Professional Sommelier Tries 12 Non-Alcoholic Beverages

[vibrant music] Hey, I’m sommelier,

Andre Hueston Mack,

and today I’m gonna be tasting a selection

of non-alcoholic, non-alcoholic.

See, look, I’m allergic to it.

I can’t even say it.

Like, it’s just like. [crew laughing]

It’s like, it’s like… [graphic whooshing]

Today, I’m gonna be tasting a selection

of non-alcoholic wines, cocktails and spirits and more.

A lot of them are gonna be new to me, as well.

[vibrant music continues]

You know, this is a fast-growing segment

within the industry.

I think the growing push is

for people just wanting to drink something

without the side effects of alcohol.

Ultimately, I think that these have to be pleasurable.

They have to taste good in order for them to be,

in my mind, to be successful.

I have an open mind, and I wanna walk through these things

with you guys and to see if we like ’em

or what we think about ’em. [graphic whooshing]

So first up, we have Ghia.

This is their original aperitif.

This comes in at $38. [register bell rings]

Generally, aperitif is meant to be enjoyed

before the meal. [bottles clanging]

It’s a starter, it’s kind of to kickstart your palate,

build your appetite and they’re generally lighter.

Nothing deep or heavy or anything,

like, they’re just light and fun,

and key component acid and some bitter.

The bitterness, it kinda really helps start your appetite.

Aperitifs are, in some countries and regions,

definitely cultural things,

and I think for a lot of people,

it’s a mental thing, too, right?

I would even go so far to say

that aperitif has become a lifestyle

of some sorts for some people.

I’m not surprised that there’s

a non-alcoholic market for it, but like, I mean,

a Sprite could be an aperitif, right? [laughs]

Like, you know what I mean?

When you say non-alcoholic aperitif,

it definitely elevates whatever you’re talking about

to a certain level, for sure.

Well, they say serving size is one ounce,

so, we’ll eyeball it here.

It’s definitely got you in the mind frame of, like,

this is a mixer,

maybe you build your drink around this thing here.

Oh, wow, okay.

It’s very vibrant,

it’s like lots of ginger on the nose.

Lemon halls, lemon balm, or something like that, right?

But, like, those lemon cough syrup drops.

It smells really pretty and beautiful.

Ah, it smells amazing.

It’s not sweet at all.

It is very dry and bitter.

This is pretty cool,

and I have to tell you that, like,

it would make you think that it has some alcohol in it.

It has this bitter component to it,

and then it kind of has, like,

a faint thing of, like, Campari.

Like, this is not Campari,

but you can see how this could be a replacement for that.

Wow, it’s cool.

It almost seems backwards,

but any time you’re making booze,

like, you don’t have to list all the ingredients in it.

This is not booze,

and so you have to list ingredients on it.

There’s nothing that really jumps out to me like a-ha,

like, this is the secret sauce.

These are all ingredients that at least I can say them,

I can pronounce them, I’ve heard of them before,

but that’s what’s interesting to me.

It just seems extraordinary that they would be able

to make something like that from those ingredients.

[graphic whooshing]

So next up we have the Ghia Spritz,

and this comes in a four-pack,

around $22, [register bell rings]

so this is about five or six bucks a can.

And, so, it looks like they’ve taken their bitter aperitivo

that we tasted earlier and they spritzed it,

so they, you know, made it sparkling, fizzy,

and put it in a can.

This represents RTD, so ready-to-drink category.

We’re starting to see a lot of this,

like, canned cocktails already,

so you’ve definitely seen this on the alcohol side,

but now you’re starting to see on the non-alcoholic side,

you don’t have to do anything

except put in the refrigerator, crack it open,

get the party started.

I think it’s a money maker for everybody.

It’s a new category, so the economy is excited about that.

If you bought a mango in the store,

that costs one price,

it costs way more once they cut it up

and put it into another container,

but it’s portable, they’ve done all the work for you.

[ring pull clicks] [liquid pours]

Looks about the same.

The same flavors, lots of lemon, rosemary.

Wow, that lemon is just crazy.

I mean, it smells really beautiful.

Like, I wanna drink all the cans in the world by smelling.

