They also make St. Ember, what they call a “plant magic” spirit, designed to lift you up without the negative effects of alcohol. I combined St. Ember with a little soda for a complex mocktail that was smokey and woody from its ginger, cardamom, and palo santo extract. It tasted a bit like a crystal shop smells, but it’s not all about the flavor — it also has 100 mg of lion’s mane per serving, designed to ignite cognition and put you in a better mood.

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• The brand has a few other enticing botanical flavors, too, like Spice 94 and Garden, with notes of allspice and pea, respectively.
• Ghia Strawberry and Orange Blossom Le Fizz is bubbly and sweet, with a jammy, floral, kombucha-like flavor and a touch of pruny-ness and medicinal herb.
• Founded by a former hydroponic farmer, Little Saints has an approach that combines food science and sacred plant medicines.
• We also love that the brand gives up to $2 million each year towards trail and park cleanups, maintenance projects, construction, and access.

Très Rosé comes in packs of cute 8-ounce cans or shareable 750 mL bottles. Seedlip was born after founder Ben Branson was given a “sickly sweet pink mocktail” at a restaurant one night. Inspired to create an alternative, and combining his love of nature with his family’s farming background, Branson founded Seedlip to deliver distilled spirits sans artificial flavors. I tried out their Notas de Agave flavor, a tequila alternative that, while it doesn’t really taste too much like tequila, has that same refreshing, summery, zingy taste. It has notes of prickly pear, damiana, and peppercorn that made it subtly sweet and pleasantly smooth to drink on its own — but it was even better once I added lime.

We continuously update this list with new favorites that meet the following criteria. I have something of a love-hate relationship with the faux spirits that’ve exploded onto the scene since Seedlip began to prove there was a market for nonalcoholic distilled … well, water. They tend to either lean too hard into the bitter, trying-to-be-an-amaro profile, or throw in enough herbs and botanicals to compensate for not actually being gin.

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Lyre’s is a force to be reckoned with in the booze-free market, coming up with cracking alternatives to gin, spiced rum and more. Another aesthetically pleasing option in its characterful blue bottle, Sea Arch is made from sea kelp, juniper berries, angelica root, cucumber, grapefruit, blood orange and cardamom from the Devon coast. It’s a tasty blend of botanicals (think saffron, citrus blossom and vanilla), but we’d suggest sticking to just one or two, as each 50ml serving contains 6g of sugar (20% of your daily recommended allowance). In the short term, if you’re drinking fewer units of alcohol in one session, you’re less likely to get drunk, meaning almost certainly better sleep and less chance of moping around searching for ‘hangover cures’ the next day. Gnista Barreled Oak aims for the flavors of bourbon, but it reminded us more of a fizzless malty beer and vinegary barbecue sauce. Gnista Floral Wormwood, which was also quite vinegary, brought to mind canned peaches and vegetable stock.

Remarkably well balanced, this canned, the 14 best nonalcoholic drinks of 2024, by food & wine carbonated aperitivo does bittersweet better than most drinks we’ve tested. These drinks can also be expensive, some confoundingly so, and splurging on a bottle only to find it not to your taste can be a real buzzkill. We’ve tried to describe the flavor notes and challenges of all of our picks, but every palate is different. If you live near an NA bevs store (many are popping up around the country), we highly recommend visiting in person, as stores are often eager to offer samples.

Lyre’s Pink London Non-Alcoholic Spirit

We liked how different the two spirits from Tilden—Tandem and Lacewing—are from each other. Tandem is a gingery dark-and-stormy–esque drink, and Lacewing is a lighter mix of green flavors. But other drinks, like Curious Elixirs or Aplos, achieve these flavor profiles more successfully, and testers who dislike the taste of stevia found Tilden’s spirits offputting.

• Created by biologist turned bartender, Paul Mathew, bittersweet Everleaf Forest makes for a great spritz base (just top up with non-alc fizz or tonic).
• It has notes of prickly pear, damiana, and peppercorn that made it subtly sweet and pleasantly smooth to drink on its own — but it was even better once I added lime.
• Seedlip Garden 108 and Pentire Adrift are somewhat similar—both are clear, bright, vegetal spirits—but Garden 108 is sweeter, less tart, and more subtle.
• In the short term, if you’re drinking fewer units of alcohol in one session, you’re less likely to get drunk, meaning almost certainly better sleep and less chance of moping around searching for ‘hangover cures’ the next day.
• Some tasters were put off, finding the aroma reminiscent of mothballs.

