July 30, 2025 • 45 mins
Nearly 30% of drinking age adults are choosing to either abstain from consuming alcohol or drink less. Whether to drink alcohol or not is a personal choice and should be respected. Now, more and better options for alcohol-free and often sugar-free beverages exist. Fearless Fabulous You’s Melanie Young highlights her no- and -low alcohol finds from Tales of the Cocktail 2025 as well as low-alcohol options for aperitivos and wines. Choose what to drink on your terms and always choose moderation.
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Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:20):
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Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and welcome to another episode that I hope
will inspire enlighten you to live life to your fullest
and always on your terms. You can follow me at
Melanie Fabulous, check out my step stack at Melanie Fabulous,
and of course read my book for Less Fabulous You,
(01:03):
Lessons on Living Life on Your Terms, which you can
get on Amazon. We are going to talk about what
to drink when you're not drinking that's right? And what
inspired this well a lot of things. I just attended
Tales of the Cocktail, which is the largest gathering of
bar tenders and spirits industry professionals from around the world.
(01:26):
It was created in two thousand and three here in
my new home of New Orleans, which is the birthplace
of the cocktail and has it has some of the
greatest cocktail bars in the world, and it is where
the home of the Sazarak, the French seventy five, the Ramos,
Gin Fizz, Cafe Brulau, and other legendary cocktails. I have
(01:49):
been attending Tales of the Cocktail with my husband David
for many, many years. It is probably like my tenth
but in twenty ten I was the only, probably the
only teatotaler Tales because I attended after I had finished
treatment for breast cancer and I was not drinking, and
I remember that there was really not a lot of
(02:10):
great options for me. There was coffee, there was tea,
there was soda, There was water and juice, and the
juices all had too much sugar, and I remember lamenting
the David, Gosh, there's just nothing for people who don't
imbibe and consume alcohol, and I want better options now.
(02:31):
We all remember when we were young and you go
out with your mom and dad or I would, and
they order you a Shirley Temple or a Tom Collins
so you feel sophisticated. And I still like a good
Shirley Temple in Tom Collins, but I wanted more, I
wanted better options. But here's the good news. Since then,
and that was two thousand and ten, we're now in
(02:53):
twenty twenty five. The no alcohol movement you can call
what it is, but people who there's actually a thirty
percent of the US population adult drinking age population, choose
not to consume alcohol. Now it's actually at a higher
level than ever. Many people decided to stop consuming alcohol
(03:16):
after COVID nineteen because maybe they were consuming a little
bit too much during COVID nineteen. A lot of people
are older like me. I'm over sixty, and I don't
metabolize certain types of alcohol as well as I used to.
And I also have, you know, middle age gain or
actually senior age gay menopause belly, and I'm always trying
(03:37):
to lose it, and consuming too much of anything seems
to go straight to my belly. I do okay with wine,
that's a whole nother story. I do fine with wine.
I drink it with food, It's fine. But vodka, tequila,
gin who I can do I can become pretty weird
on all those things and not very nice, so I
have to cut back. So here's the good news. If
(04:00):
you were in the same boat as me, Maybe you
don't drink because you're pregnant, or you're trying to become pregnant,
or you don't are unable to metabolize alcohol. Maybe you
had consumed a lot of alcohol and you have chosen
to stop drinking to change your lifestyle and behavior because
you liked alcohol a little too much. Maybe your religious
(04:23):
beliefs dictate that you do not drink alcohol for religious reasons.
Whatever your reason, it's your personal choice. And I absolutely
hate it when somebody says to me socially, why aren't
you drinking? Well, it's none of your business. Why aren't
you drinking? You should never say why aren't you doing anything?
Why aren't you eating? Why don't you eat me? Why
(04:43):
don't you drink? You never asked that question. Just say
what would you like to drink? What can I get you?
What are your preferences? And if you're entertaining at home,
you should always have some really great non alcohol options
for guests. This also goes whether you're doing a bra
I shower, or a wedding or any kind of event.
There should always be options that are good for people
(05:07):
who choose not to invite. You know, the last thing
you want is for someone to over indulge and then
go drive home, because I'm very much against drinking and
driving and it's against the law. So you need to
have options. But here's the good news. So I went
to Tails of the Cocktail this year with the soul
mission to find better low and low alcohol products. I
(05:27):
did this last year as well, and boyit, there's some
really great options out there. So I'm going to share
them with you. And I just want to say from
the onset, I have no commercial relationship with any of
these brands. I just happen to like them. I do
have to check my notes, so if I'm looking down,
I'm checking my notes for accuracy because it's a lot
and I'll always remember everything. But these are just a
(05:49):
few that I liked that I'm going to share with you,
and hopefully wherever you are you can find them in
your market. I'll also provide you a handy source website
where you can find all sorts of no and low
alcohol products. I'm going to start with no alcohol and
I'm going to start with what you just have at home.
For people who don't like to drink water all the time,
(06:11):
I mean, I don't know about you, but I get
really tired of just drinking still water. And I drink
at least eight glasses a day. So sometimes I'll add
crushed cucumber or berries or oranges or lime and lemon
to spike up my water. And lately what I've been
doing is I've been taking frozen fruit, like frozen strawberries
(06:31):
and blueberries that we have for smoothies in the freezer,
and I'll put them in my water so they're like
little mini berry cubes to make my water taste better. Well,
that's like level one. Level two is to go for
fizzy water that has some flavor in it. I again
no commercial relationship, but I went gaga over Topachka, which
(06:54):
was one of the sponsors of Tails of the Cocktail.
They have all sorts of really great flavor with waters. Now.
I like the blueberry met that was my absolute favorite.
I like Topachica because the bubbles are very very fine,
kind of like with the way I like my sparkling wines,
like champagne, very fine bubbles. I like that because I
have gastro esophagal reflux disorder and big bubbles make me burp.
(07:18):
And the last thing I want to do, whether I'm
talking to you or talking to anybody socially, is belch.
So I love the topuchico. They also make great mixers.
I also think that tea is a great iced tea,
herbal tea, green teas, those make great mixers. If you
want to create an alcohol free cocktail. We don't call
(07:41):
them mocktails because you're mocking something and we don't mock
We just have true, non alcohol alcohol free whatever you
want to call it, zero proof cocktails. Tea is a
great bass. I like green tea, iced is a bass.
Another one is coconut water. I love coconut water mixed
with other types of no or low alcohol products to
(08:04):
create that layer and level that you want that creates balance,
but lots of interesting flavors. And I have also discovered
some really terrific sparkling coconut waters, so I always keep
that in refrigerator. It's great for hydration. Also, the other
product I recommend is if you can find vegetable juices
(08:25):
or reduced sugar juices, they're great. I don't particularly like.
I like fresh juice period I'd rather squeeze my own
and make my own then go buy bottle. But she
usually has added sugar and sugar, and for me, sugar
mixed with any alcohol is combustible in my brain, I
don't do well. So those are some things you could have.
(08:46):
There's also coffee if you want to make coffee drinks.
