Category: Cover Stories

Mocktails and non-alcoholic spirits and wine offer grown-up flavors without the booze

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Until relatively recently, your non-alcoholic options when out on the town were fairly limited. You could order iced tea or soda, or maybe some fruit juice. According to bar owner Dan Haggerty, that situation has evolved over the past few years; there has been an upswing in customers looking for alcohol-free options.

“More and more people have started saying, ‘You know, I’m not really drinking tonight,’” he said. Haggerty is the co-owner of two bars in downtown Manchester, Industry East (28 Hanover St.) and its sister establishment Stashbox (866 Elm St.), as well as a soon-to-open dry bar called Without.

“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in people who are cutting down [their drinking] to once a week or whatever it might be, but more and more people have been asking for drinks without alcohol. Maybe they’re trying to be more healthy. I think there’s been a bit of a shape shift in just the societal view.”

Andrew Solis has a theory that, like so many things, attitudes toward drinking changed noticeably in the wake of the Covid epidemic. He said being isolated during lockdown gave many people an opportunity to change habits. Solis is the co-owner of Cut Above Zero-Proof Spirits, a line of alcohol-free spirits. He noticed a cultural shift during the pandemic.

“I’d say most people didn’t keep their habits pre-Covid during Covid,” Solis said. “They either went one way or the other. We saw a lot of consumers drink more alcohol.” At least at first. “But all of us were looking at ourselves in Zoom screens and our mirrors more often than we would before that. I think perception of our appearance and our health was shifted slightly because of that. And so I think we see that carrying over after Covid, [not drinking] has become a socially acceptable habit. It lost that stigma, I think, that existed always, which is if someone’s not drinking and they used to, there would be whispers: ‘Do they have a problem?’ ‘What’s going on?’ ‘Are they sick?’ Now it’s seen as a positive and a proactive choice.”

Brittany Gagnon is the owner of Blossom and Vine Creative in Goffstown and leads monthly workshops teaching home entertainers to make alcohol-free drinks.

“What I try to get across to people,” Gagnon said, “is that if you’re choosing not to drink, whether it be long-term or whether it be just for that one event, there are other options if you’re interested in something more than simply sparkling water and juice mixed together. There are nice options that you can put together and feel like you’re having something special because you are having something special and something that’s high-quality without feeling like your only choice is alcohol, if that’s not something that you want. I try to introduce people to some of the options so that they can try some and get an idea of what they might like, what they might want to look into more.”

Familiar cocktails with alcohol-free spirits

It wasn’t too long ago that finding non-alcoholic spirits was a challenge.

“I don’t want to say they weren’t even around,” said Joseph Mollica, Chairman of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, “but they weren’t on anyone’s radar 10 years ago.” He said the state liquor stores have been working with the hospitality industry in New Hampshire to serve non-drinking consumers better. “We’re kind of a tourist state,” he said. “People want to go out and celebrate with their friends whether they’re having an alcohol cocktail or a nonalcoholic cocktail. It’s keeping people in the restaurants. [Non-alcoholic beverages] have really come a long way and we’re pretty excited about it.”

New Hampshire’s liquor stores now carry a range of non-alcoholic products, Mollica said.

“Our top 20 stores have the full selection — Ritual is the name of one of the companies. They have a whiskey alternative. Cut Above is another company; they have a gin, a whiskey, and they have a blanco [tequila]. We probably have 100+ [items] out in the stores that are available to purchase the whole year round.”

Andrew Solis from Cut Above said his company makes zero-proof spirits with flexibility in mind.

“We know that the majority of people who consume adult non -alcoholic beverages may also consume alcoholic beverages,” he said. ”So Cut Above was designed to be a one-for-one replacement in their favorite cocktails. But it’s also designed to be used with traditional spirits. The example I like to give is I like to make a gin and tonic when I’m preparing dinner. Now I just use half of the gin that I always used, then sub in our gin for the other half, and now it’s 50 percent less ABV [Alcohol By Volume], 50 percent less alcohol content in that cocktail, and I don’t really, like I say, miss that other ounce. It’s a way to put the consumer in the driver’s seat when it comes to the amount of alcohol they’re consuming.”

Brittany Gagnon depends on zero-proof versions of familiar liquors that the people in her workshops are familiar with.

“So there are two non-alcoholic drinks that are my go-to when I’m entertaining,” Gagnon said. “One is the non-alcoholic margarita; that tends to be a crowd-pleaser. Most people enjoy margaritas. And so that one with a tequila alternative is always a good choice. Another one that some people like the strong taste and some don’t, but for those that like gin, I do a non-alcoholic gin and tonic and I use, there’s an organic brand called Olive Nation. They make a juniper extract. If you put one eighth of a teaspoon of juniper extract, lime, and a nice tonic water, it tastes exactly like a real gin and tonic. You don’t miss the real thing at all.”

Alcohol-free beer or wine

Emily Holbrook Jennings is a sales representative for Vinilandia New Hampshire (vinilandianh.com), a wine importer and distributor. Her theory is that the demand for non-alcoholic drinks isn’t as new as it seems.

“I think that the demand has probably been there,” she said, “but the products haven’t been there to support it.”

Jennings said alcohol-free wines have become more complex in recent years.

“[Consumers] want something that tastes, I say nice,” she said, “as in having like maybe some more bitter flavors — more like an Amaro base. People like vermouth and they like that kind of style, but they don’t want anything sticky sweet and they don’t want soda. I think sweetness isn’t generally in the adult palate. We work with a lot of producers that grow organic grapes and they take like the highest level of control of quality that they can so they’re producing a better-quality product. I think they’ve come a long way. [The producers of a] lot of the wines that we carry use reverse osmosis so the alcohol actually spins out, versus pasteurization, which before that sort of cooked the alcohol out so you can imagine that didn’t taste very good. Now these are all coming from true winemakers who have figured out how to do the de-alcoholization part.”

Another advantage of zero-proof wines, Jennings said, is that they allow drinkers to stretch out the time they spend drinking with friends.

“They allow people to enjoy session drinking [this is a term wine enthusiasts use to describe staggering their consumption of different types of wine]. They can have a fun sparkling wine or something like that and still feel festive but not be actually drinking, you know, prosecco or Champagne. The non-alcoholic wines allow them to celebrate all day without getting drunk, kind of like taking a break in between, so say you do have a Champagne or prosecco to start with, and then the next drink that you had would be a non-alcoholic sparkling drink. So you’re kind of balancing it out, taking a session of this and a session of that, kind of just slowing down your alcohol intake.”

Mocktails

“Mocktail” is a term that has become popular in recent years to describe a mixed drink specifically designed without alcohol. These have become especially available at high-end cocktail bars. Sarah Maillet, co-owner of 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester, said her staff takes a lot of time and effort to design mocktails for guests with sophisticated tastes.

“The biggest priority,” she said, “is that it doesn’t feel like a downgrade. Adult alcohol-free drinks need complexity, balance, appeal and intention. You have to think about bitterness, acidity, texture, aromatics — not just sweetness. We think about mouthfeel, presentation, glassware, garnish and how the drink fits into our overall menu. It ends up feeling just as deliberate and elevated as any other cocktail. Our job is to bring the same level of creativity and respect we give any other drink on the menu.”

Dan Haggerty from Industry East and Stashbox said he and his staff always have several mocktails on the menu and rotate them frequently.

