Blake Lively may be best known for her role as Serena van der Woodsen on the CW drama Gossip Girl, but these days she's making a splash for another reason: her beverage business. Though the star has released a successful line of cocktail mixers under the name Betty Buzz, she's widely known to personally abstain from drinking any alcohol. In recent interviews, she's finally shared the reasoning behind her alcohol-free lifestyle, and why she sees her business venture as a natural extension of that choice. Read on to learn why Lively doesn't drink, and why she still loves being the "in-house mixologist" among her friends.
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Lively abstains from alcohol, but admits it can be "alienating."
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Michael KorsLively embraces her status as a teetotaler, but admits that not drinking can feel "alienating" at times. "I like being social. I like people coming together," the Gossip Girl star said to People in 2021. "I found that sometimes not drinking, the thing that was interesting was that it was a little alienating, because you don't feel—and maybe it's just in your own head—but you just don't really feel a part of it."
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The star says this is why she doesn't drink.
Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesLively isn't shy about her decision to abstain from alcohol, but only recently has she opened up about her reasoning. "I don't drink, because I don't like the effects of alcohol," she said in 2021. Speaking with USA Today, she explained that she's also put off by the taste of alcoholic beverages.
Perhaps for this reason, Lively has found ways to partake in the cocktail social scene without ever taking a single sip. She says she enjoys tinkering with various mocktail recipes, and describes herself as "somebody who really likes flavor."
Lively says she's an "amazing mixologist."
Cubankite/ShutterstockThough she has no personal desire to drink alcohol, Lively insists she still loves mixing cocktails for others. "I think I'm an amazing mixologist at this point. I am the in-house mixologist in my family," she shared with USA Today.
The appeal, she says, is all about the ritual. "I love to muddle berries and shake things up with ice and swirl vermouth around and spritz with a twist," she said, adding, "I love the idea of making a drink."
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Cocktails are the (second) family business.
Andrea Raffin/ShutterstockHollywood stardom is the family business in the Lively-Reynolds household, but the A-list couple also share a side hustle. Ryan Reynolds founded the liquor company Aviation Gin in 2006, and Lively says her husband is "genuinely obsessed" with his drink of choice, despite selling the company in 2020.
Lively now says she's "very proud" to have launched her own beverage business, Betty Buzz, in 2021. "It's been really cool and overwhelming to see people's responses to it," the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star told People. "It's been really neat to see all of the non-drinkers who have come out and said 'thank you.'"
She added while she expected to be an "outlier" in the liquor-adjacent industry as a non-drinker, the public’s response has been decidedly welcoming. "It's a mixer, but I'm the one person who doesn't drink, and I have a mixer. But it's been neat to see how many people have come out and embraced it."
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