A little tip is when I go traveling, I take
the little packets of nescafe that they have in my
hotel and I'll take them home with me and I'll
use those if I'm making people coffee drinks, coffee beverages,
and I also use it as a scrub on my
face with coconut coconut oil. So I often take all
(09:08):
the packages of teas and sugar, teas and coffee so
I can drink them later. So those are some basic
products you can have that are no alcohol options that
taste a little bit better than water, and you can
enhance with other products. So let's talk about that. As
I said about thirty percent, which is almost ten percent,
then it used to be of alcohol of adult age,
(09:32):
drinking age adults or not consuming or choosing to consume
less hard alcohol or any alcohol. So I'm going to
explain non alcohol versus low alcohol. A non alcohol apperteef,
for example, an aperteef is what you drink. You drink
(09:52):
before meal to aparto open up your palate to prepare
for your meal. It's very popular in Europe. They have
this what I call the mad hour where everybody gets
their apperol spritzes, their Campari sprints. Is they're spritzes which
are light low alcohol beverages and they have them before
they have a meal, and it's great. Everybody should do that.
A non alcohol operatife usually contains less than point five
(10:16):
percent alcohol by volume. Okay, point oh five percent. Let
me clarify that point oh five percent okay, So you
can look in the labels to see they're all required
to list what percentage they have. In comparison, in alcohols
(10:36):
and spirits have like forty to seventy percent alcohol by volume,
depending on what it is, so it's a big difference.
So low alcohol is usually in the spirit end around
twenty percent. Okay, So you've got o five for no
alcohol or less oh five percent twenty percent eighteen to
twenty percent lower alcohol, and then the regular forty to
(10:57):
seventy percent for spirits wine just as an example, just
so I bring that up. Wine on average is thirteen
point five percent alcohol by volume. However, some of the
great my favorite lower alcohol wines, Champagne, sparkly wine usually
eleven percent to twelve point five percent alcohol by volume
(11:20):
versus thirteen to fourteen percent. Another one is dry reaslings
Orvieto wines. The wines of Orvieto. I was just there
tasting their gurkettos. They're amazing. Eleven to twelve percent. So
many wines have lower alcohol. Here's a tip. If the
wine is made in a cooler climate, okay, a cooler climate,
(11:46):
higher altitude, there is likelihood it has lower alcohol by volume.
Hotter climates tend to have higher alcohol. It's a rule
of thumb. Of course, there's variations, but that's just a tip.
Vino Verity wines and Portugal rate lower alcohol all wines.
Same with Albertino from Spain, white wines crisp and white,
and the average alcohol by volume is eleven percent twelve percent. Okay,
(12:10):
so that's the wine end of it. I went in
down drink champagne, okay, eleven percent to twelve percent and
a good brute has minimal residual sugar. So here's what
I have found when I have been looking around for
no alcohol options. And I'm going to get to my
little tip sheet here down here the first one which
(12:33):
I love, and these were sent to me. It's called Amethysts. Okay,
I love the name already because I love amethysts. You
can see I have a beautiful purple painting behind me
that is from my gifted cousin, Hunt Slonem look him up,
Hunt Sloanem, and it's a beautiful purple painting that he
gave my mother, the Purple Lady. So naturally I have
a thing for amethysts. These are great. This is the bottle.
(12:54):
It's really attractive. It's got amethysts written on it, and
there's four different kind So this is a no alcohol
botanical beverage that you can mix with your coconut water,
your tea, your sparkling beverage, or you can make it
into a low alcohol apartef sprints it. It's no alcohol,
(13:18):
it is botanical. There's about thirteen calories no sugar. Love
that and it was started by two brothers who worked
in the Craft whiskey distillery. In Bluffton, South Carolina, beautiful
place if you haven't been, and they wanted to create
a no alcohol product because they had read that at
the time, roughly twenty percent of the population had chosen
(13:40):
not to consume alcohol. Now we're at thirty percent, so
this is a big movement. So they created these organic
brands called Amethyst. They have four blens i'll call them.
One is blueberry ginger mint, and one watermelon lime, lemon
(14:04):
cucumber serrano. That one has a bit of a bite
in the back, so watch it. And grapefruit basil. The
one I have is the lemon cucumber serrano. That's got
the bit of the bite. I tell you, this one
is really good with tomato juice. Then you have a
no alcohol bloody marry. Very good tomato juice are really
(14:24):
really good bloody marry mix. This one is the grapefruit basil.
I love this one. It's really good with juice or tea.
I like the basil because I happen to love herbs
in my beverages. I think the more products should have herbs,
and of course I love this blueberry ginger mint ginger.
(14:47):
When I was going to chemotherapy, everybody told me to
drink ginger tea. So ginger tea. I brew ginger, I
drink ginger tea. I still love ginger. I think it's
very soothing on the stomach. I love this combination of blueberry, mint,
and ginger. Probably mixes all together and make a great cocktail.
So they're called amethysts. The retail price suggested as twenty
nine ninety nine. They also provide on the website a
(15:10):
recipe for turning these into freezer pops using fresh blueberries
and a gaby and the botanicals and coconut milk. It
sounds really great. Speaking of coconut milk is another great
mixer if you want a creamier type of cocktail. So
that's amethyst and on average thirteen calories in one point
(15:33):
five ounces, so thirteen calories, no sugar, totally botanical. I
love this product. I wish I did have an affiliation
with them. I think they're awesome. Okay, moving quite along,
I also found I'm finding these interesting products that are
like pint based and barley based. Actually, I'm going to
pull this one up. This is one that came to me.
(15:54):
It just came to me. It's called grass. I guess
grassy like grass gra C g R A S S I.
It's organic barley water with vitamin C D and zinc.
This one is lemon, grass and ginger. I like it.
There's also a cucumber mint. This one citrus ment. Here.
(16:17):
It's actually the one. I'm drinking citrus mint right here.
Citrus mint. This is a little bit of sugar. It's
got roughly eight eight grams of added sugar, so still low,
but it has it. It's thirty five calories in a
sixteen ounce serving. It's a little grassy tasting. My husband
(16:39):
David said he tasted hey, but I actually like it.
It's like water but enhanced with a little bit of
herbaceousness in it. I think these are good though, and
it was developed by people who wanted to have healthier,
functional beverages with lower sugar. So grassy organic barley water.
I have no idea what the price point is. They
(17:00):
were just sent to me and I'm still tasting them,
and they're so good. I may have to have a
sip right now because I'm thirsty. Young citrus mint mint
is so amazing. So that's another fun product I've just
discovered now, Pathfinder. I discovered this one it Tails with
the Cocktail. Last year Tails with Cocktail thankfully started a
(17:23):
no and low bar. And I love going and trotting
in there and tasting everything and beating all the people
because you learn the most interesting stories and taste some
products you like and some you don't. I like Pathfinder.
It is a fermented and distilled hemp based liquid that
can be used as a spread. So it's herbal. It's
(17:44):
an herbal elixir, a herbal lickor like in tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
What's great about herbal lixers is they're also really great digestives.
If you had too much to eat and you want
to sell your stomach, they make really great digestives. This
is fir made from hemp and copper pot and it's
got an alchemy of wormwood, which is kind of like
what they put into pasty, so that's kind of interesting.
Angelica root, ginger, sage, juniper, saffron, orange peel, and wild
(18:12):
crafted Douglas fur. It's got very intense herbaceous character. I
would drink this spritzed with just club soda or some
topa Chica fizzy water. I would also probably try it
with this grassy product. I haven't Yeah, because I don't
have any, but I think it would be really interesting,
(18:35):
so it's called Pathfinder. I also tasted a product at
this year's Tales of the COCKTAILK Giffords g I F
F A r DS. These are let me inclute my notes.