“We like to switch them up,” he said. “Like we do with any menu item, if there’s one that’s a really big hit, we’ll keep it on [the menu]. But we do like to rotate them. That’s kind of the fun part [of designing] mocktails is you don’t have to come up with deciding whether or not this should be a vodka drink or a tequila drink. Whatever the flavor of the drink is that you came up with, that’s what it is. The pressure is off essentially, right? So it lends itself to being extremely seasonal and also you can kind of switch them up whenever you want really, right? People are looking, you know, specifically speaking to Stashbox and Industry, we are a bar that serves alcohol. So we don’t want to put a million choices on the menu. Again, having a smaller number available does also lend itself to switching them up more often, you know? And we keep a lot of those ingredients on hand anyway, so if there’s one that might not be on the menu at that time, we can probably still make it.”

Mocktail recipes

Tamarind Fizz

Inspired by a recipe from A Cut Above, drinkcutabove.com. Andrew Solis and Blanca Silva-Solis, the owners of Cut Above, describe this as “a perfect blend of sweet, tart, and botanical.”

1 ounce Cut Above Gin, Cut Above Mezcal, or a 50/50 blend
4 ounces tamarind soda
1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
Lightly cracked ice
Fresh mint for garnish

In a mixing glass, combine the zero-proof spirits, lime juice, tamarind soda, and cracked ice. Stir gently for 30 seconds to chill completely.

Strain over fresh cracked ice in a tall glass.

Bruise the fresh mint — you can roll it between your palms, slap it against your wrist, or crush it against your countertop with the heel of your hand. Garnish the drink with it. The aroma of fresh mint will boost and improve the flavor of your tamarind fizz.

Raspberry Dreams

From the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet’s New Hampshire Mocktail Month Guide, available online at liquorandwineoutlets.com/responsibility.

2 ounces homemade raspberry puree (see below)
1 ounce simple syrup
½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
4 ounces carbonated water

To make raspberry puree, thaw a bag of frozen raspberries. (Frozen berries will work as well as or possibly better than fresh ones. Because you are pureeing them, the sometimes sad texture of prefrozen berries will not be an issue.) Run the berries through a blender for a full minute, then strain the puree through a fine-mesh strainer; raspberries have a truly shocking amount of seeds.

In a mixing glass, add ice, raspberry puree, simple syrup, and lime juice, and stir to combine. Add the carbonated water, and stir very gently, so that everything is well mixed but the seltzer hasn’t lost its fizz.

Strain over fresh ice in a tall glass, and enjoy with a straw.

Cucumber Sparkle

A crowd-pleasing batch cocktail.

12 ounces (1.5 cups) fresh squeezed lime juice
8 ounces (1 cup) cucumber syrup (see below)
16 ounces (2 cups) tonic water
16 ounces (2 cups) seltzer
Garnish — 1 lime, thinly sliced

In a large container with at least a gallon capacity, whisk the lime juice and syrup together. Gently stir in the tonic water and seltzer. If you are serving this in a punch bowl, float a large decorative block of ice. I have a small Bundt pan that I like to fill and freeze for a ring of fancy ice.

Cucumber Syrup with maddeningly vague measurements

Wash a couple of cucumbers, and chop them into half-inch dice. Don’t worry about peeling them. Freeze the cucumber pieces until they are solid — a couple of hours or overnight.

Transfer the frozen cucumber pieces to a medium saucepan and add an equal amount (by weight) of white sugar. Cook over medium heat. This mixture will seem too dry until the cucumbers start to give up their juice. The freezing process will have pierced all the cell walls, and there will be a surprising amount of juice. Stir occasionally. At some point you might want to encourage the process along with a potato masher. Bring to a boil briefly, to make sure that all the sugar is completely dissolved.

Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool for half an hour. Strain with a fine-meshed strainer and bottle. This will keep for a month or so in your refrigerator. Aside from its use in drinks, this syrup is really good mixed into your morning yogurt.

Featured image: A Breakfast Nook. Photos on this page and page 9 are of drinks crafted by Sian Quinn, the creator of mocktails at 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester. The cocktails and mocktails can often be formulated to add or take out alcohol, depending on the drinker’s preference.

January can be awesome! Here are 27 reasons to get excited about the chilly first month of 2026.

1. Sure, the holiday season ends, but Girl Scouts cookie season begins Jan. 1, when local Girl Scouts will start taking orders (in person and via their own online stores), according to the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. If you don’t know a Girl Scout, look for a cookie booth — those will start Feb. 20 and run through mid March. Find a booth at girlscoutsgwm.org/en/cookies/find-cookies.html or text COOKIES to 59618 and you can get the Cookie Finder app, which “also offers troop links so customers can select a local troop to support,” according to an email from the group. And be on the lookout for this year’s new flavor, Exploremores: “This is a rocky road ice cream-inspired sandwich cookie filled with the flavors of chocolate, marshmallow and toasted almond crème,” the email said.

2. Ease into the new year with a short, afternoon-start-time road race. The Apple Therapy & Derry Sports and Rehab Millennium Mile, a 1-mile downhill race starting in front of Londonderry High School in Londonderry, will take place Thursday, Jan. 1, at 2 p.m., according to millenniumrunning.com. For a bit more of a challenge, check out the 3-mile HPM Insurance Snowflake Shuffle in Bedford on Sunday, Jan. 11, at 9:30 a.m., see millenniumrunning.com/snowflake.

The Freeze Your Buns 5K Series from the Gate City Striders returns for another season of runs in the whatever-winter-gives-us weather. The runs — “a great fun winter running series for runners of all abilities. Run on relatively flat, low-traffic roads, the series is beginner friendly. If you’re just starting out running for the new year, welcome! If you’re a seasoned runner, welcome back!” — step off at 9 a.m. on the road between Conway Area and the Nashua YMCA on Sundays starting with Jan. 4, according to gatecity.org/freeze-buns-5k-series. Register for the full series of five races or for individual races, which take place into March.

Other running opportunities this winter include the Hopkinton Winter 5K Series, which kicks off Sunday, Jan. 18, in Contoocook and features three races through the beginning of March. See fleetfeet.com/races/nh/contoocook/173314-hopkinton-5k-series-race-1-1-18-9-am.

3. Fathom Entertainment has some specialty screenings on its schedule, including Kidz Bop Live: The Concert Movie, which will screen Friday, Jan. 2, through Monday, Jan. 5, at 1 p.m. at O’Neil Cinemas in Londonderry and Epping and at 11 a.m. at Regal Fox Run in Newington (11:45 a.m. on Jan. 5). A 40th anniversary screening of Labyrinth (PG, 1986) will screen Thursday, Jan. 8, through Sunday, Jan. 11, at O’Neil Cinemas in Londonderry and Epping, Regal Fox Run in Newington and Cinemark Rockingham Park in Salem; see fathomentertainment.com for times. Fathom will also screen the three Lord of the Rings movies at Cinemark Rockingham Park in Salem and Regal Fox Run in Newington: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PG-13, 2001) will screen Fridays, Jan. 16 and Jan. 23; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PG-13, 2002) will screen Saturdays, Jan. 17 and Jan. 24, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PG-13, 2003) on Sundays, Jan. 18 and Jan. 25.

Also under the heading of specialty screenings, NHTI Friday Night at the Movies on Friday, Jan. 23, at 7 p.m. will feature Easy Living(1937) written by Preston Sturges and starring Jean Arthur, Ray Milland and Edward Arnold, according to a press release. The movie will be shown in Sweeney Hall Auditorium at NHTI in Concord and admission costs $10 cash or check at the door, the email said.

And Wilton Town Hall Theatre, Main Street in Wilton, 654-3456, will screen Annie Laurie (1927), a silent film starring Lillian Gish with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. Admission is free with a donation of $10 per person encouraged.

