Pop Culture is officially international! A little while ago, Helen visited Board Dublin, another fantastic alcohol-free bar with a massive selection of non-alc drinks. By day, you can enjoy food, coffee and interesting drinks upstairs in the bright and airy cafe, as well as delving in to the massive selection of board games on offer (bagsie the Jurassic Park chess). By night, the traditional-style pub opens up downstairs, with non-alc beers on tap, Irish-related wines and much much more, as you can see on their Instagram here.

As luck would have it, the pub's Chris Raymond was there on the same day, trying to get some work done in a corner when Helen buttonholed him and requested an interview when he had a minute. We finally managed to get online and have a chat a little later, so here's what goes in to opening a non-alc bar in the Irish capital, and just how much hate you're going to get for it. The key, it seems, is to absolutely avoid research. Have a listen to learn more.

If you’ve got cool knowledge about soft drinks that you'd like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at popculturedrinkspodcast@gmail.com. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, a question, or your thoughts on all things drinks so we can share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

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Kat and Helen are off on another adventure this episode, visiting Club Soda in London. Club Soda is a fantastic resource for those wanting to drink less or not at all: founded almost a decade ago by Laura Willoughby as a sort of non-drinking equivalent to Weight Watchers, a community for non-drinkers, former drinkers or those trying to cut down or cut out temporarily. As well as campaigning for better non-alcoholic options in all walks of life, Laura has established a business selling interesting non-alc drinks online and now set up a tasting room on Drury Lane in Covent Garden. It's a cool little bar full of no-alcohol and some low-alcohol options for anyone who wants to drink less or not at all. You name it and they probably have it; it's a bit of a dream come true for people like us. So we went along to talk to Laura about how things are changing, what she hopes for the future and whether you'll ever get a similar selection down at your own local pub or favourite restaurant.

If you’ve got cool knowledge about soft drinks that you'd like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at popculturedrinkspodcast@gmail.com. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, a question, or your thoughts on all things drinks so we can share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this special bonus episode of Pop Culture, your hosts Kat Brown and Helen O'Hara reunite to catch you up on what's been happening since you last heard us, and explain the new plans for the show (we're going fortnightly, basically - or if you're American, every two weeks). We also took the opportunity to try a new tipple we'd been sent. Wednesday's Domaine has just launched two new sparkling non-alc wines, an Eclat and a Cuvée, so we put them to the taste test and Helen tried her best not to just say that they tasted wine-y (though, you know, what else would non-alc wines taste like?). Elsewhere, we discuss the delights of beetroot cocktails at Ognisko (are we sure? Ed) and the surprising trend in German soft drinks after our time away, and get ready for a brand new season!

If you’ve got cool knowledge about soft drinks that you'd like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at popculturedrinkspodcast@gmail.com. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, a question, or your thoughts on all things drinks so we can share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.