NA Bev Industry Founders Series: Meet Elizabeth from Dri/kit

Here at AF Bevys, we’re always looking for the next big thing in the no-alcohol and low-alcohol industry. So, we’re kicking off an interview series with the makers behind exciting brands, bars, and events serving this space.

A few weeks ago, I took a day trip to Los Angeles to check out the city’s non-alcoholic bottle shops, Boisson and Soft Spirits, as well as attend Zero Proofed’s mocktail mixology class.

That’s when I was fortunate to meet Elizabeth Levitt, founder of Dri/kit, a new gift set company that asks the question, “Do we really need to prove that we had fun with a hangover?”

Dri/kit’s curated non-alcoholic cocktail kits are filled with the highest quality NA products, making them a great gift for the sober curious and non-drinkers alike. Dri/kit is helping to flip the script on needing alcohol in our drinks to celebrate special moments or simply wind down the day.

Continue reading my interview with Elizabeth below in which we discussed:

• What it’s like to work in the alcohol biz when you don’t live that lifestyle
• Alcohol in the media and how celebrities are capitalizing on both the alcohol and alcohol-free space
• The importance of having a brand story and being authentic
• Surprising things she’s learned from going alcohol-free
• What led to starting Dri/kit and how she sources NA products

Interview: Elizabeth from Dri/kit

Could you tell me about your background?

I have spent the better part of my career working as a brand designer and packaging designer in the alcohol industry. Back when I started, I was working for a wine company as a graphic designer, and I was just 23 when I got that job.

Working in the alcohol industry just felt so fun and sexy. Being pretty recently out of college, it was just so cool and fun to be the youngest in the company, to get free wine, and be able to drink wine at work. And that was my impression of a “real-life” or an “adult job.” It was this cool, fun, glamorous environment where we got to go to music festivals for work. 

And so that was kind of my introduction to the alcohol industry. And then for about 12 to 9 years after that, I always worked in some capacity with clients that were in the alcohol space, even working in-house and starting a celebrity spirit brand.

What’s your relationship with alcohol like now? 

Until a certain point, alcohol hadn’t had a huge negative impact on my life. And so, working in the industry did just seem fun and exciting for a long time. 

Then in more recent years, not only did I just not feel like drinking anymore and having to keep up with everybody, but I didn’t feel like being in the alcohol space. Everyone around me was drinking all day long, for their job! And for me as a graphic designer, I was behind a computer and I wasn’t on the sales side. So that wasn’t so much part of my lifestyle. 

I would go to these work events where we always have cocktails or wine or whatever in our hands, and I couldn’t keep up. Neither did I have the desire to keep up.

Then, in early 2022, my husband made the decision to become sober and that just totally shifted my lifestyle even more. So, I was at a point where I was trying to figure out how to be the most supportive partner that I could be. 

I eventually realized that traveling for events and working in the alcohol space wasn’t in alignment with my life anymore. It was completely at odds with my home life since there was no alcohol in my home and it felt super hypocritical to try to be supportive and also love the lifestyle of no longer having alcohol. I realized how toxic it is – physically and mentally. 

Working in the alcohol space and with celebrities, at first felt so glamorous. I didn’t give much thought to the fact that I was like, easily marketing poison to people. 

Is that what led you to start Dri/kit?

Yeah. I was actually just thinking that I started getting inspired to start Dri/kit about a year ago. I went to this amazing female creatives dinner and everyone was required to contribute something. 

One of the women who is alcohol-free contributed three different non-alcoholic cocktails and she brought the spirits and the garnishes. I just knew that I wasn’t interested in drinking at this dinner and then I saw that this woman had three different options for non-alcoholic cocktails. At that point, I honestly didn’t even know that non-alcoholic spirit brands existed! 

I knew about, you know, the big beer brands that sell 0%, and I knew that there were some non-alcoholic wines entering the space and some RTD [ready-to-drink] cans, but I had no idea that there were so many possibilities for crafting beautiful cocktails and still having that experience without the alcohol and without your options being bubbly water. 

So that moment was a huge inspiration that planted the seed. I saw what she was making and thought, “I’ll have what she’s having – it looks amazing!’ 

