drink, non-alcoholic drink, alcoholic drink, kind of like alternating to pace yourself. So if maybe you're zebra striping it, you can still find some good recipes in the Make it a Mocktail recipe deck. And, like I said, yeah zebra striping or yeah, or bookending, like maybe a mocktail in the beginning and then drinking regular drinks and then maybe a mocktail at the end, to kind of you know pace yourself. And I think all these techniques are great if you're just trying to cut back.

Deb:

Cut back, drink less. Yeah, okay, there's a beautiful bartender's guide that's included in the very beginning. There are recipes that are from your book, correct? You have 20 additional ones that you cannot get in the book. So, even if somebody already has the book, you definitely want to order Making a Mocktail Recipe Deck, because there's new recipes in here, and I know what did you say? You?

Derick:

said we're like.

Deb:

they're like because obviously you've gotten better and better at making mocktails. Your drinks are amazing If anybody's not following you on Instagram. They need to make sure they're following you on Instagram. Your drinks are so beautiful. These photos are gorgeous. Did you photograph all these or they photoshopped?

Derick:

They were photographed by the publisher. They hired a professional photographer. Thank you.

Deb:

Cards are beautiful. Okay, can you tell me the idea? Was it Brittany that gave you this idea for taking these recipe cards? And just an idea of how maybe somebody could use them if they didn't want to buy a deck for all their friends but they should. They should buy a deck for all their friends. But if they didn't want to do that, here's a good idea.

Derick:

Yeah, my good friend Brittany, AKA the cool hip mom, had this idea of using this as a gift. So hopefully you include the deck in the gift basket. But what you can do is you can pick a card from the recipe deck and then buy the ingredients for that one card and then put it in a gift basket, kind of like a mocktail starter kit. So I thought that was a great idea and I told Brittany that I'm going to steal that idea and talk about it because I think it's great.

Deb:

Yes, actually, I need to have her on the podcast. I would love to have a chat with her.

Derick:

Oh, she's so fun. Yeah, I really love her.

Deb:

Okay, so it's broken up into the first little section. I love it like little. What do you call it? Like a little card cover.

Derick:

Tabs.

Deb:

Yeah, it's like fill in the blank. So a little tab gin inspired, rum inspired, tequila inspired, whiskey inspired, wine inspired, aperitif inspired, and then at the very back you have a spirit free section. So I know there's some people that you know prefer to have mocktails without spirits in them. Yeah, but yeah, I mean okay, let's just pick one, let's pick a card Hang on. Let's play a game. I'm going to pick a card Hang on. I'm not going to look. Oh, that's so funny. I just looked at one.

Deb:

It says spicy pineapple margarita. That's hilarious.

Derick:

Oh, wow.

Deb:

Okay. So let's say we pick this one and we're going to make a little recipe. We're going to make a little basket for somebody, so spicy pineapple margarita. We would want to give them chili lime seasoning, so maybe like a little tiny tahini.

Derick:

Yeah, cute ones. Oh, you have one right there, I have one right here.

Deb:

Yeah, a little bag of like eight of them. They're tiny little tahini things. You could put one of those in A lime so you could add in a lime jalapeno, orange simple syrup, so you could just use even a regular little simple syrup.

Derick:

Regular simple syrup, or in in stores they have like a triple sec syrup too, uh-huh. Yep, that's basically orange uh syrup. But I also have the orange simple syrup recipe in the bartender's guide, if you know, for not for the good basket, but for for at home use perfect.

Deb:

Okay, we could add in um a tequila, a little little can of pineapple juice you could have in there and this is perfect.

Derick:

Yeah, this would be perfect.

Deb:

You could just give somebody everything they would need to make a spicy pineapple margarita. A spicy pineapple margarita, which I think especially when somebody well, just because we picked this one. But when somebody first stops drinking, I feel like the bite, the burn.

Derick:

Both of us, I know Richard.

Deb:

It's like to have that spice. For whatever reason To, it's like to have that spice for whatever reason To mimic the burn.

Derick:

Yeah, exactly yeah. And, like you said, for those who already have the Mocktail Club, first of all, thank you for your support. It means a lot to me. There is an overlap in terms of recipes, so you will see some familiar recipes from the book in the deck also, but there are 20 new, brand new recipes deck also, but there are 20 new, brand new recipes and, like I said, I feel like those 20 new ones because I've had a lot more experience. I think that they're so good. Yeah, and also I picked from suggestions from before, like from the book. They were like how come you don't have a Bloody Mary? And the answer to that is because I didn't drink Bloody Marys before and so it wasn't top of mind.

Deb:

I was drinking champagne at happy hour.

Derick:

Yeah, champagne, exactly. But I worked with my mother-in-law. She loved the Bloody Mary. I actually gave her a few options to choose from which ones she liked the most, and that's what made it into the deck. And so there's like 20 brand new recipes in there. I also have a couple of new tea-based mocktails in the spirit-free section. So I've been playing a lot with oversteeped tea as base, because I've had some events where people are not comfortable with spirit alternatives because they don't want to mimic the taste of alcohol. It could trigger some people. So I made sure to add more recipes to the spirit-free section. So I have a spicy Earl Gorita where I used Earl Grey tea as my base. I saw that, okay, that was really good.

Deb:

Is it Okay? I need to make this one. I love Earl Grey. A spicy Earl Garita.

Derick:

Yeah.

Deb:

Okay, this deck is worth it, just to get this recipe.

Derick:

Yeah, there's also like barley. I have a barley sour yeah, it's like oversteeped barley tea, and then I treated it like whiskey and turned it into a sour. So so, yeah, a lot of new recipes that I'm so proud of, and I hope that people, people get it for for the new recipes they're gonna love it.

Deb:

They're well. Yeah, they're gonna get it. Why would they not okay? Yeah, 20 bonus, it's. It's the encore version it is the medium.

Deb:

The way that this is presented is so cool. I love it. It's so funny. My husband, when I first stopped drinking and, you know, started doing mocktail, he's like you need to make a recipe deck, you need to do these little cards. And I was like I don't make any cards, I don't do anything. So thank you, Derick, for doing what my husband told me to do. There you go. It's beautiful. Now we have a. I'm so happy. We'll make sure that the link is in the show notes for anybody. Obviously, you can order anywhere, go to Amazon or wherever books are sold. Make it a Mocktail recipe deck. Great gift for yourself, for friends, and then the Mocktail Club. Derick is the author of this beautiful, beautiful recipe book.

Derick:

So thank you.

Deb:

Derick, you are one of the best gifts of Instagram to me.

Derick:

Thank you.

Deb:

It's wonderful to be connected. I really appreciate you and thank you for all that you do in the Mocktail community and just all the content you put out and just the encouragement you are to so many people.

Derick:

Thank you. That means a lot to me, deb, and I'm so happy. One of the gifts of sobriety is having been connected with you and becoming a friend, so thank you so much the gift that keeps on giving Big time.

Deb:

Cheers to you for tuning into the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast. I hope you will take something from today's episode and make one small change that will help you to thrive and have fun in life without alcohol. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social, send up a flair or leave a rating and a review. I am cheering for you as you discover the world of non-alcoholic drinks and as you journey towards authentic freedom. See you in the next episode.