I spent more than 15 years working in hospitality and nightlife. Eventually, I started paying attention to what alcohol was doing to me. It was robbing me of my mornings, affecting my sleep and taking a toll on how I felt mentally. So I quit drinking.

I didn't quit going out.

I'm naturally social. I still love parties, music and DJs. But without alcohol, I realized I had a certain amount of social anxiety that I hadn't really noticed before. Alcohol had been taking the edge off, and suddenly the alternatives were water, soda, Red Bull or a $16 mocktail loaded with sugar.

I didn't miss being drunk. I missed the shift from stressed to relaxed.

So I started looking seriously at alcohol alternative drinks that could actually provide that feeling without alcohol.

What Are the Best Alternatives to Alcohol?

There are more options today than there were a few years ago, and I've tried a lot of them.

Functional drinks use ingredients like ashwagandha, magnesium and various adaptogens. Some of these ingredients have legitimate research behind them, but many of their benefits have been studied with consistent use over days or weeks. That's useful for a wellness routine, but it isn't necessarily what I'm looking for when I walk into a bar on Friday night.

Kava is much more interesting as an alcohol alternative. Traditionally consumed throughout the Pacific Islands, kava has relaxing effects and some clinical evidence for reducing anxiety. The experience can make sense socially, although taste, preparation and potential medication and liver-safety considerations make it something consumers should understand before using regularly.

Kanna is another interesting plant. It comes from Sceletium tortuosum, a South African botanical traditionally associated with mood and stress. There is some early human research around anxiety and stress response, but the clinical evidence is still relatively limited. It can also interact with serotonergic medications, so it isn't something to treat casually.

Kratom is sometimes marketed as an alcohol alternative, but I put it in a different category. Its effects can range from stimulating to opioid-like depending on the dose, and the FDA has warned about serious risks including dependence and substance-use disorder. For me, that defeats much of the purpose of looking for a better everyday social drink.

Then there are cannabis beverages, which came closest to what I was looking for but created a different problem.

Cannabis Drinks: Right Idea, Too Much of It

I've been around cannabis for a long time, so my issue isn't tolerance or being uncomfortable with cannabis. My issue is that I don't necessarily want to get stoned every time I go out.

A lot of cannabis drinks are 5, 10 or even 25 mg THC. That's great if getting high is the goal. But I wanted something more subtle: enough to change how I feel without changing who I am in the room.

That's what eventually led us to develop Toasted, a low-dose cannabis relaxation drink.

We took the idea of a cannabis beverage and brought the dose way down, then combined it with meaningful amounts of functional ingredients including L-theanine and Rhodiola rosea.

L-theanine is particularly interesting because, unlike ingredients generally studied through longer-term supplementation, it has also been studied following a single dose for its effects on acute stress response. Rhodiola has research around stress, fatigue and mental performance under stressful conditions as well. Neither ingredient is magic, but there is real science behind why we chose them.

And the low dose matters just as much.

Instead of designing a drink where one serving is the entire experience, we wanted something that behaves more naturally in a social setting. Have one. Hang out. Have another. The goal isn't to see how high you can get; it's to give you more control over the experience.

Replacing What Alcohol Actually Does

After years of searching for drinks instead of alcohol, I think we've been asking the wrong question.

People don't necessarily need another beverage that looks like alcohol. We already have plenty of NA beers, sparkling waters and mocktails.

What we're missing are more alcohol alternative beverages: relaxation drinks that replace the role alcohol plays: helping us transition out of the day, lower stress and feel a little more comfortable being social.

Kava, kanna, functional ingredients and low-dose cannabis are all interesting parts of that emerging category. Different people will find different things that work for them.

For me, I knew exactly what I wanted: I didn't want to check out. I just wanted to take the edge off.

That's ultimately why we built Toasted, the chill drink.