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Featuring adaptogens, botanicals, and ferments, these booze-free spirits are named after their desired moods including Livener, Social, and Nightcap. Both Le Rosé and its white counterpart Le Blanc are made from real French wine that’s had its alcohol removed. Besides that, it offers everything you want in a sparkling wine, with tiny bubbles, complex minerality, and a flavor that begs to be paired with rich dishes and poured into a gorgeous Champagne glass. Athletic Brewing Co. is by far the most popular nonalcoholic craft beer, and that’s for good reason.

You’ll still enjoy the same refreshing citrus notes, alongside zingy ginger (which did a great job of tricking us into thinking we were drinking something boozier then we were). The OG non-alcoholic drink, Seedlip is distilled like a spirit and flavoured with botanicals — lemon peel, cardamom, pimento berries — similar to gin. Our panel knocked back 137 non-alcoholic spirits, wines and beers, telling us how they found each drink’s flavour, so you don’t waste your time with anything sub-par.

No. 2 is a well-balanced sweet and salty bottled cocktail with a nice spicy kick. Sour and savory with herbal notes, Adrift is complex but not punishing, and it lends itself well to mixing. A bit of a thinker, this drink kept us sipping, trying to figure out its flavors and how best to mix it. There may be zero alcohol, but the flavors are 100 percent dynamic and unique. At VegOut, we curate the best of the best vegan products, so you don’t have to.

The founders of hiyo wanted to make an alternative to alcohol that was as delicious as it was healthy. The seltzers come in 12-ounce cans and are full of organic adaptogens to counteract the effects of stress on the body and nootropics to support healthy brain functions, along with real fruit juice. They have a smooth, fruity taste that’s surprisingly sweet (but not too sweet) for a drink that only has three grams of added sugar.

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The flavors were artificial and off; our testers likened various flavors to lip balm, sunscreen, and rotten fruit. You would be much better served by going with almost any vitamin-free conventional-flavored seltzer or soda. Curious Elixirs offers eight booze-free cocktails with daring, unusual flavor combinations. We think Curious Elixir No. 2 is the winner, with its approachable but complex, unique but familiar blend of pineapple, jalapeño, and lime. Curious likens the drink to a cross between a dark and stormy and a spicy pineapple margarita, and the beverage’s salt content provides a savory edge that we found delectable. We’d play on that by serving this tepache-like drink in a salt-rimmed glass to further tease out the margarita comparison.

French Bloom Le Rose Alcohol-Free Sparkling Wine

Tasting of garden peas, cucumber, and thyme, Seedlip Garden 108 is vegetal and herby, inviting you through layers of green, grassy flavors. Mix in some soda water, and the acid and sweetness bloom, creating a refreshing, mature alternative to a flavored seltzer. We liked this spirit mixed with seltzer and lemon; we don’t recommend this as a beverage to sip neat. Some tasters said it smelled and tasted of mouthwash and aftershave, but those flavors mostly mellowed out into a pleasant piney taste once we mixed it with seltzer or tonic. Seedlip Garden 108 and Pentire Adrift are somewhat similar—both are clear, bright, vegetal spirits—but Garden 108 is sweeter, less tart, and more subtle.

Bitters & Soda Grapefruit was too one-note, like a simple seltzer, and Bitters & Soda Classic Dry Aromatic was too dry, tasting of mouthwash. Casamara Club Fora and Casamara Club Isla were only faintly flavored, offering mere whispers of strawberry and ginger, respectively, mixed into cans of seltzer. Wilfred’s packs enough of an alcohol-like sting and bitter edge to be compelling, and it has enough sweetness and spice to be balanced and welcoming. The odd harmony of Arise finds a fitting home in Aplos Kola Fashioned, an earthy, cucumbery mocktail layered with warm spices and ginger that stings the nose. Some tasters were put off, finding the aroma reminiscent of mothballs.

Parch’s Prickly Paloma and Spiced Piñarita were overly sweet and lacking in complexity, needing a stronger hit of acid to elevate them. Kin Lightwave tasted of artificial caramel, mushroom, and licorice—a bit too funky for our tastes. Caleño Dark & Spicy lacked complexity and was overly sweet, tasting of butterscotch candy and artificial coconut. Caleño Light & Zesty was underwhelming but inoffensive, tasting of banana, bay leaf, and lychee.