These are syrups that are sweet, but they're not like
you know, high fruit dose corn syrup. They're derived. The
(18:55):
sweetness is from French sugar beets, so it's gonna be sweet,
but it's made from beees. These are French made products,
lactose free, gluten free, and vegan. They have a three
year self live. They're great for zero proof cocktails or
low abb alcohol bove i Am creations. I liked the
Pompeo Moose was my favorite. I also had a really
(19:16):
great elderflower cocktail. I think the one that I liked
the most was pineapple. They had mixed it with coconut
milk and some herbs, and it was the most refreshing
cocktail with just the coconut milk or coconut cree maybe
in pineapple, kind of like a no alcohol peanut colada.
But then they added RBS to it, which is made
it fabulous. Again. They have ginger as well. Gingers like
(19:40):
the product of ginger and elderflower are like the end
products right now, and mint and blueberry. I'm finding so
that product is called Gifford's g I F F ar Ds.
They are distributed in the United States. I tasted all
the other cocktails. I think they're just awesome. You would
mix those. I think they make a great sprints Okay
(20:01):
in the I like amorros and formose. Formoth is a
great product if you want to have a low alcohol
by volume. Sprits for moose are I'm still exploring these.
They're a type of bitter. They're very you know driver sweet.
Formoth for mooth is used in Martini's. I've been trying
them just on ice with a slice of lime, and
(20:23):
once I did it with frozen grapes is my little
ice cubes. It's really good. I'm still exploring these and learning.
But some of the best for moose I've ever tasted,
or from France, Italy and Spain just really awesome products.
And I really would love to go over to France,
Italy and Spain just drink for mouth and learn more.
(20:44):
So with that in mind, the other is the Amorrow's
it's wonderful more digestives that are very popular, often as
an after dinner drink, but I like them sprits to
give that herbaceousness character to a low alcohol cocktail. Opious,
not to be confused with opiom Opius from Opious Distillery,
(21:06):
is a no alcohol a type of amorrow. Okay, no alcohol,
we're still It was found in twenty twenty by two
quote restless cocktail enthusiasts who wanted to create a non
alcohol option for those people who choose not to drink
because it's a big market and a big marketing opportunity.
(21:29):
They wanted something that had good quality, that was all
natural and really great flavor. They gave me a whole
long discussion about how they do this alchemistic alchemy and
reviving old recipes and batching and mixing all these different spices.
It was very quite intense, but at the end of
(21:50):
the day, it's all about the proof in what I tasted,
and these are really terrific products. There's four styles. The
first one's cold and this is a very new product,
so I don't know if you'll see your market yet,
but hopefully you will. Opious. I tasted rubetto Rubetto has
it's a lixer basically orange peel, Gentian shinato, which is
(22:10):
a type of Italian orange. I had to look it
up and rhubarb. This is like notes of orange and
Gentian and a little bit of bitter. Really, I would
just pop some pub soda or sparkling water in that
and sip it as a spritz. Next one was called Amorrow.
It was angelica, lemon, peel, coriander, and almond, my personal
(22:32):
favorite because I love anything that has a nutty characteristic
to it. It was like lemony, nutty. Again, sprits it.
The third one was called Negretto, made with sugar beets. Again,
sugar beets. We talked about them in the Gifferts. French oak,
roasted coffee beans. Okay, this one. If you wanted the
aversion of an alcohol free espresso martini, this is your product.
(22:57):
Find an alcohol free voga. Not going on this show
because I didn't taste those, but I'm really delicious and sultry.
I got notes of toffee and French oak. I would
actually just put it in my coffee and spike it
up and make it really good, or pour it over
ice cream because I think These would be really good
over ice cream because you can cope with all these products,
(23:18):
you know, pour them over pancakes. And the last one
was called Albeto alb e do O. It was Fennel
juniper Cardamin Clothes loved this product. I love Fenel based
ani spased products. I've been a drinker of parano or
ricard and herb sent for years. I drink that as
(23:39):
an app para teef, particularly when I'm in Falfa, France
with some water, and I love that appeeling mouthfeel that
is not sugary. Again, these are really great apt paratifs
to open up your palate before dinner, or if you
can enjoy them as digestives to relax and digest your
mail and have that last sip of the night really delicious. Again,
(24:02):
it's called Opious. I don't have the bottles here, but
they're beautiful, square and very elegant looking. Ritual is a
type of alcohol free dark rum with notes of honey, banana,
bitter orange, cinnamon, annis and really great for creating an
alcohol free mohito or dakri, you know, so freeze it up.
(24:27):
There are a lot of alcohol free options in the
rum gin Scotch category. I didn't taste a lot because
there was just so much, but I did taste ritual
mixed in the beverage. It was really good. Now Here
was the last product I tasted in the alcohol free
The Tales of the cocktail was also one of the
(24:47):
most interesting. It's founded by a woman. It's called Tomo
Tomo Tobala. It's a non alcohol distilled a gave spirit. Now,
gave is what you have when you drink agave products
like tequila, so margaritas and any kind of product like that.
(25:10):
Agave is from Mexico. It's a plant. It takes years
to grow. It's this one is made from the one
hundred percent rare Tobala agave, which is roasted in a
pit oven.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
These are from Wahaka. I actually met the owner, who
is a woman. A woman own She her name is
Amanda Chen and she was formerly a bartender. She, like
many people in the hospitality industry, lost her job during
COVID and didn't know what she was going to do
with the rest of her life. But one of the
things she decided is she was going to stop drinking.
(25:45):
A lot of people did that during COVID. They started
drinking and then they stopped drinking, and that's perfectly fine.
So she said that she was developing coctos and cottaos
in Toronto for many years and the pandemic took her
out of the bar scene completely. So she went to Mexico.
She said it was the only place opened during lockdown
and she was desperate to find new purpose. So she
(26:06):
stopped drinking completely in May twenty twenty one and moved
to Wahaka, and there she started researching agave plants and
trying to figure out a way to create an alcohol
free option. I think this product is terrific. It is
the winner of the twenty twenty four International No Alcohol
(26:27):
Spirits Competition for non alcohol Agavi of the Year. It
is distilled with it's called pomono tomo or tomo. It's
distilled with local botanicals including ginger, passilia mixe, chili, florida, cacao, basil, poleo, camamil,
black cardamoen, nutmeg, cinnamon, hibiscus, rose, petal, lemon, grass, clothes,
(26:49):
and smoked pineapple. Well, it's a mouthful. It tastes so
smoky and soft and smooth. It's delicious. I would probably
put it in my coconut water and maybe try it
in this grassy barley water. It smokes something up. I
think it also be great for cooking. It had that
amazing smokiness that I love. I tend to go herbaceous
(27:12):
and smoky and bitter versus sweet and fruity, two dy
fruity when I that's just me. I hope she does
really a while, Amanda Chad. She was really sweet. She
was pouring it herself. A lot of these are small
companies and they're just out plugging away. They travel around
the country serving their product hoping somebody will talk it up.
And I'm doing it for you, Amanda, and I think
(27:33):
your product's awesome.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It's called Tomino Tomo Tomo Tomo Domino Tomo one of
the earliest products in the non alcohol and we actually
had this founder who's from England.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
His name is Branson, but not related to Richard. I
don't think. He had a big herb farm in the
English countryside and created a product called seed lip. We
interviewed him a zillion years ago. I think he sold
out to a big company DA for him. It was
really the product that kicked off the modern non alcohol
(28:06):
spirits category. In twenty fifteen, so this is still a
very young category. Twenty fifteen is when it kicked off,
and we're in twenty twenty five. All botanicals love the brand.