This is something that smells good,

and it’s, like, Oh, this could be

potpourri or it could be a drink.

Like, it’s that powerful and floral but beautiful.

That’s rocking.

I mean, I would drink that,

and I think just the spritz adds enough lift to it

that makes it, you know, somewhat festive

and it cuts a little bit of the bitterness

from, like, the one-ounce pour that we had before.

It was just kind of thick

and it almost felt like concentrate to some degree.

Lift just, like, uplifts everything, makes it brighter,

and it’s like fun, dances on your mouth.

If you don’t drink alcohol and you’re at a table,

you wanna have something, especially with your meal.

This has that, right?

In all intents and purposes, yes, it’s a soda,

but it didn’t taste like any soda that you know.

So then your brain automatically

puts it in another category.

I believe that this is

worth the price because soda [register bell rings]

doesn’t make you feel a special way.

Like, eating a hamburger and eating a steak, right?

Same thing, but just it’s a different experience.

[graphic whooshing]

This is called St. Agrestis,

this is the Phony Negroni and this comes in

at five bucks a bottle. [register bell rings]

So this is 6.8 ounces.

[bottles clanging] This also falls into

the RTD category, so, ready-to-drink category.

Negroni, if you’re not familiar with it,

is a somewhat-famous cocktail.

Negroni’s kind of one of those perfect cocktails

where it’s three equal parts.

So there’s gin, sweet vermouth and Campari.

And so how do you replicate that in this?

But when you take a step back

and don’t look at the three ingredients you start with

and actually focus on what the cocktail tastes like,

which is greater than the the sum of its parts.

But what’s interesting is

is that this is a place that’s also a distillery.

They make alcoholic versions of some of those things,

and, so, I feel like they have an inside track.

This is not a company that decided

they just wanted to make this,

they’re already in the booze business.

I think that’s probably why it’s well received.

So we’re gonna go ahead and open this up.

And this is what I would say was different

about a regular Negroni.

It has some carbonation to it.

Smells like negroni, right? [laughs]

This is it, right?

It tastes like grenadine, very super bitter.

I mean, that’s a negroni.

I think the only thing that would be missing a little bit,

like there’s some botanicals in it.

It has the distinct smell and taste,

like, it’s just, like, [laughs]

if you really want the flavors

of an negroni without the alcohol, this is it.

I think for a lot of people they might

think it’s alcohol in there.

It doesn’t have that warmthness

that you get when you digest alcohol,

but there’s the warmthness of bitter.

Nah, I think this is kind of genius.

[graphic whooshes] [mellow music]

Alright, so next up we have Almave.

This is a blue agave spirit,

and this comes in at $40. [register bell rings]

Blue agave is [bottles clanging]

the plant that’s used to make tequila.

They look like a big-ass pineapple.

It’s something that’s planted in the ground,

it can’t be mass-produced, that endures a lot of the price.

What it says here,

they’re using all the traditional methods,

so, they’re taking the plant, they’re bringing it in,

they’re cooking them in these traditional ovens,

but they don’t go through the fermentation process,

and, so, it doesn’t produce alcohol.

It’s funny, you know, [indistinct] in the bottle, you know,

it’s, like, it’s this owner, Lewis Hamilton, [laughs]

I was, like, the Lewis Hamilton, that guy?

And, so, it is somewhat of a celebrity brand

and kind of makes sense, it’s on brand.

It’s, like, you drive race cars for a living,

like, probably shouldn’t be drinking and driving, right?

So we’re gonna go ahead and open this up here.

It would be interesting to see what rules apply to this.

Can they add coloring?

It doesn’t say anything about oak agents,

I’m wondering how it picks up the color,

and maybe because it’s, you know,

the cooked pina, I don’t know?

You get the agave and it seems, like, muted.

It’s not like tequila.

This isn’t powerful coming out of the glass,

but I smell something a little sweet.

Vanilla is present, not extract,

a vanilla milkshake or a vanilla ice cream, that’s milk.

[Andre chokes]

Alright, yeah, this is interesting.

I wouldn’t imagine sipping this over ice,

it has a sweetness to it.

It tastes watery, like, it feels, like,

it has no structure in that way.

