Why We Love NA Spirits in Undiluted Cocktails

Last year, I sampled over 20 non-alcoholic (NA) spirits, tried over 30 different NA beers, and spent weeks profiling the people who create these non-alcoholic libations. A year later, I’ve come to two conclusions: one, many of these drinks are delicious on their own; and two, they are even better when combined with real alcohol.

This last conclusion arose from necessity. Last June, while vacationing in Ojai, a city two hours north of Los Angeles that’s best for shopping for citrus, restaurants, and reminding tourists that the sun always has its way, I felt very, very hot. . In search of a snack (and a breath of fresh air), I ran to a hotel lobby and, in a panic, ordered ice water, light beer, and Ghia’s canned Le Spritz Lime & Salt.

I snapped the water off and then poured the other two drinks in equal amounts over the remaining ice, creating something that’s part shandy, part spaghetti, and completely delicious. In short, it ruled and I spent the rest of the day consuming its bitter and refreshing #notes.

Some time after my third trip to the lobby bar, I thought: Why isn’t this more important? A question that often leads to the following series of events: I think I’m on to something new, leads me to spend fifteen minutes visualizing the fleet of yachts I got by scaling their discovery, then moments before contacting the bigwigs at En money factories, I search for the idea on the Internet and find that hundreds (if not thousands) of people have already thought the same thing.

Here’s how I found this Reddit post from four years ago that asked: Can you put pure alcohol in an NA drink to make it a consumable (and tasty) alcoholic beverage? To which my now enemy replied: “You have discovered the mixers. “This is how cocktails are made.” Maybe this isn’t the kind of yacht building idea I thought it was. But I refuse to believe it’s totally useless, right?

The waiters don’t think so. For Max Pogacar, Burlington’s beverage director, Vermont’s Frankie’s, NA products, especially those from Wolfpeach, appear in some of his most prized cocktails. “I did a competition with their oxymel last year and combined it with passion fruit and gin to create a Saturn riff.” Max’s reasoning for including NA tonic in his cocktail (which, by the way, came in second place) was simple: “Their apple cider vinegar and honey have a very powerful flavor. “I really like it in small quantities in cocktails.”

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The only occasional drawback is the price. For example, the 500ml bottle of Ghia’s original aperitif concentrate costs $38, while a larger 750ml bottle of Campari (a comparable alcoholic aperitif) costs $29. “Because of the ingredients, my NA negroni actually costs more than the alcoholic version,” Max said, “which kills me, if I’m honest.”

But there are solutions. According to Matt Canning, general manager of Burlington’s famed Hotel Vermont, it’s a matter of product selection. “Ghia can be expensive, so we don’t really use (appetizer), but we do serve the cans in some settings.” Which is true: A four-pack of cans of Lime & Salt Ghia, the liquid that started this rabbit hole, sells for $17, making it cheaper per ounce than many of its alcoholic counterparts.

Of course, versatility also has its value. Unlike traditional spirits, I can enjoy NA products neat any time of day, or I can turn them into low-alcohol beer cocktails that will carry me through an afternoon of golf, or I can mix them with passion fruit and gin to create a powerful and award-worthy cocktail.

So yeah, Reddit is right, sort of. NA products are just mixers, but to me they are more. Because here’s the thing: they taste really, really good, and that’s all that matters.