4. Shake off the post-holiday blues with Tupelo Night of Comedy at the Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St. in Derry, tupelomusichall.com, on Friday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m., featuring Will Noonan, Andrew DellaVolpe and Mona Forgione, according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. The line-up of January shows at the Tupelo includes the Pizzastock Showcase 2026 on Sunday, Jan. 4, at noon with host Lorelei Stahl and bands Rite of Passage, Punching Pedestrians and Spectrum; Beck-Ola (celebrating the music of Jeff Beck with Johnny A) on Friday, Jan. 9; The Dave Matthews Band Tribute (Saturday, Jan. 17); Beatlejuice on Saturday, Jan. 24, and more, according to the website, where you can find the complete schedule and ticket information.

5. The farmers markets have moved inside for the winter. The Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market takes place Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon, at 7 Eagle Square, according to downtownconcordwinterfarmersmarket.com, where you can find a rundown of vendors and links to information on musicians performing each week. The Milford NH Indoor Farmers Market takes place on specific Saturdays — including Jan. 10 and Jan. 24 — from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Milford Town Hall Auditorium on the Oval, according to milfordnhfarmersmarket.com. The Salem NH Farmers Market is at the Fisk School, 14 Main St. in Salem, during winter, Sundays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to salemnhfarmersmarket.org.

6. Area libraries have plenty of fun slated for January. The Griffin Free Library, 22 Hooksett Road in Auburn, griffinfree.org, will hold a White Elephant Gift Exchange on Saturday, Jan. 3, from 10 a.m to 2 p.m., according to the website.

The Manchester City Library, 405 Pine St., manchester.lib.nh.us, will hold Reading Dragons & Friends, “a collectable card game that you add to by reading” for ages 5 to 18, from Monday, Jan. 5, through April 4, according to the website. Register at the Children’s Reference Desk or go to manchesternh.readsquared.com. On Saturday, Jan. 10, at noon, the library will host “The Dangerous Art of Chainsaw Sculpture” with Master Chainsaw Sculptor Dr. “The Machine” Jesse Green, according to the website.

The Hooksett Library, 31 Mount Saint Mary’s Way, hooksettlibrary.org, will hold its monthly Kids Comic Club on Monday, Jan. 5, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. (register online); several virtual author discussions, and a program called “Emergency Preparedness with Hooksett Fire and Troop 603” on Thursday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. (register online).

The Amherst Town Library, 14 Main St., has a month full of events including the Zoom event in collaboration with other libraries “Presidential Series with Doodler Heather Rodgers: #1 George Washington ‘Devourer of Villages” on Friday, Jan. 9, at 10:30 a.m.; register online, according to amherstlibrary.org.

The Friends of the Derry Libraries Book Sale will take place Saturday, Jan. 10, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Derry Public Library, 64 E. Broadway, derrypl.org. The Library will hold a puzzle swap on Saturday, Jan. 24, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

The Bedford Public Library, 3 Meetinghouse Road, bedfordnhlibrary.org, will hold its 2026 Winter Reading Challenge Kickoff on Sunday, Jan. 11, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. with hot cocoa, crafts and other activities, according to the website, where you can register.

Goffstown Public Library, 2 High St., goffstownlibrary.com, will celebrate National Popcorn Day on Saturday, Jan. 17, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Children’s Room, according to the website.

Among its other offerings in January, the Nashua Public Library, 2 Court St., nashualibrary.org, will host an author talk with Laura Knoy for her book The Shopkeeper of Alsace (which will be available for purchase) on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 1 p.m.

7. Get more laughs at one of several other comedy shows slated for January. Chunky’s Cinema Pub, 707 Huse Road in Manchester, chunkys.com, will feature Joey Carroll Saturday, Jan. 3, at 8:30 p.m., and Carolyn Plummer on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 8:30 p.m. On the schedule at Headliners Comedy Club at DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Manchester are Dan Crohn on Saturday, Jan. 10; Tim McKeever on Saturday, Jan. 17, and Cory McGee on Saturday, Jan. 31, according to headlinersnh.com. Headliners’ lineup also includes Frank Santorelli and Friends at Eastside Tavern in Rochester on Friday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. At Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis, catch Don Gavin on Saturday, Jan. 3, according to fulchinovineyard.com.

8. Get your basketball live and in person at local colleges. The Southern New Hampshire University Penmen women’s team next plays at Stan Spirou Field House on Sunday, Jan. 4, at 1:30 p.m. versus American International College — the first of five home games slated for January. The men’s team will face off against American International College at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday — the first of its five January home games. See snhupenmen.com. The Saint Anselm College Hawks men’s and women’s teams each have six home games scheduled for January. The women play at Stoutenburgh Gymnasium in Manchester on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 5:30 p.m. against Pace. The men’s team also plays on Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m., facing Bentley. See saintanselmhawks.com. (The Hawks and Penmen next face off on Jan. 13 at SNHU — women’s game starts at 5:30 p.m. and men’s game starts at 7:30 p.m.) Rivier University Raiders games take place at Muldoon Center in Nashua. The men’s team plays their next home game on Saturday, Jan. 3, at 1 p.m. (youth sports day, according to the school website) against Anna Maria College; the women’s team plays Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 4 p.m. versus Mitchell College. See rivierathletics.com. At NHTI, all Lynx home games are at the Dr. Goldie Crocker Wellness Center on campus in Concord. The men’s and women’s teams will play their next home games on Thursday, Jan. 22, versus Central Maine Community College, according to nhtiathletics.com.

9. Get some motivation to get outside. Beaver Brook Association, 117 Ridge Road in Hollis, beaverbrook.org, has winter hike series starting in the first full week of January including Monday Fitness Hikes (starting Jan. 5) at 9 a.m.; Easy Fitness Walks on Mondays at 10 a.m.; Fast Fitness Hikes on Tuesdays (starting Jan. 6) at 8:30 a.m.; Lunchtime Express Hikes on Thursdays (starting Jan. 8) at noon; Fitness Hikes Fridays (starting Jan. 9) at 9 a.m. and Easy Fitness Walks Friday at 10 a.m., according to the website.

Keep your eyes on the Joppa Hill Educational Farm website; the Bedford location is planning a Star Gazing Party in January. See jhef.org/events-at-the-farm.

Learn to ski locally — the McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way in Manchester, mcintyreskiarea.com, has programs to help kids and adults learn to ski and improve their skills, including a five-week Women of Winter program projected to start Monday, Jan. 5, at 10 a.m., and evening adult classes on Mondays and Tuesdays. See the website for pricing and signup information.

The New Hampshire Audubon has trails at its Auburn and Concord centers and at the Wildlife Sanctuaries; see nhaudubon.org for maps and trail information. And enjoy an artistic perspective on the outdoors with the exhibit “Outings” featuring the landscape works of Nick Amadeo, opening Friday, Jan. 9, with a reception at 6 p.m. at the Massabesic Audubon Center, 26 Audubon Way in Auburn, according to nhaudubon.org. The exhibit will be on display through Saturday, Feb. 28. On display through Saturday, Feb. 7, at the McLane Center, 84 Silk Road Farm in Concord, is “Enchanted Owls,” an exhibit of fiber art, the website said. Both centers are open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

10. Embrace the ice with Disney on Ice presents Frozen & Encantoon Thursday, Jan. 8, and Friday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 10, at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St. in Manchester, according to snhuarena.com, where you can find tickets. If the show inspires you to get out on the ice yourself, check out some local ice skating rinks. The JFK Coliseum, 303 Beech St. in Manchester, manchesternh.gov, has several public skating days each week (see the calendar on the city’s website for hours each day) $5 per person, cash only, with skate rentals, skate assist trainers and skate sharpening on weekends, school vacations and holidays, the website said. Nashua has outdoor rinks at Roby Park, Labin Park and Four Corners, open weather permitting; see nashuanh.gov for hours. Conway Arena, 5 Stadium Drive in Nashua, offers public skating and skate rentals; see conwayarena.com for the schedule. Douglas N. Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Road in Concord, concordnh.gov, offers public skate through March 12 on Sundays, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; Mondays through Fridays, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with rentals, skate assist trainers and skate sharpening available, the website said. White Park Pond in Concord offers outdoor skating, weather permitting.

