Jonny Stevens on navigating alcohol-free drinks

This is a special podcast for our podcast listeners in the United States. It’s Black Friday in the US, and yesterday was one of the biggest celebrations of the year, Thanksgiving. As we know, wherever you are in the world, big celebrations can also mean being surrounded by alcohol. This can be the start of a tricky time of year for those of us who are changing our drinking. As such, we’ve invited Jonny Stevens who has recently partnered with US alcohol-free marketplace Better Rhodes to talk to us about navigating alcohol-free drinks.

Who is Better Rhodes?

US and Canadian non-alcoholic marketplace Better Rhodes was created due to the lack of availability of alcohol-free products in North America. Its founder, Chris Becker, attributes the struggle to find great AF drinks to the enormous shipping costs which required bulk ordering. Sampling alcohol-free drinks, which we at Club Soda know is the best way to familiarise yourselves with incredible brands and products to help you change your drinking, was very difficult. Better Rhodes has taken the stress of ordering away by creating an alcohol-free marketplace, making navigating alcohol-free drinks easy, pleasurable, and communal.

Who is our guest, Jonny Stevens?

Many of you will know Jonny as the founder of Better Without, the world’s first mobile app and vendor platform for alcohol-free products and services. The app is already available in many worldwide countries including the UK, America, and Canada, therefore it made sense when Better Without and Better Rhodes merged earlier this year. Jonny is an innovator and thought leader in the alcohol-free industry, and joining the Better Rhodes team made perfect sense. Jonny brings an understanding of behaviour, and trends, and helps people to navigate alcohol-free drinks.

We’ve just developed a new feature that is perfect pairing so for the spirits, what does it pair well with? So you know, as you said, actually, it may be a sweeter spirit. So what’s the perfect tonic for it? Is that a double dutch? Like tonic that hasn’t got a lot of sugar? Is it soda water? And given some options because as you always say, education is so important when navigating alcohol-free drinks.