15 NO- & LOW-ALCOHOL DRINKS FOR JANUARY

Drinks expert and contributing editor Henry Jeffreys shares his top picks of the latest low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks

It’s hard to keep up with the headlines about alcohol. A study in The Lancet in August came to the conclusion that there’s no safe limit – and yet, many studies have shown that moderate amounts of alcohol can help prevent heart disease. First, the good news: low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers have improved dramatically in recent years and, while not identical to their full-strength cousins, many are delicious drinks in their own right. With wine, however, things don’t look so rosy: very few passed the ‘second glass’ test. The aperitifs category was a mixed bag, with some excellent (if sweet) adult soft drinks alongside some less convincing non-alcoholic botanical beverages.