If you’re looking for a low-cost way to foray into the best nonalcoholic spirits market, Ritual’s gin alternative makes for a stiff mocktail. Made with fresh juice, spices, and herbs to create a more complex and layered flavor profile, Curious Elixirs are one of the best mocktails I tried, and taste as fresh as a just-made cocktail. While alcohol-free spirits tend to be on the more expensive end, despite containing no alcohol, Seedlip’s selection of non-alcoholic gins and low-calorie vodka is occasionally on sale. Ish Spirits does a great collection of alcohol-free tequila, rum, and cocktails.
Matcha tea
You may like this drink if you go for forest-floor flavors, and we should note that several experts recommended it to us. Offering tame bitterness and light botanical flavors, these sodas are like a cross between bitters and soda and hard seltzer. If you’re wary of the herbal bitterness of other NA bevs, but you like and tolerate caffeine, this offering could be a great place to start.
Instead, it’s a complex blend of whats an enabler botanicals and herbs that never tastes weak or watered down. Although the brand sells premixed spritzes in cans, we think this original product is the best to have at home for making nonalcoholic cocktails. Seedlip kicked off the nonalcoholic spirits category when it launched in 2015, and you’ll find its whimsical labels behind bars around the country. The brand’s unique botanical-forward products won’t remind you of any traditional booze you’ve tasted, but they work extremely well in classic and modern cocktails.
Ginger beer or ale
It helps balance nerve transmission, quelling emotional storms and supporting healthy stress response. Most relevant of its many roles, it helps quiets the activity of neurons in the brain – essentially chilling them out. Its ability to induce positive emotions, improve mood, and support overall well-being makes it an alternative avenue for unwinding after a long day or during social situations without the clouded judgment of consuming alcohol. Oxytocin promotes feelings of trust, empathy, and emotional closeness. It can enhance social interactions and foster stronger connections with others, making it an intriguing option for those seeking meaningful experiences without relying on alcohol-induced social lubrication. While you cannot directly compare the effects to alcohol, supplementing oxytocin does accomplish some of the same pro-social benefits.
“It is unique and not trying to replicate anything specifically, which lends itself to interesting play,“ she says. Three Spirit Social Elixir ($40 mixing suboxone with alcohol for a 500 mL bottle at the time of publication) reminded us of an amaro or fortified wine with notes of mushroom, forest floor, red wine, plum, sage, and yerba mate. Three Spirit Nightcap ($40 for a 500 mL bottle at the time of publication) was funky, earthy, and herby, with prominent mushroom flavors, but it lacked any sweetness to balance all of that out. Parch’s Prickly Paloma and Spiced Piñarita (about $25 for a four-pack of 250 mL cans at the time of publication) were overly sweet and lacking in complexity, needing a stronger hit of acid to elevate them. Gnista Barreled Oak (about $35 for a 500 mL bottle at the time of publication) aims for the flavors of bourbon, but it reminded us more of a fizzless malty beer and vinegary barbecue sauce. Gnista Floral Wormwood, which was also quite vinegary, brought to mind canned peaches and vegetable stock.
- The brand’s intent was to make a drink that’s as sophisticated and meaningful as an alcoholic beverage for a dinner party — but without the booze.
- Restricting carbohydrates causes a natural surge of an alternative fuel source called ketones.
- “I love the diverse range of nonalcoholic options available today,” says Meg Paradise, who opened Umbrella Dry Bar — North Carolina’s first booze-free bar — in Raleigh last year.
Nonalcoholic Versions of Alcoholic Beverages
Livener comes in a 500 mL opaque bottle that, like a couple of our other picks, more resembles a trendy olive oil than a sophisticated drink. Wilfred’s packs enough of an alcohol-like sting and bitter edge to be compelling, and it has enough sweetness and spice to be balanced and welcoming. A slightly opaque, yellowish spirit, Aplós Arise surprised us even as it poured out of its odd, attractive but olive-oil-like bottle. Tasted neat, it hit us with citrus, a jalapeño-esque burn, and notes of green banana peel, fried sweet plantain, paint thinner, and sugar-free candy. Some tasters were put off by a lingering vitamin mouthfeel that reminded us of chewing chalky Flintstones vitamins. As a staff writer on Wirecutter’s kitchen team, Mace Dent Johnson has worked on multiple taste tests and written about soda makers, air fryers, food processors, other small appliances, and specialty consumables.
A squeeze of citrus elevates it to a refreshing, tart, woodsy drink that we love dka breath smell to sip. In my quest to find the best nonalcoholic drinks actually worth buying, I enlisted the help of a few friends with different palates to taste-test over 40 products. Though I found many of the products lacking and not worth the money (especially the non-alcoholic spirits), there were some pleasant surprises in the mix.
As someone who has been living on the sober-curious spectrum for the past eight years, I’ve tried a lot of N/A beverages—and so have a lot of other BA staffers. These are the best nonalcoholic drinks our team has tried, including a suspiciously convincing Negroni dupe and craft beers that deliver on complex hoppy flavors without the buzz. Much like Matcha tea, adaptogens like reishi mushroom, lemon balm, and passionflower can be wonderful alternatives to alcohol thanks to the relaxing effect they have on the body. “Compounds such as adaptogens can aid in relaxation and switch us from fight or flight to rest and digest,” explains Cox. They can taste a little earthy so they’ll be best suited for those who don’t mind strong favors and prefer drinking cocktails, as these blends can be mixed with water or juice to form another version of a healthy mocktail. Ginger beer, with its spicy, refreshing taste and effervescence, has long been known as an alcohol alternative.