It’s coconut, coconut [laughs] that was driving me crazy.

I wouldn’t think that, like, this resembles tequila.

It doesn’t taste bad.

There’s no burn or anything like that.

And I would say that that is what tequila is,

but that’s a merge of alcohol being present

and the agave plant,

I came in with an open mind,

but I can’t help it if I’m reading

what they actually print on the bottle,

it sets me up to think tequila.

Maybe I need to put it in a cocktail to, like,

you know, to appreciate it that way.

I remember the first time I ever had an Impossible burger

and, like, they, you know, they had onions, lettuce, cheese,

all that and the bun and you eat it

and you’re, like, Okay, that tastes like,

that closely resembles a hamburger.

Like, maybe I wouldn’t be able to tell.

But once you had it on its own by itself,

you’re, like, I don’t know what that is.

And I think maybe the same thing here,

like, maybe if we put it in a cocktail,

I’m thinking Margarita,

that you could taste it or pick it out.

[mellow music continues]

That ain’t it, player.

[graphic whooshing] So, next up is Monday.

This is zero-alcohol whiskey.

This comes in at $45. [register bell rings]

Alcohol-free whiskey. [laughs] [bottles clanging]

I kind of thought that was the point, but I get it.

Dude, I’m not making fun of this category,

I’m interested in this.

We don’t know actually what it is, right?

Does it really say what’s in it, so to speak?

This is the growing part, like,

how do people identify, right?

Like, if I’m not drinking anymore and I’m a whiskey drinker,

I don’t think I want to drink a bitter aperitif,

you know, I don’t want a phony negroni.

I would want something that mimics the taste of whiskey.

Because it has whiskey [laughs] on the label,

that’s the angle where I’m coming in,

that’s what they’re going for.

And then I will take a few steps back

and just kind of analyze it for what it is.

Is this well made? [cork pops]

What is it about?

Like, off the first smell, [liquid pours]

it kind of smells like a cross

between whoppers and milk duds.

When we used to go to the theater,

my brother used to dump all the candy into the popcorn

so, like, no one else would eat it.

Coffee, toffee, burnt sugar, brown sugar,

those aren’t things that lead in whiskey.

There is some vanilla, but, like,

there’s no toastiness or anything like that

that you would associate with.

I think it does say on the bottle

that there’s been a little light time in oak,

and maybe that’s where some

of those flavors are coming from.

When we talk about bourbon or we talk about wine

and we talk about all these flavors

and things that we find in it,

just know that none of those things have been added to it.

This is a little bit different in this category [laughs]

because things can be added to it.

So when I say toffee and I say coffee,

there’s a good possibility that those things

have been added to these, or extracts,

or whatever there might be.

There’s lots of, like, spice almost,

kind of, like, that burn that you get

when you have too much cinnamon on your tongue

and that only really comes at the finish.

And then you get as you breathe in,

kind of the toffee and, like,

some of those elements and maybe a sarsaparilla.

So, it’s kind of like a root beer with cinnamon.

Just trying to put it in layman’s terms.

If you didn’t have that at the end,

then it probably just tastes like watered down root beer.

And I think where the beauty of these things maybe come in

is like replacing them with mixers and something else.

Like, most people just don’t sip a bottle.

Most people consume it in a cocktail

or a way that they like to fix it and that would be fun.

[graphic whooshing] Next up is seedlip.

This is Garden 108 and this comes in

at $32 a bottle. [register bell rings]

It doesn’t say it on the bottle,

[bottles clanging] You know, it is kind of mimics

the flavors that you’d find in gin.

Talks about the different botanicals that it’s made with.

And, so, I would figure that it would taste

very similar to gin,

especially, you know, gin is really expressive.

This is a 700-milliliter bottle.

A standard bottle used to be 750 milliliters.

The government has to approve,

the people who approve the labels also have to approve

what legal size bottles that you can actually bottle

and put spirits in.

But during the pandemic they introduced,

there was a law passed that said

that you could actually use 700 MLS.

You look at like established brands moving

from 750 to 700 milliliters and then keeping the price.

There’s a lot of different thoughts about it,

but there is that thing,

and once you start to see it,

and I’m starting to see a lot of it now.