11. Actorsingers Second Stage, actorsingers.org, will present Stephen Sondheim’s Company on Friday, Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 10, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 11, at 2 p.m. at the Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St. in Nashua. See nashuacenterforthearts.com for tickets. Other shows at Nashua Center for the Arts in January include La Sanse Nashua, a celebration based on the Puerto Rican Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián (Saturday, Jan. 17); the ballet Giselle presented by the Grand Kyiv Ballet (Thursday, Jan. 22), and music including Pink Talking Fish, a Pink Floyd/Talking Head/Phish tribute band (Saturday, Jan. 24).

12. The Aaron Tolson Dance Institute’s Winter Intensive will take place Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Dana Center for the Humanities at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, according to tickets.anselm.edu, where you can find the schedule of intermediate and advanced classes. Also at the Dana Center this month is “Bedford Rotary Presents: Regional Idol Scholarship Competition” (Saturday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m.) and 1964 The Tribute on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m., according to the website.

13. Head to the Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St. in Manchester, currier.org, on Saturday, Jan. 10, for the monthly free admission for New Hampshire residents on the second Saturdays of each month. THe museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Current exhibitsinclude “Joined Together: 30 Years of the Furniture Masters” (through Feb. 8); “Embellish Me: Works from the Collection of Norma Canelas Roth and William Roth” (through March 15); “Flourishing: Paintings by Wendy Edwards” (through April 5; There will be an Art Talk with Wendy Edwards on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m.), and Frank Lloyd Wright in Manchester: The Histories of the Zimmermans and Kalils” through June 2026). On Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, Jan. 19), the Currier will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and feature curator-led tours of Black American artists in the Currier collection, artmaking for all ages and “a keynote presentation with Jada Hebra, Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Southern New Hampshire University,” according to an email from the museum.

14. Book events abound in January. At Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St. in Concord, gibsonsbookstore.com, catch Sally Cragin with Llewellyn’s 2026 Moon Sign Book: Plan Your Life by the Cycles of the Moon on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 6:30 p.m.; Gary Fitzgerald with Capitalism Converts Christianity on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 6:30 p.m.; the Poetry Society of New Hampshire with poet David Banach on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 4:30 p.m.; Kelly Scarborough with her book Butterfly Games in conversation with Laura Knoy on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 6:30 p.m., and Kristi DeMeester with her book Dark Sisters on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 6:30 p.m. At Balin Books, 375 Amherst St. in Somerset Plaza in Nashua, balinbooks.com, see Rev. Steve Edington with his new book, The Gospel According to Jack: Tracking Kerouac in My Life on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 2 p.m.; Lloyd Corricelli discussing the Ronan Marino Mystery series on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 2 p.m., and Nicholas Efstathiou and his book Killers in Their Youthon Saturday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. At Bookery, 844 Elm St. in Manchester, bookerymht.com, catch Sharon Kurtzman with The Lost Baker of Vienna on Friday, Jan. 9, at 12:30 p.m.

15. Vote for pizza, vote for ice cream, vote for the best southern New Hampshire hike. Voting on Hippo’s Best of 2026 opens Thursday, Jan. 15. Find a link to our annual survey at hippopress.com.

16. The Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St. in Manchester, palacetheatre.org, presents the jukebox musical Rock of Agesas its next big production, running Friday, Jan. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 8 — this after Recycled Percussion wraps up a series of shows that started Dec. 31 and runs through Jan. 11. Shows at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St. in Manchester, include comedy from Jimmy Cash (Saturday, Jan. 10), Joe Fenti (Friday, Jan. 16) and the Ladies of Laughter Comedy tour with Cathy Boyd, G.L. Douglas and Ellen Karis (Friday, Jan. 23), and The Granite Stage on Thursday, Jan. 29, described as a “community talent showcase,” according to the website.

17. Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St. in Manchester, will present A Tribute to Maynard James Keenan (playing the music of Tool, A Perfect Circle and more) and the local band The Dirty Taps on Friday, Jan. 16, at 8:30 p.m. according to a post on the venue’s Facebook page, where you can find a link to purchase tickets. Other shows at Jewel in January include The Magic Mike Show Live with Absolute Men on Friday, Jan. 23, at 8:30 p.m.; Gene Loves Jezebel, Black Season Witch, Gossip Collar and Silver Rein on Friday, Jan. 30, and Ritual Arcana on Jan. 30, the Facebook page said.

18. Saturday, Jan. 17, is the winter Free Fishing Day in New Hampshire, which means “[s]tate residents and nonresidents alike can fish any inland water — or saltwater — in New Hampshire that day without a fishing license,” according to wildlife.nh.gov. “Note that season dates, bag limits and all other fishing regulations must be followed on Free Fishing Day,” the website said.

19. The New Hampshire Historical Society, 30 Park St. in Concord, nhhistory.org, will host a curator’s tour, with director of education Elizabeth Durbulle, of the exhibition “If You Had to Choose: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New Hampshire” on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 2 p.m. Admission to the museum costs $10 for ages 18 and over (under 18 get in free) and the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the website. Other museum events this month include a lecture and book-signing with Mel Allen and his book Here in New England: Unforgettable People, Places and Memories That Connect Us All on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m.; a screening and discussion at Red River Theatres in Concord on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 10 a.m. of “Spirit of Service,” an excerpt from the The American Revolution documentary followed by a discussion (tickets are $5; see redrivertheatres.org) and Family Fun Day on Saturday, Jan. 31, from 2 to 4 p.m., with activities geared to ages 6 to 10, according to the website.

20. RB Professional presents Grease on stage at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St. in Concord, ccanh.com, on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. Other shows at the Chubb Theatre this month include Mania! The ABBA Tribute (Thursday, Jan. 8) and Drum Tao! (Thursday, Jan. 22). At BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St. in Concord, shows include NightOUT with the Free Range Revue presents Get A Clue, “an interactive Clue-themed Cabaret” according to the website (Friday, Jan. 9), a sing-along screening of 2021’s Encanto(Sunday, Jan. 11), and Locally Sourced — Fox & Flamingos with Phoenix Syndicate (Friday, Jan. 23).

21. Get some Tuesday night comedy at “Wrong Hill to Die On” on Tuesday, Jan. 20, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Shaskeen in Manchester. Tickets cost $7.18 and are available at eventbrite.com by searching “Wrong Hill to Die On.” According to the event description there: “Comics defend the worst opinions ever in a chaotic live debate show where logic dies and laughter thrives. The Wrong Hill to Die On is a live comedy show where comedians go head-to-head defending the worst opinions imaginable. From ‘traffic lights are government mind control’ to ‘cats should be allowed to vote,’ each performer must argue their absurd stance with total conviction while hosts and the audience roast, challenge, and cheer them on.” Hosts are Nick Sands and Alex LaChance; contestants are Matt Barry, Mona Forgione, Zach Remi and Tristen Hoffler; special guest host is Ken Murphy and opening comic is Derek Zeiba, according to an event promo card.

22. The New England Winter Wine Spectacular takes place Thursday, Jan. 22, at 6 p.m. for general admission ticket holders and 5 p.m. for those with tickets that allow for early entry at the Doubletree by Hilton Downtown Manchester, 700 Elm St. in Manchester, according to nhwineweek.com, where you can purchase tickets for this event and find out about other New Hampshire Wine Week happenings. As in past years, this year’s Spectacular is preceded by a tasting with more wine education — this year it’s called the “Sommelier Select: An Intimate Evening of Discovery,” a blind tasting guided by sommeliers, and it takes place Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Grappone Center in Concord.