There's three flagship favors. One is citrus, ginger, all spice
and cardamoen and then there's a garden flavor filled with
(28:27):
herbs and English peas and another spicy one. These are
really great for non alcohol martinis, spiking or boring this
fizzy water whatever I liked it as is with sprits.
Most of these are just spreads because if I just
really want something simple and everybody else is drinking cocktails,
(28:49):
I sprints it or I order my champagne. So it's
called seed Lip. I think it's widely available. I think
some big company bought the brand. It's really awesome. The
other one is which is there a little more syrupy.
They're from Australia, but they're doing they're making inroads. It's
called Liars l Yres. It's found in twenty nineteen by
(29:11):
some Australians. They make a whole line of alcohol free
cocktail ingredients from mixers and basically their goal is to
create alternative non alcohol alternatives Suburban Gin, Triple Sac, Almaretto,
it's all zero proof. One of the most popular is
the coffee liqueur, which they're all very popular and used
(29:32):
frequently by restaurants who now should all offer alcohol free
options for their customers that they use the coffee, the
coffee option for espresso martinis, which are really popular. Years ago,
(29:52):
I did an article on the sessionable cocktail movement. Sessionable
means they're lower alcohol or no alcohol, but usually lower alcohol,
and that means you can drink a few more of
them in sessions without just getting wasted, and I interviewed
a lot of bartenders around the country. I think it
was for seven to fifty daily. I'll pop it up
again on my substack Melanie fabulous. But the whole premise
(30:17):
is that most establishments, dining bars, beverage should offer a fair,
easy to find reason they'll be priced zero proof cocktail menu.
I went to a seminar last year on this topic,
(30:39):
and again, everybody on the everybody on the panel, they
were all bartenders, and they all said, we don't use
the word mocktail. We don't hide and tuck them way
under in the back of the list. They should be
front and center. Much like vegetarian options should be front
and center on the menu. This is important because everybody
nobody wants to feel marginalized because they don't drink same way,
no vegetans. When I go out and realize there's no
(31:01):
food for them, it happens to me a lot. So
I think this is really important because the whole idea
is to make people feel welcome and comfortable wherever they
are and whatever they choose to imbibe. So those are
some of the alcohol free options I have found. There's
a really terrific website. It's called Know and Low, your
(31:23):
online non alcohol bottle shop that you can check. Now,
I'm going to touch on some other products that are
low and also alcohol free. I'm gonna start with alcohol free,
so this is kind of a new movement. I'll be
honest with you. I'm still nervous about trying them because
I had a bad experience once. But THHD beverages are
all over the place here in Louisiana in my supermarket,
(31:48):
and we're legal. They are really making huge inroads and
they provide an alcohol free option for people who still
want to get a little bit of comfort or buzz
when they can sume but they don't want alcohol. One
here in New Orleans. I don't have a sample. It's
called Louis Louie. It's made with something called delta nine,
(32:11):
which I learned is the natural derivata for THHC, and
it comes in different levels. On average is two point
five percent. I have friends who cannot drink alcohol for
medical reasons who do drink the THHC products because they
want that little bit of peaceful, easy feeling when they're social,
and they love Louis Louis. I don't know if you
(32:33):
can get it outside of Louisiana. But this is the
one I tried it tails. It's called Wink Wink, and
I met the founder. This is strawberry lemonade. It's ten
milligrams of THC, so that's a lot. That's like three cocktails.
And this is the smaller one, which is only two
point five milligrams in the mini container. And this one
(32:56):
is tangerine wink. It's These are both seltzers. They're sparkling.
I knows them. David tasted him. He said he liked
the flavors quite a bit. The founder is interesting. He
doesn't even smoke pot. He's just like a finance technology
whiz who said he saw an opportunity to create a
solution to a category, to get these products out and
(33:20):
transported in the marketplace. And they're fairly new, they're very flavorful.
They were being introduced at tails.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
They have zero calories, they have zero carbs, zero protein,
and zero fat.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
So if you're looking for something that is not gonna
have a lot of calories, fat, sugar and all the
stuff you really don't want, these may epet you want
a little bit of buzz, These may work for you.
I have not tasted them yet, David has I'm gonna
taste them in the comfort of my home, probably with
the two point five first, which is the lowest amount.
But they they smelled good and David said they tasted
(34:02):
really great. And if you really are looking for something
that's not alcohol, that is an option for you. And
there's a lot of those. Now this is a growing category.
The THHC category is huge and growing. You're going to
see more of it. You're probably going to see more
conferences tied to this in category. So keep your ears
(34:24):
and eyes open again, try these products in your home first,
don't go out and do it socially. See if they
work for you before you just go out and spend
your money and whatnot. Now, in the time we have left,
I'm a still going to talk about some low alcohol,
low ABV alcohol ba VYE products I really like.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I've always talked about wines that have lower alcohol with
cooler climate. Wines, reasling vino, verities from Portugal, Alberinos from
the coast of Spain, Galithia or Vieto, all terrific options,
sparkling wines, mooths, all great options. When in down sprits,
it it cuts the alcohol, it cuts the flavor, cuts everything,
(35:09):
And those are great options. Now, the product that really
I just loved a lot and probably had to stop
consuming because it was so good it tells of the
cocktail was called low l O dash Fi Fi hi
fi lo fi apartiefs. These are vermouths and amos using
(35:31):
California wine. So just something to clarify here. A lot
of spirits are grain based, Okay grain based vermouth and
tomorrows are botanical and wine based Okay wine based with botanical,
so big difference because they follow in a different category.
They really are spirits, but they're also wine based. I
(35:52):
loved these products. I had them just with I think
they had just water, sparklay water and mixed and they
were just so refreshing. The vermooth one is infused with fenyl, coriander, elderflower.
You've heard those. You've heard those ingredients before, a little
spicy with notes of Gentian. You compare as a mixer
(36:14):
to cut your the alcohol and a regular cocktail or
you can mix it with as a spritz. I had
it with ice. They were serving these little carry these
portable water carriers. I love so refreshing. So the vermooth
one has citrus, elderflower and other spices. It's sixteen point
(36:36):
five percent ABV. So that's low in the spirit category.
If it was a wine category, it'd be high, because
high is like to me, fifteen percent okay, really really good.
The other one is called Gentian amaro citrus fruit ginger,
heard that term before. Exotic flowers and spices with chinconi
(36:56):
bark and bitter roots. You got that bitters. Teen point
five percent alcohol. Chinchoni bark, by the way, is what
they make tonic from. The Historically, gin and tonic was created,
believe or not, many years ago to help sailors not
get sick when they were sailing from Europe to the Americas.
So the gin was safer than water, and the tonic
(37:20):
was better for your stomach. And that's how gin and
tonics were created. And the tonic was from the Chinchona bark,
which is produced in South America and it's used as
a tonic and herb to cure as a medicinal cure
in Indian culture. So again that's why a lot of
(37:40):
amaros are used as curatives or digestives at the end
of Emio, because they had all these herbs and ingredients
that are traditionally used in Indian and historic medicinal practices.
So anyway, these were really good. Okay, So one I
(38:00):
liked here it is. It was the Lo Fi Sweet
romooth with coconut water. Okay, David brought that to me.
It was like nine that it was one hundred degrees
the week of tails of cocktail. I was sweating. I
was so hot, I was sick of water. He brought
me two of those in those great little water bottles,
which I'm gonna carry forever, and I was sucking it down.
I'm like, you sure this doesn't have alcohol on it?
(38:21):
You're sure this doesn't. It had alcohol, but not a lot,
thank god, and I didn't get a buzz. I felt great,
and more importantly, I felt completely hydrated. I think coconut
water is the ultimate hydration. So I loved that product.