Alright, so we’re gonna go ahead and crack this open here.

Alright, that’s what I’m talking about.

Fresh cut grass, bright, vibrant, just feels alive.

Lots of juniper, coriander, cucumber,

salt, crushed sea salt.

Kinda like a salad in a glass.

[bright music]

[Andre’s lip smacking]

And that’s it. [laughs]

Kind of like seltzer.

On the nose, it smells amazing.

And then on the palate it’s very, very light.

The aromatics are totally there.

I can see why it exists, right?

It, you know, like, it’s a need for people,

and, you know, I think you don’t know what you need

until, like, somebody presents it to you.

I’m not into the negative thing

and it’s nothing negative about it.

It’s just, like, when I thought about

the overall thing here, like, [register bell rings]

what we’re selling and what’s happening here.

You know, this costs, you know,

more than a decent bottle of gin. [laughs]

I’m just like. [palms slapping]

[graphic whooshing] Alright, moving right along.

We are at Athletic Brewing, so this is Run Wild IPA.

This is a non-alcoholic beer.

So, about 15 bucks a six-pack. [register bell rings]

So, that comes roughly to about

$2.50 cents a can. [register bell rings]

I’m familiar with this brand,

and to be honest with you, [bottles clanging]

I was just, like, kind of really blown away.

This actually tastes like beer.

Non-alcoholic beer has come a long way.

It’s challenging because they want

to make it a different way than they had in the past.

I think, you know,

anytime that you were think about something

that was NA, or non-alcoholic,

the instinct was, How do we take a finished beer

and take the alcohol out of it?

And that proved to be bad on all levels, never good.

A lot of part of what beer is is truly about fermentation.

How do you ferment the thing

without having any alcohol in it?

It says contains less than 0.5% alcohol.

There may be there is some type

of fermentation happening there,

and they figuring out how to cap it in a certain way.

I don’t know what the process is,

and I think they’re kind of tightlipped about it.

[can ring top popping] Aha!

So, it has carbonation, looks like beer,

smells [laughs] like beer.

Not overly crazy hoppy, but hoppy.

That’s, you know, that’s crisp fresh beer.

It’s pretty hoppy, it’s herbaceous like that.

It’s beer, it’s crisp, but next to another IPA

that actually has alcohol in it, that’s a different game.

It’s weighty, it’s heavier.

You have the effects of alcohol, you taste it right away.

Overall, a great beverage.

Like, this is, like, cutting lawn.

You know what I’m saying [laughs] it’s like.

[graphic whooshes] [vibrant music]

So, next up is Proxies.

This is called Red clay.

This is a non-alcoholic wine alternative.

This sells for $25. [register bell rings]

So we’re not calling this wine.

[bottles clanging] It’s not wine that was made

and then we took the alcohol out or anything like that.

It is definitely an alternative to wine.

So, traditionally in this space,

it used to be wine and then they’d run it through a machine

and they’d de-alcohol it.

And those haven’t been of really great quality.

Proxies wanted to do something different.

Their parent company is a vinegar company.

For a lot of them they use a vinegar base

and then they use teas and they use real fruit juice.

In some instances, grape juices.

Wine is made from fermented grapes.

This doesn’t go through any type of fermentation

and so I think it gives you a little bit more leeway

and it’s kind of fun to play around with.

[graphic whooshing] I do have an affiliation

with the company.

Early on, they tapped me to create my own blend.

We make a pinot noir and I wanted to be able

to recreate something like that,

but a non-alcoholic wine alternative to that.

We use marionberry,

which is a berry that’s local to the Oregon area.

Earl Grey teas, oolong teas.

And they have my little face on there.

[Crew Member] Do you look on the bottle?

Come on, now, you can’t put me

on a spot like that, player. [laughs]

Alright, we’re gonna go ahead and crack this open.

[bright music] [cork pops]

[liquid pours]

So this is cranberry, cran-cherry.

It reminds me of, like, Ocean Spray.

You know how they have those mashups?

It’s so funny, we call it P funk, right?

Like, Pinot Noir can have, like,

this little bit of funkiness to it.

