A dinner table at dusk with a bottle of dealcoholized pinot noir, a sparkling tea in a wine glass, a bitter red aperitif over ice and a bottled botanical cocktail

Non-Alcoholic Drinks: The Complete Guide

Published 9 Sep 20266 min read

Alcohol does several jobs in a drink at once, and a non-alcoholic drink has to find another tool for each one. It gives body, a sense of weight in the mouth, and it gives warmth. It carries bitterness and aroma, which is why an amaro or a vermouth tastes like a whole landscape. It also dries the palate, so the next bite of food tastes fresh. The drinks in this guide do those jobs with tannin from tea, acidity from grape and lemon juice, bitterness from roots such as gentian, texture from fermentation and a great deal of cold. What follows sorts them into five types, sets out what the label is allowed to say, and matches a bottle to each kind of evening.

What the label means

Under the FDA's labeling policy, a dealcoholized wine must state that it contains less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, and it may add the claim "non-alcoholic"; "alcohol-free" may be used only when the drink contains no detectable alcohol. The gap between those two claims matters to anyone avoiding alcohol entirely, for medical, religious or recovery reasons.

Type one: dealcoholized wine

Dealcoholized wine starts as wine, fermented and finished in the usual way. Then the alcohol is removed. One method is the spinning-cone column, which runs under vacuum at lower temperatures and captures the wine's aroma before the alcohol comes out so it can be returned to the finished wine.

Weingut Leitz, in Rüdesheim in the Rheingau, makes a range of dealcoholized wines under the name Eins-Zwei-Zero; its UK importer sells the Pinot Noir as Zero Point Five. Leitz takes the alcohol out of that Pinot Noir with a spinning-cone column. The Zero Point Five Pinot Noir (shop Zero Point Five Pinot Noir) is described by the importer, Enotria&Coe, as clean and fresh, with red currant and cherry, integrated tannin and an almost dry finish. Serve it with food; the importer suggests roast or game.

Type two: sparkling tea

Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company began, according to the company, when co-founder Jacob Kocemba, then a sommelier at a Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant, could not find a wine to match a dessert and began blending teas to fill the gap. The finished drinks are carbonated and balanced with grape and lemon juice, acidity and some sugar. The company pitches them for food. BLÅ (shop BLÅ), the jasmine-and-white-tea bottle, is floral, with tannin from first-flush Darjeeling, and the company pairs it with starters, vegetarian or light mains and most desserts. Lyserød (shop Lyserød) leans toward hibiscus and rosé. Lysegrøn (shop Lysegrøn) is the green-tea-and-lemongrass bottle, pitched by the company for oysters, fish and seafood. All three also come in half bottles (shop BLÅ half bottle).

The Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company guide covers the full range. Sparkling tea also settles the old hosting question of what to pour for the one guest who isn't drinking: the same thing you pour for everyone.

Type three: zero-proof spirits and aperitifs

Botanical "spirits" are blends of herbs, spices, citrus and roots made to be mixed like a spirit or sipped over ice like an aperitif. The Italian aperitivo tradition is the template, and the Negroni has zero-proof versions. St. Agrestis makes Phony Negroni as a ready-to-serve version built on gentian root, with juniper and citrus peel, and suggests pouring it into a rocks glass over ice with an orange twist. The St. Agrestis producer guide covers the maker and the rest of its range.

Aplós Arise (shop Aplós Arise) takes a different route. The producer describes it as a bold, earthy blend of citrus and herbal botanicals, with notes of agave, lemon verbena and black Sarawak pepper, infused with its own adaptogen blend and formulated for social occasions. The maker suggests two ounces over ice or mixed as desired.

Serve both very cold, over one large ice cube, in a heavy glass, with a real garnish. Without alcohol's warmth, temperature and texture do more of the work.

Type four: bottled cocktails

A bottled zero-proof cocktail spares the host from building a five-ingredient drink for a single guest. Curious Elixirs makes numbered bottles, each a ready-to-garnish cocktail that needs no mixer. Curious Elixir No. 2 (shop Curious Elixir No. 2) is the maker's take on a spicy pineapple-ginger margarita. Chill the bottle hard, pour over ice and add a lime wheel. The whole ritual takes twenty seconds.

Type five: fermented drinks

Fermentation adds acidity and complexity of its own. Kombucha is the familiar example; the more wine-like versions are fermented teas bottled for the table. Unified Ferments' Snow Chrysanthemum (shop Snow Chrysanthemum), from Brooklyn, is a fermented chrysanthemum tea, floral and honeyed, sold in 750 ml bottles. Serve it chilled, with food, as you would a wine.

Building the drink yourself

If you would rather mix than pour, the pantry does most of the work. A Bacanha syrup, bergamot (shop Bacanha Bergamot) or ginger (shop Bacanha Ginger), with soda and a squeeze of citrus makes a house soda you can sweeten to taste. The Bacanha syrup guide covers the range. Verjus with soda and a wide strip of orange peel is a two-minute aperitif. Tea brewed double strength, chilled and topped with sparkling water, becomes a house sparkling tea. For a crowd, steep Oliver Pluff's sangria spice kit (shop Oliver Pluff sangria spice kit) in a dealcoholized red with fruit for a zero-proof pitcher. The glassware and tools in the home bar guide work exactly as they do for the alcoholic versions.

Storage and serving

Treat an opened bottle like fresh juice: refrigerate, reseal and follow the producer's guidance. Snow Chrysanthemum's distributor, for instance, says it stays fresh for five to seven days after opening. Unopened, follow the date on the label.

Serve nearly everything colder than its alcoholic counterpart: dealcoholized red at cellar temperature, sparkling tea and fermented tea fully chilled, aperitifs and bottled cocktails over plenty of ice.

Which bottle for which evening

Dinner: Leitz Zero Point Five Pinot Noir, a Copenhagen Sparkling Tea or Snow Chrysanthemum. A toast: BLÅ. Aperitivo hour: Aplós Arise with tonic, or St. Agrestis Phony Negroni over ice, each with an orange twist. A guest who needs a drink in hand in under a minute: a chilled Curious Elixir over ice. A crowd: a pitcher of spiced dealcoholized red.

Products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com. The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and visitors can ask staff questions in the shop.

See also: drink gift basket ideas, including a zero-proof basket for a friend who skips alcohol.