It’s almost like it’s just whatever is available can completely change somebody’s life. 

Totally. Through starting Dri/kit and creating different options for people, I’ve realized that myself. 

When you are at a social event and there are no non-alcoholic options, it feels super isolating. Whether you are in recovery or temporarily giving up alcohol or whatever the situation may be, it doesn’t really matter. 

It’s nice that there are so many brands out there that are going into this space and growing quickly.

I love how you said, “Wait a minute, why am I selling poison?” I see it advertised everywhere.

It’s so crazy, like something that I hadn’t really thought about until I had started reading a few quit-lit books. If you think about it, when you’re a kid and you possibly try a sip of alcohol with your parents, your initial reaction is that it’s disgusting. 

And it’s right and that’s because most [alcoholic] products objectively do not taste that good. And we kind of forced ourselves to develop the palate for it. And that’s what starts the whole domino effect.

When we drink alcohol, we learn to ignore our gut, especially about not liking the taste in the first place! We also miss out on what’s going on around us. 

Totally! Yesterday, I went to the Chargers/Dolphins football game with my brother, and he had a lot of things to get done last night. I was not going to be drinking, but he typically does drink, and I was like, “You need to just limit yourself to one or two since you have to drive home and do all these things.”

He said, “Yep, not a problem.” And then we were people watching and we were noticing all the people around us and he was really entertained just by the people watching. I was like, “This is fun, right?” It’s more fun than you would think.

You don’t have to go get hammered at a football game to have fun. It’s crazy how fun it can be just to observe everything that’s going on around you and be fully present enough to follow the game.

So there’s that, and then secondly, since I have stopped drinking, I will now be at social events and see friends of friends with whom we all used to have such a ball in our early 20s. And now, when I see them at social events and they are super drunk and I’m sober, we have literally nothing in common anymore.

Turns out they were just party buddies. And when you take alcohol out of the equation, there’s just nothing to talk about.

Feeling like losing your social life can be a huge barrier to quitting alcohol. Do you think brands like Dri/kit show there’s another way?

Yeah! As I get older, whether it relates to alcohol or not, I’m very comfortable with my social circle getting smaller. It takes effort to make time for people and you make time for things that are important to you. 

I’m very happy and content with having a smaller group of friends who support my life choices, and it doesn’t matter who’s drinking and who’s not.

Do you think it’s possible to be very successful in the alcohol industry and have a healthy relationship with it?

That’s a really good question. Probably not.

I guess it depends on how involved you are. I think when you are involved in the process of selling alcohol, it is just everywhere… in any and every meeting. Even on Zoom meetings, people are getting their products shipped to them and drinking them all together on camera. It’s just so prevalent. 

For me, I was a part of a team where we traveled around to our accounts all over the country. So we were going to multiple liquor stores and bars and restaurants per day, and at every single stop, you were being handed a cocktail. 

“Working in the alcohol industry, when we’d travel to events, it’d be a long day with alcohol present every step of the way. Depending on how you regulate it for yourself, you’re potentially drinking for like 14 hours a day.” 

So, I think it’s definitely up to the individual if they feel like they can maintain some sort of control over alcohol when working in that space. But I think it’s very difficult. I’ve also personally witnessed a lot of people who are in the C-suite of alcohol brands struggle with it. 

It’s such a slippery slope and I know they struggle with alcohol. How do you pick having a healthy lifestyle or your job? I think it’s so hard to do both.

A part of me suspects some of these alcohol execs must be completely sober, like a dealer who doesn’t get high off their own supply.

Yeah. I think if you do choose a healthy lifestyle, then you don’t touch your own product.

It’s all about living in alignment, right?

Yeah, right. It’s funny because I know that there’s one of the housewives on Bravo who’s Mormon, and she has an alcohol brand, but she doesn’t drink her own product. It’s crazy that she profits from it. 

There are way too many celebs who don’t drink, yet they sell alcohol anyway. 

I think that is disappointing in terms of a brand’s authenticity. I’m honestly pretty bummed that Betty Buzz just came out with alcoholic RTDs. It’s just another example of a celebrity brand profiting.