You know, I don’t know if that comes from the vinegars,

or I would think more from the vinegars than the tea.

Actually smell Earl Grey tea here.

There’s a sweetness from the fruit.

There’s definitely acid and that’s from the vinegar.

It’s refreshing.

So, in wine, we talk a lot about balance.

If one of the parts sticks out more than the other,

then it’s not balanced.

So if the wine has too much alcohol, it’s alcoholic.

That’s out of balance.

If it’s too fruit-forward, then that’s out of balance.

If it’s way too much acid, that’s out of balance.

And so when we talk about balances

about all of those being symbiotic

and being at the same level.

What I would say here is that

the acid makes it finish up clean.

Yeah, it’s legit. [graphic whooshing]

So next up is Leitz, it’s a sparkling riesling.

This is called Eins Zwei Zero.

And this comes in around $18. [register bell rings]

So, this is a different category.

This is not a wine alternative.

[bottles clanging] This is a category where

it’s being de-al’d.

This wine was made, the wines which had alcohol,

and then they de-alcohol it,

and that’s a process that can be done in several ways.

Johannes Leitz is a well-known wine maker, top-notch guy.

His wines are served in all the top restaurants

in the world.

I’ve never tasted this before

and it’d be interesting for me to see how it tastes.

Apples, pears, slightly smoky.

I’d probably [laughs] say, like, smoky apple,

a little bit of lemon custard.

It’s like a cross between apple cider

and like sparkly wine.

Like, it’s not heavily apple, but there’s apple there.

Once you put it in your mouth, it’s lots of carbonation.

It’s fun for a second.

I totally forgot that it was non-alcoholic.

And the characteristic of a riesling is kerosene,

petro, and it has that.

I wouldn’t call it gas, but, like, it’s, like, petro.

It’s faint, you can smell it.

When you think about riesling,

what most comes to mind for most people is that it’s sweet.

This is bone dry.

Non-alcoholic wines have a certain taste, and this has it.

It’s not a bad thing, but it’s just something I can pick up.

If you’re celebrating with everybody, it looks like wine,

blah, blah, blah, and, like,

everybody’s happy and everybody’s joyful

and, you know, you don’t get the headache with it.

[graphic whooshing] [smooth jazz music]

So next up we have Three Spirit.

This is called the nightcap and this is a botanical elixir.

So this comes in at $39 [register bell rings]

in a 500-milliliter bottle.

So, this is an interesting [bottles clanging]

category that we’re starting to see spark up.

It’s all about relaxing body and mind,

like, really pushing the health benefits,

but kind of under the guise of a spirit.

It talks about being a functional spirit.

For me, I just take that term as, like,

maybe you’re able to move, like, get things done.

You know, maybe it’s supposed to enlighten

and give a high like that in that way.

But I get this and I understand

that there’s a market for this.

You know, I have no idea what to expect, what’s in here.

Botanical extracts, Sichuan pepper,

lots of different things,

but I wanna see how it all comes together.

That’s it, I think the only way to kind of find out

what’s going on is to open it up.

We shook it up, like it says.

Right off the bat, it smells like liquid Ricola.

There’s glitter in the glass.

There’s all kinds of floaties in here.

Anyways, honey, lemon balm, almost kinda, like,

a recipe for cough syrup,

or, like, some of those kind of remedies.

The sediment in there is like something

that they add that’s powdery.

There’s, like, lemon balm, herbs, honey,

and then at the end there’s cinnamon.

It definitely has particles in it, it’s made natural,

it hasn’t been filtered or anything like that.

I think all of those are a good thing.

But at the end there’s definitely some type

of spice in there that kinda kicks everything up.

You have habanero, so there’s pepper,

and then that’s the Sichuan pepper.

There’s that little bit of heat from that.

What I’ll say is it doesn’t taste

like an alternative-medicine kind of thing, right?

I would drink it because it tastes good.

You know, this bottle would be gone in one sitting,

you know, if you ask me.

But, I think, also, that’s a testament

to the quality and what it tastes like.

It tastes good. [graphic whooshing]

This is Kin Spritz Energizing Flow.

And this comes in at $6 a can. [register bell rings]

So this says gently caffeinated and it has 50 milligrams.

