I had no idea what to expect when I stepped through the doors of Sip Sin.
One of Liverpool’s newest bars, it opened its doors last year, and I was lucky enough to attend its official launch last night with my ECHO colleague Alice Walker. But Sip Sin on Gladwell Street in Liverpool city centre is a bar with a big difference – no alcohol can be found here.
I enjoy having a drink and going out with my mates (almost) every weekend. Despite some nasty hangovers over the years, I’ve never felt the urge to drop alcohol entirely – it’s always been something I feel I can enjoy in moderation, and I’ve never been tempted by alcohol-free versions of beer, wine or spirits.
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I'm 24, and this behaviour apparently puts me out of step with a large amount of my age bracket. One recent study claimed 44% of 18 to 24-year-olds consider themselves to be either occasional or regular drinkers of alcohol alternatives, and 39% don’t drink at all.
Therefore, I was intrigued to see if Sip Sin could give me a new perspective. Located on Gladwell Street in the city centre, it’s a stone’s throw away from Liverpool’s famous array of pubs and nightclubs.
Inside, it's a lovely place to be. It’s not the biggest, but the chilled music, decorations and neon signs were a definite plus point.
My first drink was a pint of Lucky Saint. It’s 0.5% lager – a percentage low enough to class it as alcohol-free.
It was an excellent drink, with the perfect mix of malt and hop you’d expect to find in a premium lager brand. It felt like a pint, with the heaviness of the drink sitting in your stomach.
It felt slightly surreal – like many Friday nights before, I was sitting in a bar with friends having a beer – but despite all the similarities, I knew I wouldn’t stumble home feeling tipsy or wake up the next morning in a bad way no matter how many of these I drank.
Next up was a Sentia cocktail, which intrigued me the most. This is a ‘functional drink’, with enhanced nutritional value and natural compounds which are said to help enhance the mood or relax the nerves. These include Sentia, containing GABA, produced by scientist David Nutt, designed to offer the ‘good effects’ of alcohol without the downsides.
It was hard to compare the taste to something alcoholic, especially since I don’t have cocktails that often, but it did remind me of a cranberry margarita or vodka and cranberry. I enjoyed it – it was sweet with a strong aftertaste.
I did get a rush of blood to the head when I drank it too fast, but you can feel like this when you have any non-still drink too fast, and I didn’t drink enough of them to see whether I’d become a little tipsy.
My final one was an alcohol-free red wine. Much like the Lucky Saint lager, it had a remarkable resemblance to an alcoholic wine and I thoroughly enjoyed it, with a nice fruity aftertaste.
Sip Sin is a unique bar and I can absolutely see the rationale for having a bar like it. Owner Heather Garlick gave a speech to those at the launch, arguing Sip Sin is stepping in where other venues have failed.
She said: “Sometimes, you've got work the next morning, or you just don't want to be hungover, or you don't want to have alcohol, I feel like hospitality has been kind of letting us down for too long, and not providing really tasty options that aren’t soda from a gun that costs £4 and makes you think, I might as well have a glass of wine then.
“I just think if there were more spaces like this, or just alcohol free spaces, then maybe our workplaces, our doctor's surgeries and our therapy couches could just look quite different.”
A space like Sip Sin is definitely appealing. If you find yourselves in town in the evening, most of the cafes will be shut by 5pm and you might be stuck for ideas if you don’t fancy alcohol at a pub or a sit down meal at a restaurant.
Many people across the UK suffer from alcoholism too, so spaces like this are necessary for them. It could be a nice venue for pregnant women to visit too.
I’m not sure I could see myself coming here regularly though. If I don’t want to go to a pub or bar, I’d probably want to be somewhere completely different, such as a café or a restaurant, rather than replicate the feeling of a bar without the alcohol. Its size also means it could get quite crowded on a busy night.
Overall, I’d say Sip Sin is a very good place to visit. Its social ethos could prove visionary as the number of people going sober continues to rise.
If you’re after somewhere that is truly unique, with lovely drinks you’ve probably never tried before and an interesting backstory behind it, definitely give it a go.
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