Over the past couple of years, habits around drinking have altered. I used to save my zero-alcohol recommendations for the desperate souls gnawing at their fingernails and keen for a distraction – any distraction – from the wine rack throughout January. Now, keen to avoid the cycle of boom (Christmas red wine, champagne cocktails and port, we love you) and bust (new year hair shirt time), friends and readers are emailing to ask for attractive low and no options to swap in when they feel in danger of overdoing it over the winter social season.
To get the most out of no- and low-alcohol drinking, it often helps to think outside the accepted categories of alcoholic drinks and move into, say, shrubs, sparkling teas or the kind of cocktails now appearing on restaurant menus that are delicious but so finicky that only a masochist would attempt to make them at home.
That said, one type of alcoholic drink has inspired some of the most successful zero-alcohol options around: Italian-style bitters. This is excellent news if you enjoy Cynar and soda, Campari and orange, an Aperol spritz or a negroni. The style of these drinks, with a background of bitterness, made complex with roots, spices and peels, and often rounded out by the warmth of orange or blood orange, works incredibly well without (as well as with) booze.
Perhaps surprisingly, the originals have been around for decades. Sanbittèr (owned by San Pellegrino) is a crimson-coloured drink similar in taste to Campari-soda that is sold in small 100ml bottles (six-packs are currently on offer in Ocado at £7, down from £8.99). Crodino (now owned by the Campari Group) was launched in 1965 and is orange in colour, more like an Aperol spritz. “A sip of Italian sunset” goes the marketing line and it does feel it.
Lyre’s, the Australian company that specialises in “non-alcoholic spirits”, makes a good version, too. Lyre’s Italian Orange (masterofmalt.com, £20.12; amazon.co.uk, £23.10) comes in a 70cl bottle, has the red translucency of pomegranate seeds, and is made with extracts of blood orange and grapefruit. It is quite sweet: glossy and viscous, though with an astringency at the end. It can be drunk neat, on the rocks with a thick slice of clementine and diluted with soda – or, better still, tonic for more bitterness – to make a longer drink.
Even better for those who relish the more astringent and herbal flavours in bitters is Tuscan Tree, a “non-alcoholic aperitivo spirit” that was launched only this year. The first thing you notice about Tuscan Tree is the attractive bottle. The second is the price, which is refreshingly reasonable. When Seedlip launched in 2015 it wasn’t just the well-timed snowball that started an avalanche of interesting no-and-low drinks, bottled like spirits and drunk like spirits. It also set the bar for no/low to be priced like spirits.
Let’s just say this was an interesting move, as the duty on bottle of spirits accounts for quite a large chunk of the cost. To take an example, on a 70cl bottle of Tanqueray gin (abv 43.1%) it’s £8.67. You also pay VAT on duty, so duty plus the VAT on the duty accounts for a total of £10.40 of the price of this £18 bottle of gin. Yet there is no duty on zero-alcohol spirits. Tuscan Tree founder Carl Stephenson felt this should be reflected in the price of his drink, which can be bought for £10.99 (for a 70cl bottle) on Amazon.
I really like Tuscan Tree, made with cardamom, rhubarb root, pimento, orange peel and blood orange juice. Best drunk diluted with soda, it has the verve and pithiness of orange and ruby grapefruit rind. Stephenson says he has another flavour in the pipeline: cloudy elderflower, which I will be watching out for the moment it arrives.
Back to blood orange, which is clearly the ingredient of the moment because it pops up not only in a top-secret new drink I can’t tell you about yet (though I shall) but also one of the two new flavours of New London Light, the 0% spirit from the makers of Salcombe Gin. New London Light Aegean Sky is made with kumquat, rosemary, bergamot, blood orange and olive, among other ingredients.
Where Tuscan Tree has a mouth-watering, fresh quality that I prefer irrespective of pricing, Aegean Sky (RRP £27.50, for stockists see Salcombegin.com) has a powdery and floral taste too potpourri for my taste – with a hint of peach. The suggested serve is with tonic.
I’m often asked to recommend a good zero-alcohol substitute for wine and I always have to explain that while Santa and his elves are real (at least in our house), there is no magic that can bring you a full-bodied red, zesty white or champagne that just happens to be alcohol-free. Most of them are awful and much too sweet. Still, say friends, we’d like to know what zero-alcohol fizz to buy so we can use it to make cocktails. Fair enough.
One of the best I’ve tasted is Edenvale Sparkling Cuvée NV (Australia, 0.05%, Laithwaites, £4.99). It’s made from semillon grapes and the alcohol is then removed using the spinning cone process, a form of low temperature vacuum steam distillation. One friend plans to mix hers with gingerbread syrup to make a Christmassy fizzy drink. I suggest mixing with freshly squeezed clementine or blood orange juice and adding a rosemary swizzle stick to give you a more aromatic, savoury note. You could serve it in a wine glass or over ice in a tumbler.
Final word and nothing to do with blood orange: a shout out for Mother Root Ginger Switchel (around £24 for 480ml, for stockists see motherroot.london). This is a fiery drink, made using ginger and cider vinegar, that you dilute with sparkling water; it is very good indeed.
