LONDON:
Non-drinkers and drivers rejoice – we are living through a new era of creative, non-alcoholic drinks that go way beyond a coke or sweet mocktail.
The world is becoming more health-conscious. There’s the war on sugar, and teetotalism is on the rise, with more than one in five not drinking at all (especially young adults), according to The National Statistics for Adult Drinking Habits.
This abstinence is even more pronounced in London, with almost one in three turning away from alcohol. An increasing number of mixologists are applying their talents to the creation of non-alcoholic drinks that taste as good as their boozy alternatives.
Sipping a Number 7 Rickey (quince, rose geranium and house soda) at a bar, brought a sense of sophistication. I also suddenly feel certain I could stay off the sauce over the Christmas season.
The drink, a revival from the Prohibition era given a modern, seasonal twist, is served in a high ball, garnished with dried rose petals, with a little pipette jar of house “acids” (mallic, citric and tannic) to add to taste on the side.
Is “going virgin” the new vegetarianism? For Richard Woods, the award-winning head of spirits and cocktail development at London restaurant Duck and Waffle, it’s certainly a new part of the creative challenge.
He points to the rise of savoury, vegetable and tea-based cocktails, “shrubs” (made of fruit, sugar and vinegar, they are born of an 18th-century method of preserving fruits and vegetables out of season in vinegar with a little honey), raw vinegar drinks and kombucha, a fermented sweet tea that’s massive in Los Angeles; made with a Scoby (bacteria and yeast culture) with probiotic properties.
Yet, what he is most excited about is a new way of distilling the alcohol out of popular spirits while keeping the flavour. “Imagine if I served you a Campari soda – but without the alcohol? We evaporate the water from it, so that we’re left with a syrup that has the classic bitter, orange notes. We’ve even created a non-alcoholic champagne with the tannins and acids put back to give its dry, toasty texture.”
Matt Whiley, founder of East London’s Peg and Patriot, has been experimenting along similar lines in his own distillery, and talked me through the making of alcohol-free gin. It has a water distillate as the base, which is infused with the classic juniper and botanicals.
At Stovell’s in Chobham, meanwhile, Geyin Surendran is using a rotary evaporator to produce non-alcoholic rum. The aged rum is drawn into an evaporating flask (a spherical piece of lab glassware).
The flask is gently heated by a water bath and the alcohol evaporated into a separate vessel leaving a non-alcoholic, concentrated oaky “rum”. This is then spiced with a little ginger, pepper and a touch of chilli.
Ben Branson, a farmer and drinks expert, has invented the first distilled non-alcoholic spirit called Seedlip, which is being adopted by many of the UK’s top bartenders and clamoured for by some of the bars around the world. Seedlip (the name comes from the basket used to sow seed) is a clear liquid with each botanical separately distilled.
It is a blend of American oak, Guatemalan cardamom, Jamaican allspice, Bahamian cascarilla bark, Turkish grapefruit and lemon peel. There’s deliberately no juniper, so it doesn’t replicate gin.
“I think it works because people are after flavour, not alcohol, and are prepared to pay more now to drink something more interesting,” says Ben. It is on sale exclusively at retailer Selfridges for £29.99 (R675). – The Independent