It’s both, you’re mixing different phylogenies. Any alcohol prepared for consumption is a solution of water, ethanol, and various other substances (almost all water or alcohol soluble). Ethanol in aqueous solution is also a strong solvent (pure ethanol is a less effective solvent, but a solvent nonetheless).
Capitalism didn’t kill third spaces, technology did. Niel Postman and Robert Putnam spent most of their lives writing about the creep of technology and how it destroys actual human society and its base-level interactions.