23. The Majestic Theatre will present Seussical Jr. on Friday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Derry Opera House, 29 W. Broadway, according to majestictheatre.net, where you can purchase tickets. Majestic also has a benefit Bingo Night on the schedule at the studio theater, 888 Page St. in Manchester, on Thursday, Jan. 8, at 6:30 p.m. and the revue Disco Inferno: The ’70s! on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. (see website for tickets to both events).

24. Only about a month after her birthday (Dec. 16, 1775), celebrate Jane Austen with the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman and directed by Ang Lee, screening on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 10 a.m. at Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St. in Concord, redrivertheatres.org.

25. The Concord NH Winterfest will take place in downtown Concord Saturday, Jan. 24, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with activities including a screening of the movie Balto (G, 1995) at Red River Theatres at 10:30 a.m., an ice carving competition and food trucks on the Statehouse Lawn, according intownconcord.org.

Alongside that event, the Concord Garden Club will take part in its 23rd annual “Art and Bloom” show in collaboration with the Women’s Caucus for Art, New Hampshire Chapter, and Kimball Jenkins Estate, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, where the show will be on display Thursday, Jan. 22, through Saturday, Jan. 24, according to a press release. “Club members and local floral professionals will create floral arrangements inspired by works of art and craft on display during Kimball Jenkins’ January art exhibition,” the release said. “Art and Bloom exhibit hours are Thursday, Jan. 22, 2 to 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, Jan. 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, Jan. 22, 5 to 7 p.m., and will have light snacks and drinks. … A donation of $10 to support the Kimball Jenkins Estate is suggested.”

And the Black Ice Pond Hockey Tournament is slated for Friday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 25, at White Park in Concord (with a make-up weekend in March at the Tri-Town Ice Arena), according to blackicepondhockey.com, where you will be able to find a schedule of events.

26. There is lots of art to enjoy. Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, in Manchester, mosaicartcollective.com, will open its show “Peaceful Rebellion” on Wednesday, Jan. 28, according to the December newsletter. The show will feature “works that celebrate the act of art making and the awareness and solace it provides us,” the newsletter said. An open call for works to be part of the exhibit has a deadline of Jan. 14; see the website for submission details. An opening reception for the show will take place on Saturday, Feb. 14, 4 to 8 p.m.

The Glimpse Gallery, 4 Park St. in Concord, theglimpsegallery.com, will continue its current show through Friday, Jan. 9, featuring the works of Peter Anderson, Alex Rybak, Julie Daniels, Laurie Weston, Erica Bodwell, Corey Garland and Kristin Selesnick.

“Shifting Light” is on display at Art 3 Gallery, 44 W. Brook St. in Manchester, art3gallery.com. “With the end of daylight savings, reduced daylight hours, and the angle of the sun, there is a literal shifting of light and shadows and this changes how we perceive our familiar yet transformed environment. Figuratively, the shifting of light can act as a beacon and pinpoint changes in how we look at the greater world around us, new angles or narratives that direct personal, social, or political change,” according to an email from the gallery, which is open Monday through Friday, 12:30 to 4 p.m.

“A Symphony of Light and Shadow: The Landscape Photography of Jeff Dachowski” is on long-term display at LaBelle Winery in Derry, 14 Route 111, according to a LaBelle press release. “This breathtaking collection showcases Dachowski’s masterful black and white landscapes,” the release said. See DachowskiPhotography.com for more about Jeff Dachowski and his work. The gallery is open Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; see labellewinery.com.

27. The Epping Middle High School Drama Club will present the radio play The War of the Worlds at the Epping Community Theater, 38 Ladd’s Lane in Epping, eppingtheater.org, on Friday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 31, at 2 p.m., according to the website, where you can purchase tickets. Other shows at the theater this month include Silk Purse, a Linda Ronstadt tribute, on Saturday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m.

How to add holiday sparkle to your cookies

You got inspired by a cookie recipe you saw online, but you thought it would taste even better without the coconut. And maybe with butterscotch. And Sheila at your book group is gluten-free. So you adapted the recipe and baked it three times before you dialed in the ingredients and baking time. You’ve made so many of these cookies that your family is ready to ask for a salad. But you finally nailed it. Your cookies taste great.

But they look like they were made by a blindfolded orangutan.

How do some people make their cookies look like works of art?

According to Kelli Wright, the secret is royal icing. Wright designs and produces custom cookies for customers, and teaches classes and workshops in cookie decorating through her business, Just Wright by Kelli (494-8472, justwrightbykelli.com). She said that unlike buttercream frosting, which tastes great but doesn’t lend itself to fine details, royal icing gives a baker more control.

“Buttercream is made from butter and sugar,” Wright said. “Royal icing is an icing. It hardens and there’s no butter in it. You can do more without it melting, so you have more capability with royal icing than you do with, say, decorating buttercream on your cookie. I think you have far more capability to create details and have them remain longer. It’s also more shelf-stable than a buttercream. When you make it correctly, the taste is just as good. It’s just a harder texture on the outside.” If you’ve watched cookie-decorating competitions on television, it is likely that the competitors used royal icing. When a contestant uses buttercream, they usually go out of their way to make a big deal about it.

Cookie Hack: Freeze the dough
The cookie dough for all three of these recipes can be saved in the refrigerator for a week or so, or for much longer in the freezer, so you don’t have to use all of it at one time. You can also make and freeze logs of cookie dough to have on hand in case of a cookie emergency.

One of the techniques that experienced cookie decorators use is something called “flooding.” They will pipe an outline on a cookie with a slightly stiff icing, then pipe looser icing inside that outline, which spreads out, or “floods” the space. When it dries, the icing provides a smooth, glossy surface that looks good on its own or provides a base to pipe more details on top of.

“It’s basically coloring in,” Wright said. “Flooding is basically coloring and filling in whatever section it is that you are doing. There are multiple consistencies in royal icing. It’s basically a really thick one when you’re doing detailed work. But there’s multiple consistencies that you use for different effects. I like to use a medium consistency, which is a little bit thicker, but I can flood with it in smaller sections. And then I use a looser consistency. to fill in, or flood. Other bakers might use a thicker consistency for both.”

Wright said different consistencies of royal icing allow a decorator to add fine details to a design. “There are multiple techniques to do any design,” she said. “One way is to outline flood and then do your details on top of that. But there is a technique called wet-on-wet where you’re using a loose consistency the entire time and the design is actually falling into your flood icing and you’re creating it all in one layer at one time.”

In Wright’s classes and workshops she has seen a spectrum of attitudes toward decorating.

“On one hand,” she said, “you just have a mix of people who just want to have fun and learn the basics, and then you have people who really want to learn. They are intent on getting the technique down right away and really intent on learning everything they absolutely can in every single class. And it can be hard in the beginning. It’s a lot harder than what you see on TV. I mean, I try to make it easier because I’ve gone through the … tribulations. I’ve learned on my own. Some people just have a natural ability to do it, and I think that’s amazing. But it took me some time to get the hang of it and adjust the consistencies to make it work for me and my style. There was a steep learning curve, but I was able to learn it on my own.”

“The best part about cookie decorating or cake decorating … and custom work like I do,” she said, “is the free form of it all. Letting it be art and realizing art, nature, everything is not about perfection.”

Royal Icing
4 2/3 cups (530 g) powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Mix these ingredients together, gently and slowly at first, until they come together as a thick, pipable liquid. Add more milk, a spoonful at a time, as needed, to thin it out.
Split the icing up into separate bowls depending on how many colors you will need to decorate your cookies. Stir in food coloring a few drops at a time to color each bowlful. Kelli Wright and Kate Soleau both prefer gel food coloring.
Use a piping bag or a plastic sandwich bag with the very tiniest tip of a corner cut off to pipe lines on your cookies. You can pipe or spoon more icing to “flood” it.