The other one that I'm going to sing praises to
from here to the moon, and apparently a lot of
other people do too. It's called La pertivo Nonino botanical drink. Okay.
(38:48):
The Nonino family of the Freely area in Italy is
known for their botanical made centuries old recipe used to
make granpa grappa is you know, a really intense spirit.
Usually have it at the end of a meal. Pure
(39:08):
Italian beauty. They came out with a product. It's all
run by sisters and women. It's amazing. They're wonderful women.
And they came up with the recipe that comes from
an old, carefully guarded recipe created from Silvio and Antonio
no Nina, the guardians of the family spirit tradition in
(39:29):
nineteen twenty eight. And they used to make these products
for medicinal purposes because there was a lot of botanicals
in them as then eventually they made them for pleasure drinks.
They went from medicinal to pleasure and then long story short,
the family is now run by Christina Antonella and ELIZABETHA. Nonino,
(39:53):
just the nicest people, and they brought back this incredible
apartivo that has many, many different botanicals in it. It's fruity,
there's a lot of citrus notes, sens of berries, a
little bit of bitter. Twenty one percent alcohol by volume,
So when you think that vodka is about forty percent
alcohol by volume, whiskey forty to fifty, rum thirty five
(40:15):
to sixty and gin thirty seven to fifty percent, so
this is half the alcohol by volume. Then other spirits.
So drink this, cut it with some soda water or
topachico or something even a little bit of sparkling coconut water. Whatever,
you get a great drink. I love this product. I
don't have it here to show you because I'm out,
(40:38):
but it's a really pretty bottle too. Most of the
bottles have images of women on them and they're very colorful. Again,
the company is no Nino Nono. This product has one
a zillion awards for its quality. Again total botanical, and
you know my attitude is go for go for fresh,
(41:02):
go for anything that's not artificially made. You know, read
the ingredients, ask questions, do your homework. So those are
my various discoveries that I'm bringing you. This one is
another example. It's not No Nino, but it's as pretty
as No Nino. This isn't Tomorrow. I'm very Intomorrow's right now.
(41:24):
This one is actually was given to me when I
was in Florence at a beautiful restaurant called Jean's xi Ge.
It's an incredible Asian restaurant in Florence, and it's by Santoni.
It's an Tomorrow Santoni and Appartibo born in Florence, and
it's got rhubarb root, iris flower, and olive leaf. And
(41:45):
I love this product. It was given to me by
the bartender. He made a cocktail with me for it.
I brought it home sixteen percent alcohol, BA volumes are
very low. I sip this with just a little bit
of little bit of sprits because I don't want too much,
because I really want to joy all this but tannicle flavors.
You can find many of these, probably at your not
this one, but at your local wine store. You should
(42:09):
go in and say I'm interested in trying some for Moose,
or some Amorrows or some low alcohol products. You probably
will not find no alcohol products at a wine shop
or alcohol shop because their job is to sell you alcohol.
You also will not find THHC there, but you may
find it at your supermarket or online. But you can
(42:30):
ask for a low alcohol option and they will gladly
suggest some wines. I've already given you some examples or
some Amorrows over moose. But experiment, experiment and see what
you like. See what makes you feel good, see what
you like. It's refreshing. I mean it all should appeal
to your palette more than anything. And of course, if
(42:52):
you find yourself getting a little too buzzy, One, start
drinking more water. Two, make sure you always have food
you're serving alcohol or consuming it, particularly when you're having
people over. Always have nibbles. I always like salty nibbles
and thinks that are a little more filling, But not sugar,
because sugar just only adds to my woo woo if
(43:13):
I'm drinking. Always have no alcohol options. I've given you
several wonderful things, from coconut water to fresh teas to
some of these alcohol free drinks that I gave you.
Always have options, and if someone is not feeling their best,
(43:34):
call them a call them a car service to get home.
Do not give them the keys of the car. Okay,
we always if we know we're going out and consuming alcohol,
we call an uber or a lyft. It's worth not
doing anything that can get you in trouble or hurt
anyone else. So always consume alcohol in moderation with pleasure.
(43:56):
Never question someone's choice as to why they're not drinking.
It's only none of your business. It's the same as
why aren't you eating meat? Or why aren't you married?
Or why don't you have children. You should never ask
anything that makes people feel uncomfortable. Okay, just say what
would you like to have? What? What would you like
to drink? What would you like to eat? Do you
(44:17):
have any preferences? And I ask people when you're having
a dinner party, do you have any special requests or
dietary restrictions. It's better to ask than to be not prepared.
So in closing, I hope this you know helps. I
gave you a site for the No and LO your
online non alcohol bottle shop. Tails of the Cocktail had
(44:40):
a list of tails Ofothcocktail dot org has a list
of products. I'll pop these up on my step stack
at Melanie Fabulous. I'm always looking for products. If I
like them, I'll talk about them. If I don't like them,
I don't talk about them. So if you do have
products you found, let me hear from you. You can
message me at Melanie Fabulous at Instagram. As always, I
(45:04):
like to close out this way. You have a choice
to live life on your terms and not on other
people's terms, and I hope you're considering that. Close out
the news that you don't want to hear. Don't listen
to people complain, Try to keep things on the upbeat,
because really the less stress in your life, the younger
(45:24):
you'll stay. Hopefully, and of course, if you do follow
your choices, always choose fearless and fabulous. Thanks for joining me,
Have a great day.
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and welcome to another episode that I hope
will inspire enlighten you to live life to your fullest
and always on your terms. You can follow me at
Melanie Fabulous, check out my step stack at Melanie Fabulous,
and of course read my book for Less Fabulous You,
(01:03):
Lessons on Living Life on Your Terms, which you can
get on Amazon. We are going to talk about what
to drink when you're not drinking that's right? And what
inspired this well a lot of things. I just attended
Tales of the Cocktail, which is the largest gathering of
bar tenders and spirits industry professionals from around the world.
(01:26):
It was created in two thousand and three here in
my new home of New Orleans, which is the birthplace
of the cocktail and has it has some of the
greatest cocktail bars in the world, and it is where
the home of the Sazarak, the French seventy five, the Ramos,
Gin Fizz, Cafe Brulau, and other legendary cocktails. I have
(01:49):
been attending Tales of the Cocktail with my husband David
for many, many years. It is probably like my tenth
but in twenty ten I was the only, probably the
only teatotaler Tales because I attended after I had finished
treatment for breast cancer and I was not drinking, and
I remember that there was really not a lot of
(02:10):
great options for me. There was coffee, there was tea,
there was soda, There was water and juice, and the
juices all had too much sugar, and I remember lamenting
the David, Gosh, there's just nothing for people who don't
imbibe and consume alcohol, and I want better options now.
(02:31):
We all remember when we were young and you go
out with your mom and dad or I would, and
they order you a Shirley Temple or a Tom Collins
so you feel sophisticated. And I still like a good
Shirley Temple in Tom Collins, but I wanted more, I
wanted better options. But here's the good news. Since then,
and that was two thousand and ten, we're now in
(02:53):
twenty twenty five. The no alcohol movement you can call
what it is, but people who there's actually a thirty
percent of the US population adult drinking age population, choose
not to consume alcohol. Now it's actually at a higher
level than ever. Many people decided to stop consuming alcohol
(03:16):
after COVID nineteen because maybe they were consuming a little
bit too much during COVID nineteen. A lot of people
are older like me. I'm over sixty, and I don't
metabolize certain types of alcohol as well as I used to.
