Several years ago, I made a January visit to a friend in the UK. “Would you like a non-alcoholic gin and tonic?” her husband asked us as we chatted in the afternoon. I’m always game to try something new, and the drink he brought hit all sorts of interesting notes on my tastebuds, mixing beautifully with the tonic. It wasn’t quite a G&T, but I didn’t care. It was delicious. Later, he brought out the bottle—it was Seedlip, one of the first non-alcoholic spirits to come on the scene in 2015.

A week or so later, I was having a cocktail at the Savoy’s American Bar, which had just been named the best bar in the world. I was chatting with the bartenders, while sipping a drink served on a pedestal with moss, modeled after a forest. They were excited about the trend they were seeing toward “no and low” drinks—which contained either a very small amount of alcohol or none at all. One of them produced a bottle of Seedlip, telling me about the non-alcoholic cocktails they were crafting with the different varieties. 

A lot has changed in those intervening years. Though I still write regularly about wine, cocktails and other forms of alcoholic beverages, I find myself consuming less of them these days. Pregnancy, parenthood and my physical health have made eschewing alcohol the wiser, and often less painful, choice. 

During the pandemic, I decided to do a Dry January—my first, since drinking has always been part of my job. I felt so much better that month, and so much worse when I tried to return to a regular glass of wine. But I missed everything I’d enjoyed about mixing an interesting drink or sipping a glass of bubbly for a special occasion. I’ve rarely sipped for the buzz as I’m more interested in the alchemy of flavor, and I was getting bored with tea and water—even when I tried to trick myself with spa-like infusions. 

Then I remembered my experience with Seedlip—a drink that felt sophisticated, even simply mixed with tonic. I knew that there were beginning to be other beverages in this category—spirits, beer, wine, even pre-mixed non-alcoholic cocktails, but I hadn’t tried them. The spirits especially fascinated me, but I worried that I’d be stuck with an expensive bottle that I wouldn’t like. 

My story is hardly unique—many of us are drinking less or not at all. There are a million reasons why this might be the case—maybe alcohol doesn’t mix with your medication or you want to have an evening with friends and not wake up feeling sluggish. Whatever the reason might be, the no and low category that I heard about for the first time back in the UK is now burgeoning worldwide—and only continuing to expand—which is great news for those of us who want to drink something adult, complex and sophisticated without the alcohol. 

I set out to try as many non-alcoholic drinks as I could—beer, wine, spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails. I had no idea what I was getting into. Seedlip might have been the first, but it has been joined by many spirits, aperitifs and herbal concoctions. Zero-proof cocktails range from simple, like a spirit and tonic, to spins on the classics, and combinations I’ve never considered before, the NA wine scene is growing and the beer scene is practically exploding.

I put together a rotating tasting panel based on interests and together we tried 176 drinks and mixers, not including 12 types of non-alcoholic bitters (that’s right, traditional bitters are made with alcohol, and depending on how much you put in, they can really up the ABV of your drink). 

Even so, it’s clear that I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of this exciting, brimming category, which means that there is plenty of work still ahead to keep this guide relevant. 

It’s important to note that the beverages we tried were either personal purchases of mine, or solicited samples from the brands themselves, with no promise of positive coverage. Without the generosity of so many members of this growing drink community, I would never have been able to do a tasting on this scale, and I am very grateful. 

Selfishly, I was hoping to find my own new favorite sips—sans alcohol. 

Spoiler alert: I did find new favorite drinks. You’ll find tasting notes for each of the beverages we tried, as well as some resources for continuing a no- or low-alcohol journey. You can skip to the tabs that interest you most, or read through them all. I hope you’ll find this to be a helpful guide to refer to in January and beyond, and that you will return for updates which are planned for at least twice a year (generally sometime in the summer to be ready for “Sober October” and in December for “Dry January”). If there are brands or products you’d like me to review, along with the panel, for the next guide update, please drop me a line at cara@inlandempiremedia.com and we’ll see what we can do. If you want to share your new favorites, share or request a recipe, or just say hi, you’re welcome to do that, too.