EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SOBER CURIOUS LIFESTYLE

Okay, "everything" might be an exaggeration for one (1) blog post, but we're going to give you a crash course and we're going to make it count.

I have been a professional in what you might call the "sober curious" world for over a decade now and I've learned a few things — so I want to break down some of those learnings we've aggregated over all those years.

First, it's okay to not go all the way, right away

As a parent, doctors love to tell me that my baby is on his own schedule and he will develop when he develops – he doesn't need to match the Gerber Baby Guide 1:1. Everybody is different, and everybody is on their own timeline. I find this is actually true of everyone, and I don't know why the doctors waste this valuable information only on new parents.

The truth is we are all on our own journeys and no two are quite alike. If you're interested in quitting alcohol, for some people it makes sense to do that all at once – and for some people, it doesn't. Moderating or cutting back on alcohol is a perfectly acceptable way to get started, or even a way to live forever – the important part is getting healthier and finding something that works for you.

Because this is the internet in 2026 we need a label for everything, and so we're in luck – there's a label now for simply not binge drinking, and it's called zebra striping. Zebra striping is the idea of alternating between alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages through the course of an evening to mitigate the amount of alcohol you're drinking while simultaneously maximizing the number of trips you might take to the bathroom in an evening.

But seriously, it can be a great way to go, and there are a lot of great alcohol alternatives out there to work in. However, if you're looking for something that isn't a $15 glass of juice with nothing else in it and no effect, try asking your bartender or local store if they carry On The Brightside™ – or bring your own and show up to the party already ahead of the curve. It's our feel-good soda infused with 15mg of Zembrin®, an ingredient that supports calm, clear ease and social ease – so you can stay sharp and in the room without the negative after-effects of alcohol.

What is Cali-sober?

Again, it's 2026, and the internet, so – yeah, labels. Cali-sober is a term for people who aren't specifically sober, but they only consume cannabis or THC instead of alcohol. This can be a great option for those who react well to THC. Definitely something that delivers an effect – although studies show that about 67% of THC beverage consumers prefer to drink them at home. (Crescent Canna, 2025)

This makes some amount of sense given that weed can make you, you know, paranoid. And hungry.

Cannabis has its place – but it does impair you, it's not legal everywhere, and it's often banned in the places where you'd normally go out and drink. You'll still need to grab that Lyft home.

On The Brightside™ was developed to solve a different version of this problem. Its active ingredient has been studied specifically to support calm, mental clarity, and social ease – without impairing you. Think of it like the level of engagement you get from caffeine, but instead of delivering energy, it delivers that moment where you stop being in your head and start being in the room. Non-sedating. Completely you, just a little easier.

Non-alcoholic wine, beer, and spirits – a brief roast

In that order: grape juice but worse and more expensive; all the calories and bitterness with none of the fun; and a $35 bottle of water that you could have gotten by picking dandelions and throwing them in your Owala, filled with artificial preservatives.

Look, you do you. But most people I know who quit drinking alcohol find these to be just disappointing reminders of what they're trying to avoid.

I will say that there are some good NA brews out there, and I get that some people just want that taste — in fact, I've seen many do this with zebra striping as well. But I've yet to see the NA wine or spirits market really make it work. 🤷

Herbal infused beverages

I find these one of the most interesting categories, but one of the most regularly disappointing.

There are a few problems common to this category of beverages:

They throw a bunch of ingredients at the wall with no idea which is working. They'll put 5–10 herbs in the same can hoping one will work for you, with no real evidence of that. Even if there is evidence of how the herbs work individually — and many have undergone clinical trials — they are never studied together, and so any claim about what they do synergistically is just a hypothesis, which is a scientist word for "I made it up."

The active herb(s) in the drink require very large amounts, and taste very bad. Lion's Mane is a good example of this. Effective for some people, yes, but Lion's Mane requires a whopping 2,200mg for a relevant dose according to randomized clinical trials. Maca's threshold is 1,500mg. Ashwagandha's is at least 1,200mg daily. This has a pretty substantial impact on the taste of the beverages — great if you like scowling after every sip because you're cultivating that sort of aura, but not so great if taste matters. Not to just bring it back to On The Brightside™, but Zembrin®'s clinically relevant dose is 25–50mg per day, which means you only need 2 cans to get there — and trust me, when you taste it, you'll want a second can.

The herbs don't really deliver a feeling. This is the most common scenario. Most herbs do something, but it's often unclear what, those herbs aren't well studied, and certainly not studied together. But 99/100 times, they don't deliver an active feeling. Take L-theanine: very good for calm focus, but you can't really feel it, and you certainly don't get much of a mood lift.

On The Brightside™ delivers an active feeling to 75% of people — most describe it as a warm lift that settles into clear, easy calm. The most technically accurate description we've heard is "alert serenity," which our co-founder Adam will begrudgingly admit is correct while maintaining it sounds like something you'd name a yacht.

They're actually maybe dangerous — specifically these two.

I want to flag this about kratom and kava specifically. As the regulatory environment around THC beverages tightens, people are seeking alternatives and often landing on these.

Kratom is an opioid-like plant, often artificially enhanced into something called 7-OH, and it has been alleged to be addictive by both consumers and regulators — although there's a guy at the smoke shop down the street who will swear to you it's natural and safe, because he knows the FDA can't hear him when he says it.

Kava is safer, probably, maybe, but has known liver toxicity issues and we just don't know about it long term.

Zembrin® on the other hand has undergone toxicology and genotoxicity panels and carries self-affirmed GRAS status — meaning we know what threshold would likely be problematic in adults, which is around 2,000x the amount in a single On The Brightside™ can on a daily basis. If you can make it to 2,000 of these in a day, I'm more worried about you literally drowning than about any adverse effects from the soda.

There are too many herbs to count, but here's a handy chart.

That's it for today. Now get out there and drink less booze.