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Table of Contents
- Stimulating vs Calming: What You’re Actually Reaching For
- Cornbread Hemp Mimosa Social Spritz
- De Soi Lemon Elderflower
- Recess Lime
- Ghia Le Spritz Blood Orange
- Hiyo Blackberry Lemon
- BRĒZ Flow
- A Bonus Cornbread Hemp Flavor Worth Trying: Cherry Lime Social Spritz
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The Bottom Line
Love a good mimosa or margarita as part of the after-work wind-down—but not wild about the actual alcohol part? Good news! You just need something worth swapping in, and we did the heavy lifting to find the best options—with a twist. These six non-alcoholic drinks are excellent stand-ins for their alcoholic counterparts, and they lean on adaptogens, nootropics, or functional botanicals to do it.
A quick note on language before we start: “adaptogen” gets used loosely on cans, and we’re using it the same way, as shorthand for the whole functional stack. Only a couple of the ingredients below meet the technical definition, and we’re direct about it. For a more thorough discussion, we recommend perusing this helpful guide to the actual science of ingredients like L-theanine, lemon balm, and passionflower from Dr. Fred Peters. Here’s the quick take: these drinks don’t reproduce alcohol’s buzz, but certain ingredients do have real evidence, if modest, for their “focused calm” effect.
Below, we’re flagging what’s proven and what’s probably just marketing.
Stimulating vs. Calming: Know What You’re Actually Reaching For
We looked for the best non-alcoholic swaps with a little something, which means not every drink on this list is doing the same job. Since labels don’t always make that obvious, here’s a little helpful insight:
- A calming social lift. Our very own Cornbread Social Spritz and the BRĒZ Flow are made with ingredients associated with relaxed, focused calm, like L-theanine, passionflower, and lemon balm. That makes them a good match for the “end of the day, time to unwind” thing that’s often addressed with alcohol, as well as a non-stimulating daytime boost.
- Stimulating, but mild. Recess and De Soi are both made with natural stimulants, like guayusa or ginseng. It’s not comparable to the jolt you get from coffee, but it still makes them better suited to late afternoon pick-me-ups than a true nightcap. Word to the wise: they’re both marketed alongside drinks intended to replace that evening cocktail, but guayusa and ginseng aren’t ideal for a nightcap.
- A little of everything. Hiyo is stacked with six functional ingredients (adaptogens, nootropics, and botanicals) to do a whole lot: relieve stress, boost mood, chill you out, support digestion, even aid sleep. More ingredients aren’t always better, but it makes Hiyo a versatile option.
- Flavor first (and only). Ghia is full of botanicals chosen for how they taste, not what they do. It’s the odd one out on this list, but we included it as a useful control group for the rest of the list.
Understanding how ingredients in a botanical beverage are likely to affect you gives you a little context. It’s all about function, since a guayusa-based mocktail at 9 PM hits like a small coffee, not a nightcap—no matter what the can says.
Cornbread Hemp Mimosa Social Spritz
Calories: 25 per can | Sugar: 5g per can | Sweetener: Cane sugar, monk fruit extract | Functional ingredients: L-theanine, lemon balm extract, passionflower extract
We describe our Mimosa Social Spritz as sun-kissed with a light, bubbly finish. Flavor-wise, that makes it a brilliant stand-in for the ever-popular sparkling wine and orange juice brunch order, but it really works all day. With Mimosa Social Spritz, there’s no crash a few hours after imbibing, no hangover, no regret.
We make our social spritzes with adaptogens and nootropics for a little lift: L-theanine, lemon balm, and passionflower. Of the three, L-theanine has the strongest research base. The other two haven’t been as definitively studied, at least not yet, but what we know is promising nonetheless.
Worth noting since Cornbread built its name on hemp: Social Spritz is a deliberately separate product line, with no CBD and no THC. It exists for people who want the calm-and-social effect without any cannabinoids at all.