And I also have, you know, middle age gain or
actually senior age gay menopause belly, and I'm always trying
(03:37):
to lose it, and consuming too much of anything seems
to go straight to my belly. I do okay with wine,
that's a whole nother story. I do fine with wine.
I drink it with food, It's fine. But vodka, tequila,
gin who I can do I can become pretty weird
on all those things and not very nice, so I
have to cut back. So here's the good news. If
(04:00):
you were in the same boat as me, Maybe you
don't drink because you're pregnant, or you're trying to become pregnant,
or you don't are unable to metabolize alcohol. Maybe you
had consumed a lot of alcohol and you have chosen
to stop drinking to change your lifestyle and behavior because
you liked alcohol a little too much. Maybe your religious
(04:23):
beliefs dictate that you do not drink alcohol for religious reasons.
Whatever your reason, it's your personal choice. And I absolutely
hate it when somebody says to me socially, why aren't
you drinking? Well, it's none of your business. Why aren't
you drinking? You should never say why aren't you doing anything?
Why aren't you eating? Why don't you eat me? Why
(04:43):
don't you drink? You never asked that question. Just say
what would you like to drink? What can I get you?
What are your preferences? And if you're entertaining at home,
you should always have some really great non alcohol options
for guests. This also goes whether you're doing a bra
I shower, or a wedding or any kind of event.
There should always be options that are good for people
(05:07):
who choose not to invite. You know, the last thing
you want is for someone to over indulge and then
go drive home, because I'm very much against drinking and
driving and it's against the law. So you need to
have options. But here's the good news. So I went
to Tails of the Cocktail this year with the soul
mission to find better low and low alcohol products. I
(05:27):
did this last year as well, and boyit, there's some
really great options out there. So I'm going to share
them with you. And I just want to say from
the onset, I have no commercial relationship with any of
these brands. I just happen to like them. I do
have to check my notes, so if I'm looking down,
I'm checking my notes for accuracy because it's a lot
and I'll always remember everything. But these are just a
(05:49):
few that I liked that I'm going to share with you,
and hopefully wherever you are you can find them in
your market. I'll also provide you a handy source website
where you can find all sorts of no and low
alcohol products. I'm going to start with no alcohol and
I'm going to start with what you just have at home.
For people who don't like to drink water all the time,
(06:11):
I mean, I don't know about you, but I get
really tired of just drinking still water. And I drink
at least eight glasses a day. So sometimes I'll add
crushed cucumber or berries or oranges or lime and lemon
to spike up my water. And lately what I've been
doing is I've been taking frozen fruit, like frozen strawberries
(06:31):
and blueberries that we have for smoothies in the freezer,
and I'll put them in my water so they're like
little mini berry cubes to make my water taste better. Well,
that's like level one. Level two is to go for
fizzy water that has some flavor in it. I again
no commercial relationship, but I went gaga over Topachka, which
(06:54):
was one of the sponsors of Tails of the Cocktail.
They have all sorts of really great flavor with waters. Now.
I like the blueberry met that was my absolute favorite.
I like Topachica because the bubbles are very very fine,
kind of like with the way I like my sparkling wines,
like champagne, very fine bubbles. I like that because I
have gastro esophagal reflux disorder and big bubbles make me burp.
(07:18):
And the last thing I want to do, whether I'm
talking to you or talking to anybody socially, is belch.
So I love the topuchico. They also make great mixers.
I also think that tea is a great iced tea,
herbal tea, green teas, those make great mixers. If you
want to create an alcohol free cocktail. We don't call
(07:41):
them mocktails because you're mocking something and we don't mock
We just have true, non alcohol alcohol free whatever you
want to call it, zero proof cocktails. Tea is a
great bass. I like green tea, iced is a bass.
Another one is coconut water. I love coconut water mixed
with other types of no or low alcohol products to
(08:04):
create that layer and level that you want that creates balance,
but lots of interesting flavors. And I have also discovered
some really terrific sparkling coconut waters, so I always keep
that in refrigerator. It's great for hydration. Also, the other
product I recommend is if you can find vegetable juices
(08:25):
or reduced sugar juices, they're great. I don't particularly like.
I like fresh juice period I'd rather squeeze my own
and make my own then go buy bottle. But she
usually has added sugar and sugar, and for me, sugar
mixed with any alcohol is combustible in my brain, I
don't do well. So those are some things you could have.
(08:46):
There's also coffee if you want to make coffee drinks.
A little tip is when I go traveling, I take
the little packets of nescafe that they have in my
hotel and I'll take them home with me and I'll
use those if I'm making people coffee drinks, coffee beverages,
and I also use it as a scrub on my
face with coconut coconut oil. So I often take all
(09:08):
the packages of teas and sugar, teas and coffee so
I can drink them later. So those are some basic
products you can have that are no alcohol options that
taste a little bit better than water, and you can
enhance with other products. So let's talk about that. As
I said about thirty percent, which is almost ten percent,
then it used to be of alcohol of adult age,
(09:32):
drinking age adults or not consuming or choosing to consume
less hard alcohol or any alcohol. So I'm going to
explain non alcohol versus low alcohol. A non alcohol apperteef,
for example, an aperteef is what you drink. You drink
(09:52):
before meal to aparto open up your palate to prepare
for your meal. It's very popular in Europe. They have
this what I call the mad hour where everybody gets
their apperol spritzes, their Campari sprints. Is they're spritzes which
are light low alcohol beverages and they have them before
they have a meal, and it's great. Everybody should do that.
A non alcohol operatife usually contains less than point five
(10:16):
percent alcohol by volume. Okay, point oh five percent. Let
me clarify that point oh five percent okay, So you
can look in the labels to see they're all required
to list what percentage they have. In comparison, in alcohols
(10:36):
and spirits have like forty to seventy percent alcohol by volume,
depending on what it is, so it's a big difference.
So low alcohol is usually in the spirit end around
twenty percent. Okay, So you've got o five for no
alcohol or less oh five percent twenty percent eighteen to
twenty percent lower alcohol, and then the regular forty to
(10:57):
seventy percent for spirits wine just as an example, just
so I bring that up. Wine on average is thirteen
point five percent alcohol by volume. However, some of the
great my favorite lower alcohol wines, Champagne, sparkly wine usually
eleven percent to twelve point five percent alcohol by volume
(11:20):
versus thirteen to fourteen percent. Another one is dry reaslings
Orvieto wines. The wines of Orvieto. I was just there
tasting their gurkettos. They're amazing. Eleven to twelve percent. So
many wines have lower alcohol. Here's a tip. If the
wine is made in a cooler climate, okay, a cooler climate,
(11:46):
higher altitude, there is likelihood it has lower alcohol by volume.
Hotter climates tend to have higher alcohol. It's a rule
of thumb. Of course, there's variations, but that's just a tip.
Vino Verity wines and Portugal rate lower alcohol all wines.
Same with Albertino from Spain, white wines crisp and white,
and the average alcohol by volume is eleven percent twelve percent. Okay,
(12:10):
so that's the wine end of it. I went in
down drink champagne, okay, eleven percent to twelve percent and
a good brute has minimal residual sugar. So here's what
I have found when I have been looking around for
no alcohol options. And I'm going to get to my
little tip sheet here down here the first one which
(12:33):
I love, and these were sent to me. It's called Amethysts. Okay,
I love the name already because I love amethysts. You
can see I have a beautiful purple painting behind me
that is from my gifted cousin, Hunt Slonem look him up,
Hunt Sloanem, and it's a beautiful purple painting that he
gave my mother, the Purple Lady. So naturally I have
a thing for amethysts. These are great. This is the bottle.