Wright likes to use all-natural gel-based food coloring.

“I don’t use a water-based [color] because it can alter my consistency. And then I have to remix and change my consistency. There are powdered colors out there, too. Prism, I think, is the company, or now it’s SugarArt, has beautiful powdered colors and a natural color base that people use. But there’s a whole other learning curve to go through … using the natural products because they don’t work the same as our current gel food coloring. They work very differently.”

Because Wright makes some very specific custom designs of cookies, she rarely buys cookie cutters “off the shelf” anymore.

“Etsy is kind of the place to go. I buy the STL files [from artists] on there and print them myself on my 3D printer. If you don’t have access to a 3D printer, your library might be able to print them for free, so if you find something that you really like you can always get the file and see if your local library will print it out for you.”

Kate Soleau is another custom baker, decorator and instructor. Her business is Posy Cottage Cookies (801-7590, posycottagecookies.com). She is in the process of developing online instructional content to teach elements of cookie decorating. She is a big fan of royal icing but takes a slightly different approach to adding details.

“I like to use stencils,” Soleau said. “I’ll flood the background [of a cookie], let it dry, and then come back the next day with a stencil and scrape thicker royal icing over it. When I remove it, it looks like a very cool textured look on the cookies, but it is still just using the royal icing. I’d say 90 percent of my additives on decorating are royal icing but used in different ways. So for instance I make a lot of floral transfers where I take really thick royal icing and pipe it with a piping bag with little metal tips, make flowers, and then let them dry. Later I can come back and actually pick them up and use them as homemade sprinkles or transfers to put onto cookies to enhance the look.” Soleau also uses a 3D printer to make custom stencils.

For the highly detailed work Soleau does, she rarely uses candies or sprinkles.

“But there’s a gold dust,” she said, “where you mix a powder that’s gold or silver with a little bit of vodka or Everclear [an extremely high-proof grain spirit] and then you paint it on.” She explained that the high-proof alcohol evaporates quickly and doesn’t change the flavor of the cookie.“ I do a lot of painting techniques on my cookies and I’ll use edible gold but also just use food-grade gels and do the same thing — mix them with water or Everclear, then paint the cookies. I generally use transfers and use what I have to create the decor.”

Soleau said many of the techniques she uses to decorate cookies have unexpected quirks that she only learned about with experience.

White Cutout Sugar Cookies
2 1/2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup (198 g) sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract – Yes, you could use vanilla. It’s kind of boring a classic. But the almond gives this cookie a slightly fruity background flavor.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set it aside. Its time will come.
In your stand mixer —
A quick aside: If you like to bake, or think you might like to if it were less of a hassle, it would be worth your time and money to invest in a good stand mixer. Yes, the really good ones (cough, cough, KitchenAid) can be pricey, but you can buy a reconditioned one from most manufacturers for about 30 percent less than a new one. There’s a lady at one of the flea markets I go to who has a couple of tables full of kitchen appliances. With some hard haggling and a gift doughnut, you might get a stand mixer for $100 or so. Alternatively, you can go the conventional route and get married. A good stand mixer will last longer than most marriages.
— anyway, in your stand mixer, beat the butter until it has softened slightly, then add the sugar, and beat until it is creamy, about three minutes. This is, appropriately enough, known as “creaming” the butter. Beat in the egg and almond extract.
Turn the mixer to its lowest setting, and spoon the flour mixture in, a little at a time. This is to prevent a comical poofing of flour into your face. Mix everything very briefly, just until it all comes together.
Split the dough into two lumps and wrap each with plastic wrap. Chill the dough in your refrigerator for an hour or two.
When the time comes to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Flour your counter, then unwrap one of the doughballs and flatten it with the heel of your hand. You will want to flip it a couple of times and swish it around in the flour, to keep it from sticking. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to about ¼ inch thick.
If you have a large offset spatula — the kind fancy people use to frost cakes — swipe under your rolled-out cookie dough to make sure it hasn’t bonded to your counter.
Use whimsical cookie cutters to cut shapes from your sheet of dough. Transfer the cutout cookies to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, or a silicone baking sheet. These particular cookies won’t spread too much as they bake, so you won’t need to space them out too much.
Bake each batch of cookies for 10 minutes, and let them cool on the baking sheet.

“For instance,” she said, “I’ve been dabbling in natural food-grade gels. It’s kind of like a whole science project because the pH and everything actually changes the color. So if you try to make black, sometimes it’ll come out a little purple and you add a little baking soda and it’ll change the color. So the natural gels have been challenging, but I’d really like to work more with natural colors in the future.”

Where sprinkles, miniature candies and dragees (colored sugar balls) come into their own is in decorating with children. Kristen Chinosi is the owner and chief instructor at The Culinary Playground in Derry (339-1664, culinary-playground.com), where she teaches cooking and food techniques to adults, children and mixed groups. She said that for very young children a good strategy is for an adult to bake cookies ahead of time, frost them with buttercream, and provide the kids with decorations they can press into the frosting.

“For the younger kids, you definitely want to go with just a buttercream as a base and use it as sort of a glue to hold on whatever other candies, sprinkles you’re supplying for the decorating,” she said. It’s a good idea to take a child’s age and ability into account to keep them — not to mention their parents — from getting frustrated.

“Probably not younger than 8 — more like 10 — is a really good age to start with royal icing,” Chinosi said, “because those need to be bagged. You need quite a steady hand; it’s pretty detailed work. I mean, younger kids can try it, but the frustration level can get high. If you’re doing soup-to-nuts with your Christmas cookies — meaning if you’re making your own sugar cookies, rolling it out, cutting them and frosting it — plan to make it a two-day event, because the kids will lose interest and you will be by yourself decorating cookies. So on one day you could have them help make up the dough, maybe later that day you roll it out, cut the cookies, set them aside. The next day, make up your frosting, or if you’re using a canned frosting that’s fine too. They’re littles, right? And then have like a decorating party. And what we like to do is use muffin tins and we’ll line them with like the paper liners and put different types of candies or sprinkles so the children have kind of like a whole little array.”

Old-fashioned gingerbread cutout cookies
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper – after you’ve made this recipe once or twice, you might want to use more black pepper, or even, if you’re feeling adventurous, ground Szechuan pepper.
5 cups (600 g) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda – If you were wondering why this recipe uses baking soda instead of baking powder (and let’s face it; you probably weren’t), it’s because the molasses is slightly acidic, so the slightly alkaline baking soda will work better in this particular application.
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup (198 g) brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup (340 g) molasses

See if this seems familiar:
Whisk the spices, flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl and set it aside.
Cream the butter and brown sugar together, then beat in the egg and molasses.
Add the flour mixture, a couple of spoonfuls at a time, and mix everything until the dough just barely comes together. Divide the dough, wrap it, and chill it.
Roll the dough out, and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, then bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, and let them cool on the baking sheet.
If you own an old-fashioned, wooden cookie mold, this dough works extremely well using that. Just remember to brush the inside of the mold with vegetable oil before you start, and with flour Every Single Time thereafter.
These are, as promised by their name, classic, old-fashioned gingerbread cookies, spicy and not too sweet, perfect for decorating in full color or with traditional minimalist white icing.

Liven up your indoor space with easygoing plants

The first thing you should know about houseplants is that it probably isn’t your fault when they don’t thrive. According to Alyssa McClary, co-owner of Penumbra Plant and Gift Shops, which has shops in Concord and Goffstown, it’s not so much a matter of keeping plants alive as it is a matter of choosing the right plant to begin with. Most of us tackle houseplants backward, she said. We see a plant that looks interesting to us, then take it home and try to keep it alive, instead of picking a plant based on the conditions it will be living in.

