Finding it an adequate substitute for the alcohol she used to consume during an evening of social drinking, local woman Candice Cooper told reporters Thursday that an $18 mocktail helped her satisfy the craving she still had to waste money. “It’s nice to have a drink that gives me that same experience of draining my bank account without having to get drunk,” said Cooper, 39, who sat at a bar in Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood sipping a 6-ounce nonalcoholic apéritif that consisted almost entirely of fruit juice but still allowed her to partake in the ritual of squandering, with tax and tip, well over $20 on a beverage.
