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Molly Fienning realized she didn't like the relationship she was cultivating with drinking alcohol at home. "I was feeling some big feelings and was pouring a glass of wine on sadness or stress," said Fienning, now the co-founder and partnerships director at Sipland , a lifestyle brand that curates and sells low- and no-alcohol beverages in Charleston. "It didn't feel good.

It no longer felt like it served me." Fienning isn't alone. National research suggests that more people, especially in younger demographics, are "sober curious" than ever before.



Cameron Read, head brewer and beer buyer at Edmund's Oast Brewing Co. & Taproom in Charleston, said the "demand" for alcohol alternatives has increased. "Back in the old days, you'd ask for something nonalcoholic in a restaurant and you were talking about O'Doul's or just Coke," said Read, who is collaborating with Devil's Foot Beverage Company to produce an exclusive Zero-Proof Margarita at Edmund's Oast.

"It's a category that's grown massively in interest in recent times." Across South Carolina, menus that used to predominantly feature boozy cocktails and pints of beer now have mocktails, spritzes and alternative sips. The Palmetto State's beverage offerings are changing — and bartenders, restaurateurs and manufacturers alike are excited about it.

Fienning, along with many other low- and no-proof beverage consumers, hasn't eliminated alcohol from her diet altogether. "I chose to stop drinking at home and be very deliberate abo.

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