“There’s so many people who just assume that they have a black thumb,” McClary said. “And it’s because someone said to them, ‘Oh, here’s X plant. It’s so easy!’ And then it isn’t.”

McClary used spider plants as an example.

“Some people will tell you that spider plants are the easiest plants alive,” she said. “I murder them. They hate my guts. No matter what I do, they always die. And I’m like, no, if you ask me if a spider plant is easy, I would tell you it’s the worst plant.” In point of fact, though, the conditions in her house just don’t suit spider plants.

“The three things that I always ask people when they come in are, what’s the light like where you’re going to put it? How much attention do you want to pay to it? Like, you know, do you need to be getting in there every day? Do you want to set it and forget it? And then do you have pets or anything that’s going to chew on it? My one fear is that I’m going to accidentally have someone gift a plant to someone who ends up killing their cat. If we find out anything is toxic, we usually don’t carry it anymore because it just stresses me out too much.”

Plant stores in this story
Convalis Plant Service (978-873-6015, liveconvalis.com) is like a concierge service for houseplants. In addition to holding plant workshops and designing living and working spaces around plants, Melanie Rose will treat plants in clients’ homes, repotting, pruning and providing general care for them.
The House By the Side of the Road (70 Gibbons Highway, Wilton, 654-9888, housebyshop.com) sells a huge variety of indoor and outdoor plants in a giant series of greenhouses. It stocks many, many types of pots, and probably has the largest choice of houseplants in the area. (There is also a pond with a fountain, koi fish and very pampered turtles.)
Lushes Leaves by Lulu (55 Lake St, 3-3A, Nashua, 300-8533, lushesleavesbylulu.com) specializes in indoor houseplants of all kinds and plant accessories, as well as consultation to choose the best plants for a given space, and workshops to take care of them.
Penumbra Plants and Gifts (10 N. State St., Concord, 731-9469; 24c Main St., Goffstown; penumbra.shop) has two locations. In addition to selling plants and plant accessories, the shops hold houseplant-themed workshops and will even pot your new plant for you.
The Terracotta Room (1361 Elm St., Manchester, 518-8779, theterracottaroom.com) sells plants, pots and plant accessories as well as providing new-age plant match-making services.

Finding the right plant

Melanie Rose runs Convalis Plant Service and provides a host of houseplant-related services, including consulting with business owners and homeowners to help them choose plants that will thrive in particular spaces. She said that when you’re choosing a new plant you have to look at things from the plant’s perspective: “You have to know what each plant needs as far as sun and water. It’s just really easy to just assume from what we’ve been told, to water our plants once a week. Everyone kind of gets attached to that idea. And that’s just so outdated and so not true, because every plant is different and every spot in your home is different. Nothing’s cookie cutter.”

Alyssa McClary agrees. “So often, people think that they need to have incredibly high, beating-down sun for plants,” McClary said. “But honestly, we specialize in indoor plants and so all of our stuff is mostly tropical and it’s used to being in a rainforest under a canopy of trees and never getting direct sun on it.”

For Nicole Rocha, co-owner of The Terracotta Room in downtown Manchester, there’s also an intuitive aspect to choosing and living with a plant.

“What I’ve noticed over time,” Rocha said, “is that a plant will actually choose you, if you give it a chance. So a lot of times most people have sort of scanned our plant area a little bit before they ask that question. And then I’ll usually ask them, well, was there one that spoke to you? … I would say nine out of 10 times, whoever I’m speaking to says, ‘Oh, well, actually I was looking at this plant.’ It’s kind of funny how that works out so much of the time.”

So which plants do well in which situations?

Sue Dubois is in charge of plant care in the plant greenhouses at the House By the Side of the Road in Wilton. She said the most popular plants are popular for a reason.

“Pothos and philodendrons and related plants are a lot of the most common and popular plants,” Suvoia said. “Most people have something like this in their house. They tend to be pretty easy to take care of for people who just like to have a plant sit there and, if they forget to water them, they don’t really mind that so much.”

Pothos are especially forgiving, Dubois said. “They’ll do generally pretty well in a moderate to bright light situation, but typically, fluorescent and office-type lights will be good enough for them. They like a little bit of neglect, absolutely.”

Pothos are vining plants, sometimes with variegated (multi-colored) leaves. If you’ve been at your bank or your dentist’s office and seen a vine winding its way over several rooms, it was probably a pothos. You don’t have to let a pothos vine go crazy, Dubois said; if you clip it at the length you want, the plant will get started growing a new one. It’s pretty easygoing that way. “They do like some natural sun, so if there’s windows, that’s good,” she said. “But lower light is typically fine for them, which makes them easy to care for, and they don’t mind the dry air in an office.”

What’s a good indoor plant for someone who wants something visually interesting?

“That’s It’s a very personal decision,” Dubois said, “but I think succulents look super interesting.” Succulents are drought-resistant plants like cactuses and aloes. “Some people like plants that have a lot of that thick, lush foliage and looks more jungle-like, but to some people it’s just too much and they want something that has a more, like, funky shape,” she said. “They’re all a little unique, so every single one of them is going to grow differently.” On top of that, succulent plants are especially well-suited for forgetful plant owners, she pointed out — most of them thrive on not being watered. “It kind of depends on the cactus,” she said, “but they like to go totally bone-dry so they’re good for people who ignore their plants or don’t want to have to do a whole lot to take care of it.”

While Dubois is obviously very good with plants, she is also extremely busy, she said, so she has a variety of plants in her own home, not just exotic ones.

“I have a few pothos and philodendrons,” she said, “but they grow large, so I also have a lot of the different cactus and succulents that remain smaller, because I don’t have a ton of space for all the plants that I would love to have. And I’ve started getting more interested in having hoyas, which are, you can think of them like a tropical succulent. They like plenty of light, but they like to dry out in between. Those come in a lot of different leaf shapes and colors and varieties. They will drape down, they will also climb up, and they have really funky flowers that are like a cluster of little stars and they smell really interesting. There are some that smell a little bit like hot chocolate.”

Alyssa McClary is also a big fan of low-maintenance plants.

“One of my favorite [plants] to recommend to people is snake plants,” McClary said. “Their fancy name is dracaena. Some people refer to them as mother-in-law’s tongue. And they’re tall, and green, sometimes green and white or green and yellow, and they can … survive in anything. You can put them in full sun, you could have them in a windowless basement. They don’t need to be watered very often. They can thrive on neglect. And, according to NASA, they’re the best air purifiers. They pull formaldehyde out of the air. They stay nice and upright. If you need like a tall plant that isn’t going to cost you a ton or need a lot of energy or time, those are a fantastic option.”

Very forgiving, hard-to-kill plants

According to Tiffany Smith, owner of Lushes Leaves by Lulu (55 Lake St, 3-3A, Nashua, 300-8533, lushesleavesbylulu.com), these are the five houseplants that are the hardest to kill:

Snake Plant (Dracaena trifasciata) – “I feel like these are one of the hardest plants to kill. They don’t require a lot of light, they don’t require a lot of water, so you really don’t have to watch them closely.”

Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) – “These are a great office plant. You can have them in your bathroom. They do well in, I feel like, any type of environment, low light, high light. I just feel like they thrive anywhere.”

ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) – “This is another indoor house plant that I feel can tolerate any type of climate. They have waxy, smooth, glossy leaves. They are native to East Africa. They require low light. Their water is stored in their roots.”

Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum spp.) – “These also have glossy, green leaves. They give out these elegant white flowers. They’re great office plants. I feel like they’re easy to maintain. They do get a little dramatic at times, but that’s only because they’re a little thirsty and they need some water; then they perk right back up.”