De Soi Lemon Elderflower
Calories: 25 per can | Sugar: 3g per can | Sweetener: Agave syrup | Functional ingredients: Ginseng, L-theanine, L-tyrosine, vitamins B6 and B12, elderflower
De Soi’s Lemon Elderflower is made for daytime energy, not an evening wind-down, but it’s caffeine-free by design. That makes it a good choice in lieu of a second drip coffee or energy drink, but not as a nightcap. The elderflower profile makes this bright and light, while ginseng and L-tyrosine impart a mild alertness effect. Neither has the evidence base of L-theanine, but that’s in here too, alongside B6 and B12—common “gives you energy” beverage tricks (but only if you’re actually deficient).
Recess Lime
Calories: 25 per can | Sugar: 5g per can | Sweetener: Cane sugar | Functional ingredients: Guayusa, L-theanine, lemon balm
Lime, agave, a little sea salt—sounds like a classic margarita, doesn’t it? Recess built this one to hit all the same notes, minus the tequila, and it’s tart enough that it doesn’t taste like a watered-down version of the real thing. It’s a solid pick for an honest-to-goodness happy hour, poured over ice in your favorite margarita glass. Note to self: guayusa is a source of caffeine, not a calming adaptogen, so you can expect a minor jolt alongside the L-theanine and lemon balm. Keep that in mind if you’re trying to wind down, not perk up.
Ghia Le Spritz Blood Orange
Calories: 60 per can | Sugar: 11g per can | Sweetener: None added, sugar comes from juice concentrates | Functional ingredients: Lemon balm extract, gentian root extract, orange blossom extract
Okay, okay, Ghia really isn’t an adaptogen or nootropic drink like the others on this list, but again, it earned its spot here as a control group. It’s a non-alcoholic aperitif, and its botanicals—gentian root, orange blossom, lemon balm—are there to impart flavor complexity and a little bitterness, just like they’d work in a real Aperol or Campari. In other words, it’s not about functional cognition or a calming effect. It just tastes nice. That’s a helpful benchmark for whether the functional stacks in other drinks are actually pulling their weight.
Ghia really nails the actual aperitif experience, minus the alcohol. Pour it over ice with a little slice of blood orange, and it’s pretty convincing. Just go in knowing what you’re getting: no functional claims, no evidence to weigh, and the highest sugar count on this list at 11g per can if that’s something you’re watching.
Hiyo Blackberry Lemon
Calories: 30 per can | Sugar: 5g per can | Sweetener: Cane sugar | Functional ingredients: Lemon balm extract, KSM-66 ashwagandha, passionflower extract, L-theanine, ginger extract, lion’s mane mushroom extract
Blackberry and lemon are an elevated combo, and we like Hiyo’s take for slow sipping. Hiyo calls the effect “the float,” perhaps thanks to the widest functional stack on this list. That includes KSM-66 ashwagandha, a specific standardized extract that shows up in real clinical research on stress and sleep. More ingredients don’t necessarily mean a bigger effect—that comes down to proper dosing of individual ingredients. Hiyo doesn’t publish individual amounts, just a 1.7g total blend, so it’s tricky to know what’s what. Still, we like the ingredient profile and the flavor.
BRĒZ Flow
Calories: 35 per can | Sugar: 8g per can | Sweetener: Agave | Functional ingredients: Lion’s mane mushroom extract, cacao, black cumin, L-theanine
This one is made with Italian lemon and elderflower, and it has a lion’s mane dose that BRĒZ actually publishes—we applaud the transparency. Lion’s mane has been used for centuries in traditional medicine, but clinical evidence is still mostly preliminary (think small trials and short durations with mixed results on cognition). It means a published dose is more about honesty than proven effect. L-theanine is the ingredient doing the more predictable work here.
A Bonus Cornbread Hemp Flavor Worth Trying: Cherry Lime Social Spritz
Not a mimosa fan? Cornbread Hemp’s Cherry Lime Social Spritz nails that poolside, beachside, summery vibe. With bold sweet cherry and a squeeze of lime, it’s the perfect swap for a cherry limeade or a fruit-forward sangria. It has the same functional profile as all of our Social Spritzes, just with a different flavor lane.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to functional stacks: L-theanine is the one you can count on, ashwagandha has real research behind it at the right dose, and most of the rest is promising but early.
None of these drinks are going to replicate a real buzz, and we won’t pretend otherwise. What they can do is keep the parts of drinking that were never really about the alcohol in the first place: a cold can in hand, a reason to slow down, something more interesting than sparkling water. Cheers to that.
