At a meeting a few weeks ago, the Esquire staff got to talking about non-alcoholic drinks. We’ve been known to enjoy a cocktail or two at our Thursday happy hours, so the subject was dubious. Why are they more popular than ever? And who’s actually going to all these new bars dedicated solely to non-alcoholic drinks? Then, our associate entertainment editor Eric Francisco chimed in about his recent habit: He’d been grabbing non-alcoholic beers from the office mini-fridge and cracking them throughout the day. He felt a little weird about doing so in an office setting, even though there’s zero alcohol in every sip. So he got to thinking: Is this okay? And if so, why? Find his answer in the article below.
—Chris Hatler, deputy editor
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Forget sparkling water or soda. My new favorite desk-side beverage makes my coworkers look twice.
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It was about 4 p.m. on a Tuesday or a Thursday. I can’t remember exactly when, only what I felt: drained. I hadn’t just hit the proverbial afternoon wall—I was slammed against it, pancaked by a car. If you drove in reverse, I would fold out like a paper accordion. Green tea and expensive smoothies didn’t feel up to snuff, and the thought of a third cup of mocha from the break room coffee machine sounded unappetizing.
Without giving it any real thought, I wandered to our office bar—a perk of working for a lifestyle magazine—and plundered the minifridge. I assumed I would find a chilled Diet Coke left behind from our many end-of-week happy hours. That’s when I saw it: a can of cold beer. Could I really drink a beer at work? I asked myself. It felt absurd. But then, my eyes fixed on what was printed on the side: “0.0% alcohol.”
Besides accommodating teetotalers, the proliferation of NA beer is the result of a generation prioritizing health and wellness. But I never thought about drinking it during work hours, let alone at the office. It seemed harmless on the surface. But something changes when you march past your bosses in the mid-afternoon with a Heineken in hand. Suddenly, I felt 13 again, absconding to my room with a nudie mag in my jacket. Little did I realize that what I was doing wasn’t all that out of the ordinary.
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You’ve booked your flight and finalized the hotel, but now you need to figure out what to pack—always easier said than done. That’s why you should just leave it to the pros. Here at Esquire, we’ve been traveling the globe and telling you what’s good for nearly a century. We know what travel hacks are worth following. We know what products will make your life easier, and we know exactly what leather bag, suitcase, or gear bag you should be lugging all that stuff in.
It’s a lot, but for the past 365 days our editors have dedicated their travel lives to figuring out what’s worth taking with you when space is at a premium. Behold, Esquire’s first-ever Travel Awards. A trip won’t reach its full potential unless you have at least a few of these 45 winners in your arsenal.
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Not to sound like a black-light-poster-and-bong enthusiast, but have you ever thought about the buttons on your button-down collar? Like, really thought about them? How about the top button on your sport coat that doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to be buttoned? And not to blow your mind or anything, but why do we cuff trousers, anyway?
Those are the questions I set out to answer after realizing, upon looking at a photo of a very stylish guy in a three-roll-two jacket, that I had no firm conception of how the sartorial quirk—in which the top button of a three-button jacket “rolls” under the lapel so it buttons like a two-button jacket—came to be.
When it comes to men’s style, details matter. With the notable exception of avant-garde fashion, most of the clothes we wear are rooted in history and informed by long-standing cultural codes. It’s fine—even encouraged—to subvert those codes. But to do it right, you have to understand where things came from. Plus, it’s good cocktail-party banter (if the cocktail party is populated by a bunch of other menswear enthusiasts).
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