Rubber Tree (Ficus elastica) – “These are very cool looking; they’re very tall. They don’t require a lot of light, and they’re really hard to kill.”

Finding the right pot

For many people a given houseplant is only half the story. The pot a plant is in communicates a lot about you, your tastes and your relationship with your plant. Your monstera (another easy-to-take-care-of plant with holes in its leaves) will be just as happy growing in a yogurt container with a couple of holes poked in the bottom as it will be in a solid brass antique spittoon. It really only cares about two things: size and drainage.

A lot of beginning plant people jump the gun and use too big a pot, Melanie Rose said.

“That is also another very common mistake because they want a huge plant,” Rose said. “So they put a 4-inch plant in a 10-inch pot and it actually slows that growth down.” You only want to go up by an inch or two when you change pots, she said.

Sue Dubois said that some plants are OK with going into a much bigger pot, but that it still pays to be conservative with the size of a pot.

“If you’re starting with a really teeny, tiny plant that has a very small, fine, delicate root system,” Dubois said, “and if it’s in a 2-inch pot, you’d go to like a 3-inch one. But if you have, say, a monstera that’s in an 8-inch pot and its roots are busting out everywhere, that’s a plant that will take advantage of a little bit more space. So you could go to a 10-inch, but you might be able to go to a 12-inch pot because they’re fast growers and have pretty intensive root systems that grow quickly, so they’ll take advantage of that extra space rather than succumb to root rot.”

In terms of the pot itself, Dubois is a big fan of unglazed terra cotta. “It has good moisture-wicking,” she said. “The soil will dry generally fairly evenly throughout the pot rather than starting from the top down, which can sometimes be difficult. Glazed pots that just have a drainage hole at the bottom can be misleading. It might be dry on top, but it might still be really wet on the bottom — you get a lot more even drying with the terracotta. So it’s a little bit easier to manage your plants sometimes by going with the terracotta. And terracotta always just looks really nice, and they age differently. Every pot will end up looking different in the end because of the way the mineral salts will leach out through it.”

Alyssa McCary said she’s been selling a lot of clear plastic pots recently. “People love them because you can see all the roots,” she said. Some people like growing their houseplants in media like perlite, with no soil at all. “So you can really keep an eye on the roots with those clear pots, which is kind of cool.”

One interesting potting hack is to drill a drainage hole in the bottom of a dollar store bowl or a thrift shop vase. This requires the use of a masonry drill bit that fits into a regular electric drill.

According to Karen Henderson, owner of Ace Hardware in Goffstown, although drilling through glass or ceramic takes longer than plastic or wood, the process is the same.

“It just fits in a regular drill,” Henderson said, “and allows a controlled way to put a hole into a circular hole into a piece of ceramic, tile, glass, any of those things. You just have to be careful that you’re not putting too much pressure on it at a time, so you don’t crack it or make a much bigger hole than you’re looking for.”

Sue Dubois said there is an easy work-around for people who are intimidated by the idea of using a drill: “If you pick out a pot that has no drainage hole, and you aren’t willing to try to drill one, just keep the plant inside its nursery pot and set it inside the fancier pot as a decorative saucer.” The important thing, she said, is that the plant has some drainage. “Most plants are not going to want to sit in a puddle of water. Drainage is important because the roots do need air as well.”

Water

“Overwatering is a problem because drowning is the fastest way to kill your plant,” Melanie Rose said. Most plants don’t like to have their roots soaking in water. “It goes right into root rot and it’s very hard for your plant to heal from that; it’s just sitting and suffocating the roots. So sometimes it’s fine to just let your plant sit and wait for it to dry out. A lot of times during the fall and winter season, it’s best to just remove all that soil and give it fresh, dry soil to give it a break. I like to say right about this time of the year to water most houseplants about once every three weeks or so. Of course that depends on the plant and the location.”

Do you name your plants?
Alyssa McClary: “Oh, definitely. Whenever little kids come in and they get a plant, I’m always like, ‘You’ve got to name it.’ And they’re like, ‘Really?’ The more that you talk to the plant, name the plant, whatever extra kind of care you give to your plant, I like to think that the plants feel it. Sometimes I do name my plants human names. I played roller derby for 12 years and I like those kind of like roller derby names; pun names are right in my wheelhouse.”

Nicole Rocha: “I think it’s important. It would be like if we didn’t have names and we were walking around nameless. A plant likes a name, too. And a plant likes to be talked to as well, even though it can’t talk back. I think all the things that we crave as humans — water, food — plants do, too.”

Melanie Rose: To each his own. When I first started getting my own houseplants, I did start to name them all. But then you lose track or you feel extra sad if you lose one. So now I just give them funny little names like my Fiddle Leaf Fig. It’s just Figgy. I just keep it simple.”

Bugs

At some point most of us encounter swarms of tiny flies that have taken up residence in one of our plants.

“Those are fungus gnats,” Melanie Rose explained. “They aren’t fun to deal with, because most people don’t know they’re just living in the soil.” She said the flies actually have no interest in your plant — they feed on fungus that develops in the soil if it is too damp. “So when you spray things like neem oil on your plant, it doesn’t touch or affect those guys.”

“And the wetter it is, the faster they populate in the soil and fly to your other plants, which is not good,” she noted. “So the first, usually, defense I like to say is let all your plants go as dry as you can without killing them. Let them wilt just a little bit. And that just makes it harder for them to reproduce into dry soil. And then the next thing you want to do to treat them is horticultural diatomaceous earth. And it’s just kind of made of crushed seashells, basically, into like a fine powder that you kind of coat the top of your plant and soil with. Those yellow sticky cards really don’t do a whole lot. They just kind of catch them and kind of help you identify what plants are infested.”

New plant from old plant

Some plants — usually ones with well-developed stems — will grow from cuttings. What this means is that if you cut a piece of stem or vine from a plant and leave it in water or soil, small nodules at the base of each leaf stem will branch out into new roots. Once the roots have grown sufficiently, the cutting can be planted to grow a whole new plant.

“Every plant can be a little bit different,” Melanie Rose said. “With most plants that are really easy to propagate — like pothos and philodendron — you can throw it right into water and propagate it that way. And then after just a few weeks typically you’ll see some roots on those guys and then they’re free to go back into small pots.”

“The thing I love about pothos is that they’re so easy to propagate,” Alyssa McClary said. “You can just snip off the parts that start to get long. You look for a node, you cut it above it, you throw it in some water, and you just kind of let it be until, ‘Oh, look! it’s got a bunch of roots!’ I tell people all the time, if you own one of these, no one you know should ever need to buy one. You can just be propagating them all the time, and giving them out as Christmas gifts.”

Poinsettias
Every year during the holidays, most homes end up with a poinsettia. People get them as gifts or pick one up on their way out of the grocery store, and the brightly colored foliage can really cheer up a room. But by February most of them are dead and on the curb, waiting to be taken away with the trash.

Melanie Rose said poinsettias are fairly straightforward to take care of, as long as you remember that they are tropical plants.

“The first thing is a lot of people don’t think to wrap their plants when they’re either bringing them somewhere or buying them from the store,” Rose said. “Just a few seconds of that cold air can really damage the plant and start you off on the wrong foot. I can’t tell you how many times I see people run out of, you know, Home Depot with a palm tree in the 20-degree wind. And I’m like, ‘That thing will be dead by the time they get it home.’”

“The real tricky thing with poinsettias is water,” Rose continued. “They are very prone to overwatering and root rot. It really only takes about two times to overwater it before it starts to kill the roots. But it does need to dry out a little bit. So I like to tell people, get in a good habit of checking on your poinsettia every three days for water. And when that top 2 inches of soil is dry, it’s OK to water.” She said not to believe the plant hack of throwing a few ice cubes into the pot each day.

“No plant wants ice water,” she said.