(12:54):
It's really attractive. It's got amethysts written on it, and
there's four different kind So this is a no alcohol
botanical beverage that you can mix with your coconut water,
your tea, your sparkling beverage, or you can make it
into a low alcohol apartef sprints it. It's no alcohol,
(13:18):
it is botanical. There's about thirteen calories no sugar. Love
that and it was started by two brothers who worked
in the Craft whiskey distillery. In Bluffton, South Carolina, beautiful
place if you haven't been, and they wanted to create
a no alcohol product because they had read that at
the time, roughly twenty percent of the population had chosen
(13:40):
not to consume alcohol. Now we're at thirty percent, so
this is a big movement. So they created these organic
brands called Amethyst. They have four blens i'll call them.
One is blueberry ginger mint, and one watermelon lime, lemon
(14:04):
cucumber serrano. That one has a bit of a bite
in the back, so watch it. And grapefruit basil. The
one I have is the lemon cucumber serrano. That's got
the bit of the bite. I tell you, this one
is really good with tomato juice. Then you have a
no alcohol bloody marry. Very good tomato juice are really
(14:24):
really good bloody marry mix. This one is the grapefruit basil.
I love this one. It's really good with juice or tea.
I like the basil because I happen to love herbs
in my beverages. I think the more products should have herbs,
and of course I love this blueberry ginger mint ginger.
(14:47):
When I was going to chemotherapy, everybody told me to
drink ginger tea. So ginger tea. I brew ginger, I
drink ginger tea. I still love ginger. I think it's
very soothing on the stomach. I love this combination of blueberry, mint,
and ginger. Probably mixes all together and make a great cocktail.
So they're called amethysts. The retail price suggested as twenty
nine ninety nine. They also provide on the website a
(15:10):
recipe for turning these into freezer pops using fresh blueberries
and a gaby and the botanicals and coconut milk. It
sounds really great. Speaking of coconut milk is another great
mixer if you want a creamier type of cocktail. So
that's amethyst and on average thirteen calories in one point
(15:33):
five ounces, so thirteen calories, no sugar, totally botanical. I
love this product. I wish I did have an affiliation
with them. I think they're awesome. Okay, moving quite along,
I also found I'm finding these interesting products that are
like pint based and barley based. Actually, I'm going to
pull this one up. This is one that came to me.
(15:54):
It just came to me. It's called grass. I guess
grassy like grass gra C g R A S S I.
It's organic barley water with vitamin C D and zinc.
This one is lemon, grass and ginger. I like it.
There's also a cucumber mint. This one citrus ment. Here.
(16:17):
It's actually the one. I'm drinking citrus mint right here.
Citrus mint. This is a little bit of sugar. It's
got roughly eight eight grams of added sugar, so still low,
but it has it. It's thirty five calories in a
sixteen ounce serving. It's a little grassy tasting. My husband
(16:39):
David said he tasted hey, but I actually like it.
It's like water but enhanced with a little bit of
herbaceousness in it. I think these are good though, and
it was developed by people who wanted to have healthier,
functional beverages with lower sugar. So grassy organic barley water.
I have no idea what the price point is. They
(17:00):
were just sent to me and I'm still tasting them,
and they're so good. I may have to have a
sip right now because I'm thirsty. Young citrus mint mint
is so amazing. So that's another fun product I've just
discovered now, Pathfinder. I discovered this one it Tails with
the Cocktail. Last year Tails with Cocktail thankfully started a
(17:23):
no and low bar. And I love going and trotting
in there and tasting everything and beating all the people
because you learn the most interesting stories and taste some
products you like and some you don't. I like Pathfinder.
It is a fermented and distilled hemp based liquid that
can be used as a spread. So it's herbal. It's
(17:44):
an herbal elixir, a herbal lickor like in tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
What's great about herbal lixers is they're also really great digestives.
If you had too much to eat and you want
to sell your stomach, they make really great digestives. This
is fir made from hemp and copper pot and it's
got an alchemy of wormwood, which is kind of like
what they put into pasty, so that's kind of interesting.
Angelica root, ginger, sage, juniper, saffron, orange peel, and wild
(18:12):
crafted Douglas fur. It's got very intense herbaceous character. I
would drink this spritzed with just club soda or some
topa Chica fizzy water. I would also probably try it
with this grassy product. I haven't Yeah, because I don't
have any, but I think it would be really interesting,
(18:35):
so it's called Pathfinder. I also tasted a product at
this year's Tales of the COCKTAILK Giffords g I F
F A r DS. These are let me inclute my notes.
These are syrups that are sweet, but they're not like
you know, high fruit dose corn syrup. They're derived. The
(18:55):
sweetness is from French sugar beets, so it's gonna be sweet,
but it's made from beees. These are French made products,
lactose free, gluten free, and vegan. They have a three
year self live. They're great for zero proof cocktails or
low abb alcohol bove i Am creations. I liked the
Pompeo Moose was my favorite. I also had a really
(19:16):
great elderflower cocktail. I think the one that I liked
the most was pineapple. They had mixed it with coconut
milk and some herbs, and it was the most refreshing
cocktail with just the coconut milk or coconut cree maybe
in pineapple, kind of like a no alcohol peanut colada.
But then they added RBS to it, which is made
it fabulous. Again. They have ginger as well. Gingers like
(19:40):
the product of ginger and elderflower are like the end
products right now, and mint and blueberry. I'm finding so
that product is called Gifford's g I F F ar Ds.
They are distributed in the United States. I tasted all
the other cocktails. I think they're just awesome. You would
mix those. I think they make a great sprints Okay
(20:01):
in the I like amorros and formose. Formoth is a
great product if you want to have a low alcohol
by volume. Sprits for moose are I'm still exploring these.
They're a type of bitter. They're very you know driver sweet.
Formoth for mooth is used in Martini's. I've been trying
them just on ice with a slice of lime, and
(20:23):
once I did it with frozen grapes is my little
ice cubes. It's really good. I'm still exploring these and learning.
But some of the best for moose I've ever tasted,
or from France, Italy and Spain just really awesome products.
And I really would love to go over to France,
Italy and Spain just drink for mouth and learn more.
(20:44):
So with that in mind, the other is the Amorrow's
it's wonderful more digestives that are very popular, often as
an after dinner drink, but I like them sprits to
give that herbaceousness character to a low alcohol cocktail. Opious,
not to be confused with opiom Opius from Opious Distillery,
(21:06):
is a no alcohol a type of amorrow. Okay, no alcohol,
we're still It was found in twenty twenty by two
quote restless cocktail enthusiasts who wanted to create a non
alcohol option for those people who choose not to drink
because it's a big market and a big marketing opportunity.
(21:29):
They wanted something that had good quality, that was all
natural and really great flavor. They gave me a whole
long discussion about how they do this alchemistic alchemy and
reviving old recipes and batching and mixing all these different spices.
It was very quite intense, but at the end of
(21:50):
the day, it's all about the proof in what I tasted,
and these are really terrific products. There's four styles. The
first one's cold and this is a very new product,
so I don't know if you'll see your market yet,
but hopefully you will. Opious. I tasted rubetto Rubetto has
it's a lixer basically orange peel, Gentian shinato, which is
(22:10):
a type of Italian orange. I had to look it
up and rhubarb. This is like notes of orange and
Gentian and a little bit of bitter. Really, I would
just pop some pub soda or sparkling water in that
and sip it as a spritz. Next one was called Amorrow.
