Everleaf’s aperitifs are designed for making spritz-style drinks with the addition of a mixer
What a difference a decade makes, eh? Pop into pretty much any pub, restaurant or bar today and you’d be hard pressed to find one that doesn’t offer at least one dedicated no/low-alcohol option on its menu. It’s a far cry from the days when choices for anyone not drinking alcohol were largely limited to sugary soft drinks, a plain old lime and soda, or, if you dared to be different, a tonic water with a few dashes of bitters thrown in.
No/low spirits have become big business indeed. Since the introduction of the unquestionably groundbreaking Seedlip in 2015 – the botanical ‘spirit’ that was first developed by entrepreneur Ben Branson – the category has rapidly expanded in almost every direction, with mindful alternatives appearing in most spirits categories, from gin through to rum.
According to industry analyst IWSR, the category growth rate (in terms of volume) is expected to sit at 7% year-on-year until 2026, with 41% of current no/low consumers choosing no or low options on certain occasions, but opting for full-strength on others. This demonstrates the potential flexibility of the different products, as well as consumers’ acceptance of a more moderated lifestyle.
Substitute or something new
However, one conundrum I’ve encountered – a conundrum that refuses to go away – concerns the authenticity and ease of use of the new raft of no/low spirits. Many are specifically modelled to mimic existing flavour profiles, a premise that brings its own set of R&D challenges, whereas others aim to move the dial in a completely different direction, but are perceptibly more challenging to use at home.
Dawn Davies, The Whisky Exchange
‘The major driver in no/low tends to be in the on-trade and the majority of these tend to be gin-style [botanical-based] drinks, which are simple serves,’ explains Dawn Davies, the head buyer for specialist online spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange. ‘It allows the same ritual of a gin and tonic, but without the booze: think of it like a vape instead of a cigarette.
‘However,’ she continues, ‘the major challenge comes when you take the more innovative spirits out of the back bar and into the home cocktail cabinet, as many of them are too unfamiliar for customers to be truly comfortable with.’
One of the earliest innovators in this space was Jake Burger, the creative force behind the hugely successful Portobello Road Distillery gins, who, back in 2019, took the decision to launch Temperance, a significantly lower-abv variant at 4.2%. That decision involved some challenges of its own, despite Temperance receiving widespread critical and commercial acclaim.
Jake Burger, Portobello Road Distillery
‘We put Temperance together in the early days of this category and I think that perhaps the consumer went in a different direction at that time than how we felt they would,’ Burger explains. ‘My thoughts were that people would be looking for a straight substitution – a lower-or no-alcohol alternative to their established favourites – and we endeavoured to try to make Temperance a parallel product to Portobello Road London Dry.
‘In all honesty, we tried to make Temperance as a 0.0% originally,’ he continues, ‘and I just couldn’t get it to the point where we were proud to put our name on the bottle. That 4.2% was a bit of a compromise: the only way we could get it tasting and feeling how we wanted.’
Genuine alternative
For Paul Mathew, bartender, former conservation biologist and founder of Everleaf, which makes a trio of differently styled botanical non-alc spirits first launched in 2019, the challenge of creating something new yet simple to use at home was what drove the brand’s creative direction from the very beginning.
Paul Mathew, Everleaf
‘I wanted something that was as good as any of the other products on our back bar – something with flavour,…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/spirits/no-low-spirits-a-growing-category-plus-five-to-try-534829/