The average coffee, from what I’m told,

it has about 100 milligrams. [bottles clanging]

So it doesn’t seem that crazy to me.

It does kind of fit in the category with Red Bull,

all of that Monster, like, that kind of thing.

But also because it’s preaching mind-altering kind of things

that maybe it falls on this side of the category,

but best served socially, right?

And, so, you don’t socially drink energy drinks, right?

You don’t socially drink, you know,

people don’t corral around that.

And I think people definitely corral around, you know,

drinking rituals that typically involve alcohol.

Alright, we’re gonna go ahead and crack this open.

[ring tab pops]

What color you think it is? [laughs]

Y’all. [gentle music]

It’s very herbaceous backed with strawberries.

It doesn’t taste bad.

There’s a bitter component,

like, kind of wild strawberries.

Yeah, I’m not sure what to make of it.

It tastes like I would be drinking this

because I want to get to the finish line.

I want the benefit of what this would give me.

I don’t think that there’s much pleasure in drinking it.

There wasn’t much pleasure in, like,

the first beer I ever had,

but, like, the end goal was to get from point A to point B,

like, to get to the finish line

on how it would make you feel.

It doesn’t feel like an alcohol-alternative,

but maybe because it has caffeine in it

and that you get that ump that some people

would put it in the category. [graphic whooshing]

Next up is Aplos. [smooth jazz music]

This is called Arise.

This comes in at $44 [register bell rings]

and this is also labeled

as a functional non-alcoholic spirit.

An alternative to [bottles clanging]

drinking in your social situations as a brain stimulant,

instead of killing your brain cells with alcohol,

you wanna enlighten them with this functional,

non-alcoholic spirit.

To me, what it seems like is they’re marketing

to smart people [laughs] right?

It’s like, This is your secret power.

Like, this is how you’re gonna thrive, right?

In those social settings, you’re there, you’re clear-minded,

you know what’s going on.

And at that price point, $44, [register bell rings]

in a kind of weird bottle size, like, 575 milliliters.

When you break that down,

that’s kind of an expensive per ounce.

I was always taught you can’t sell

a $800 bottle of wine if you don’t have one.

Alright, so we’re gonna crack this open here.

After today, I’m gonna be so much smarter

than my years, right?

[label crackling] [glass clinking]

It [laughs] smells like I just walked into,

like, a men’s fragrance store.

You know when you go in the fancy bathrooms

and they have the incense stuck in that thing, like,

that it’s just, like, so, like, masculine and strong.

That’s what it kind of smells like.

It’s the lemon verbena.

This actually smells really good. [chuckles]

Like, cucumber.

On that taste, it tastes like lemon rind,

lots of lemon zest in it.

Bitter that kind of grabs a hold of you.

Wheat grass, it smells like it could be sweet,

but it’s not sweet at all.

Feels like there’s some heat coming from somewhere.

It’s not medicinal.

And to be honest with you, it tastes,

for lack of a better term, it tastes like high fashion.

It would be interesting to, like,

kind of see the effects of what these have

because that’s what they’re selling you.

And otherwise I’d drink water, right?

To pay this kind of money, [register bell rings]

you wanna see the outcome of what it’s selling you, right?

It’s, like, you drink Red Bull,

like, you wanna be energized, right?

Like, that’s what they’re selling you.

I would keep an eye on it, like, you know,

I think this one you’d have to jump in yourself

to see if you felt any effects.

[graphic whooshes] It’s fun and exciting

to witness what’s happening.

This doesn’t happen without a societal change.

And how we look at our relationship to alcohol

and how we look at our relationship with our bodies.

And I’m super psyched to be a part of it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s so many other alternatives out there

and it feels like there’s new ones coming every single day.

[vibrant music]

I used to have this job where I worked in the kitchen.

I used to be so hot, he didn’t have any air conditioner,

and he basically said,

I can spend the money to get the AC fixed,

or you guys can stay back here

and drink beer all during out the shift,

’cause it was so hot, you would sweat it out

and we’re like, We’re gonna drink the beer, right?

And [laughs] so, I don’t know if that’s legal nowadays.