I don’t feel like the normal Betty Buzz products are particularly special, but I do love their branding, and I do love their packaging, and I think the little bottles are really fun. All of those things contribute to a fun, sober experience. 

So I feel like she was just someone to look up to, and now it’s a bummer that they’ve introduced alcohol products because, at that point, you’re just doing that to make money.

Obviously, having been in the alcohol industry at multiple companies with male CEOs, I know they know business. Yet for me as the brand designer, I’m almost trying to force some authenticity onto them. They need some sort of story, but they often only care about the bottom line.

“Brands need a heart and soul and an audience to connect with. If you’re only in it for the money, eventually, your customers will know.”

On the flip side of that, I love being in the NA space. Largely because there are so many female founders who are starting brands for the right reasons.

That’s a huge reason why we strive to source from woman-owned brands as much as we possibly can. There are women out there that are changing this space for the better and it’s so refreshing, especially after having witnessed firsthand how different it is in the alcohol industry.

Why do you think women are leading the charge for growing the non-alcoholic space?

I do think it seems as though there are more women in the NA space than men.

I partially think that women tend to be more comfortable owning what they stand for in their decisions and also just seem to—not that men don’t do this—be more introspective and care so much about self-improvement and being the best versions of themselves. 

I see that reflected in so many women’s decisions to be alcohol-free, even if it’s only partially. There are so many benefits to an alcohol-free lifestyle, and I just think women are catching onto it sooner than men are.

We were never expected to be heavy drinkers in the first place, so for us to reject it is not as big of a risk.

Yeah, it’s so new. It’s such a slippery slope because, especially with Instagram and social media in general, there’s this huge culture of “mom juice.” 

I’m seeing the hacks everywhere. For example, moms fill their Stanleys with wine and dangle a tea bag string out of it so it looks like they’re just drinking tea.

How bizarre it is to proudly make fun of things that people who are actually dependent on alcohol have done. It’s almost glorifying alcoholic behavior. 

Was there a moment before starting Dri/kit where you were like, “I can totally do this?”  

I’ve had several side hustles in my career, and Dri/kit was an idea that could have been just a side hustle for me. I knew that I wanted to start this business in the new year at some point and I was trying to figure out how to make it work.

My husband, who has always been extremely supportive of me, just sat me down and was like, “I think it’s so cool that you’re finally going to go all in and bet on yourself.” 

I hadn’t fully had the courage to really pull the trigger, but his support sparked the weird aha moment when it clicked. 

I realized that I had never gone all in on something that I really, really wanted to do that really made me happy. And so that was kind of like the final push that I needed.

Taking the leap into the world of NA beverages can be intimidating. How do you curate the products featured in your kits?

I started off wanting to build a luxury brand. One thing about competitor brands is that I don’t think they care as much about aesthetics and which brands they source from. So, initially, I viewed my unique selling points as using my strengths as a designer to curate products that look nice in your home. 

I’m all about an aesthetic bar cart since some of these things live in our homes and on our counters for a long time. And that’s my approach when I’m designing packaging. 

Not only did I want everything to look nice, but I want the bar tools to be as high quality as possible. I also want to be sourcing from brands that are owned by women, members of the LGBTQ community, and people of color. 

Then, once I have those products, I get into the mixology side. So it’s kind of it’s kind of just evolved from there.

I’ve learned that sometimes I need to compromise on my ideal aesthetic a little bit to have the best cocktail possible because it is extremely important for me to be creating super delicious cocktails. 

“There are so many NA products and brands that continue to pop up that I believe we can have the best of both worlds: a really delicious non-alcoholic cocktail that is also beautiful.”

I would love to eventually be in a place where I can have an in-house mixologist and continue to grow my own skills and get certified within the mixology space as well. But I really started from a place of form and function.

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I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Elizabeth and chatting about her adventure into the world of non-alcoholic beverages. Women like her inspire me.

I’m super proud that it’s women who are the driving force behind normalizing the decision to go alcohol-free. Together, we can make a difference for anyone who wants to either drink less, and let that be okay, or ditch alcohol for good.

Follow Dri/kit’s adventures on Instagram and check out Dri/kit to shop Elizabeth’s unique, non-alcoholic cocktail gift sets.