MIRIAM’S DRINKS
Miriam Nice and Richard Davie’s
Low and alcohol-free beers, wines and spirits
Adecade ago, lowalcohol drinks were little more than a punchline, but every year, this category gets more exciting. New entrants come up with clever innovations, and the standard goes up across the board.
We’re also thinking more about drinking less, and are perhaps more open to the idea that a drink can be special even if it isn’t alcoholic. Low-alcohol beers and spirit substitutes are finding new ways to show o the intensity, complexity and satiety you’d associate with a cold lager or gin and tonic.
Alcohol-free spirits first came onto our radar in 2014 with Seedlip, which proudly stood up for a product that cost £35 and required a trek to Selfridges. Since then, it and similar offerings have become available in supermarkets at rather less luxurious prices. In addition to gin, producers have reimagined alcohol-free equivalents to vermouth, amaro, amaretto and co ee liqueur, to name a few.
Non-alcoholic beer has also improved greatly in the last few years, with higher visibility and greater quality. We’ve highlighted a few more of our favourites in that category (see right).
So, what is ‘alcohol-free’? Some of the entries here are labelled ‘low-alcohol’ at 0.5% ABV, rather than ‘alcohol-free’. In the UK, anything below 0.5% ABV is no longer restricted under licensing laws. At less than 0.5% ABV, the drink is unable to render you drunk, and some breads and ripe fruits may contain as much or even more alcohol.
We’re now perhaps more open to the idea that a drink can be special even if it isn’t alcoholic