It was angelica, lemon, peel, coriander, and almond, my personal
(22:32):
favorite because I love anything that has a nutty characteristic
to it. It was like lemony, nutty. Again, sprits it.
The third one was called Negretto, made with sugar beets. Again,
sugar beets. We talked about them in the Gifferts. French oak,
roasted coffee beans. Okay, this one. If you wanted the
aversion of an alcohol free espresso martini, this is your product.
(22:57):
Find an alcohol free voga. Not going on this show
because I didn't taste those, but I'm really delicious and sultry.
I got notes of toffee and French oak. I would
actually just put it in my coffee and spike it
up and make it really good, or pour it over
ice cream because I think These would be really good
over ice cream because you can cope with all these products,
(23:18):
you know, pour them over pancakes. And the last one
was called Albeto alb e do O. It was Fennel
juniper Cardamin Clothes loved this product. I love Fenel based
ani spased products. I've been a drinker of parano or
ricard and herb sent for years. I drink that as
(23:39):
an app para teef, particularly when I'm in Falfa, France
with some water, and I love that appeeling mouthfeel that
is not sugary. Again, these are really great apt paratifs
to open up your palate before dinner, or if you
can enjoy them as digestives to relax and digest your
mail and have that last sip of the night really delicious. Again,
(24:02):
it's called Opious. I don't have the bottles here, but
they're beautiful, square and very elegant looking. Ritual is a
type of alcohol free dark rum with notes of honey, banana,
bitter orange, cinnamon, annis and really great for creating an
alcohol free mohito or dakri, you know, so freeze it up.
(24:27):
There are a lot of alcohol free options in the
rum gin Scotch category. I didn't taste a lot because
there was just so much, but I did taste ritual
mixed in the beverage. It was really good. Now Here
was the last product I tasted in the alcohol free
The Tales of the cocktail was also one of the
(24:47):
most interesting. It's founded by a woman. It's called Tomo
Tomo Tobala. It's a non alcohol distilled a gave spirit. Now,
gave is what you have when you drink agave products
like tequila, so margaritas and any kind of product like that.
(25:10):
Agave is from Mexico. It's a plant. It takes years
to grow. It's this one is made from the one
hundred percent rare Tobala agave, which is roasted in a
pit oven.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
These are from Wahaka. I actually met the owner, who
is a woman. A woman own She her name is
Amanda Chen and she was formerly a bartender. She, like
many people in the hospitality industry, lost her job during
COVID and didn't know what she was going to do
with the rest of her life. But one of the
things she decided is she was going to stop drinking.
(25:45):
A lot of people did that during COVID. They started
drinking and then they stopped drinking, and that's perfectly fine.
So she said that she was developing coctos and cottaos
in Toronto for many years and the pandemic took her
out of the bar scene completely. So she went to Mexico.
She said it was the only place opened during lockdown
and she was desperate to find new purpose. So she
(26:06):
stopped drinking completely in May twenty twenty one and moved
to Wahaka, and there she started researching agave plants and
trying to figure out a way to create an alcohol
free option. I think this product is terrific. It is
the winner of the twenty twenty four International No Alcohol
(26:27):
Spirits Competition for non alcohol Agavi of the Year. It
is distilled with it's called pomono tomo or tomo. It's
distilled with local botanicals including ginger, passilia mixe, chili, florida, cacao, basil, poleo, camamil,
black cardamoen, nutmeg, cinnamon, hibiscus, rose, petal, lemon, grass, clothes,
(26:49):
and smoked pineapple. Well, it's a mouthful. It tastes so
smoky and soft and smooth. It's delicious. I would probably
put it in my coconut water and maybe try it
in this grassy barley water. It smokes something up. I
think it also be great for cooking. It had that
amazing smokiness that I love. I tend to go herbaceous
(27:12):
and smoky and bitter versus sweet and fruity, two dy
fruity when I that's just me. I hope she does
really a while, Amanda Chad. She was really sweet. She
was pouring it herself. A lot of these are small
companies and they're just out plugging away. They travel around
the country serving their product hoping somebody will talk it up.
And I'm doing it for you, Amanda, and I think
(27:33):
your product's awesome.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
It's called Tomino Tomo Tomo Tomo Domino Tomo one of
the earliest products in the non alcohol and we actually
had this founder who's from England.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
His name is Branson, but not related to Richard. I
don't think. He had a big herb farm in the
English countryside and created a product called seed lip. We
interviewed him a zillion years ago. I think he sold
out to a big company DA for him. It was
really the product that kicked off the modern non alcohol
(28:06):
spirits category. In twenty fifteen, so this is still a
very young category. Twenty fifteen is when it kicked off,
and we're in twenty twenty five. All botanicals love the brand.
There's three flagship favors. One is citrus, ginger, all spice
and cardamoen and then there's a garden flavor filled with
(28:27):
herbs and English peas and another spicy one. These are
really great for non alcohol martinis, spiking or boring this
fizzy water whatever I liked it as is with sprits.
Most of these are just spreads because if I just
really want something simple and everybody else is drinking cocktails,
(28:49):
I sprints it or I order my champagne. So it's
called seed Lip. I think it's widely available. I think
some big company bought the brand. It's really awesome. The
other one is which is there a little more syrupy.
They're from Australia, but they're doing they're making inroads. It's
called Liars l Yres. It's found in twenty nineteen by
(29:11):
some Australians. They make a whole line of alcohol free
cocktail ingredients from mixers and basically their goal is to
create alternative non alcohol alternatives Suburban Gin, Triple Sac, Almaretto,
it's all zero proof. One of the most popular is
the coffee liqueur, which they're all very popular and used
(29:32):
frequently by restaurants who now should all offer alcohol free
options for their customers that they use the coffee, the
coffee option for espresso martinis, which are really popular. Years ago,
(29:52):
I did an article on the sessionable cocktail movement. Sessionable
means they're lower alcohol or no alcohol, but usually lower alcohol,
and that means you can drink a few more of
them in sessions without just getting wasted, and I interviewed
a lot of bartenders around the country. I think it
was for seven to fifty daily. I'll pop it up
again on my substack Melanie fabulous. But the whole premise
(30:17):
is that most establishments, dining bars, beverage should offer a fair,
easy to find reason they'll be priced zero proof cocktail menu.
I went to a seminar last year on this topic,
(30:39):
and again, everybody on the everybody on the panel, they
were all bartenders, and they all said, we don't use
the word mocktail. We don't hide and tuck them way
under in the back of the list. They should be
front and center. Much like vegetarian options should be front
and center on the menu. This is important because everybody
nobody wants to feel marginalized because they don't drink same way,
no vegetans. When I go out and realize there's no
(31:01):
food for them, it happens to me a lot. So
I think this is really important because the whole idea
is to make people feel welcome and comfortable wherever they
are and whatever they choose to imbibe. So those are
some of the alcohol free options I have found. There's
a really terrific website. It's called Know and Low, your
(31:23):
online non alcohol bottle shop that you can check. Now,
I'm going to touch on some other products that are
low and also alcohol free. I'm gonna start with alcohol free,
so this is kind of a new movement. I'll be
honest with you. I'm still nervous about trying them because
I had a bad experience once. But THHD beverages are
all over the place here in Louisiana in my supermarket,
(31:48):
and we're legal. They are really making huge inroads and
they provide an alcohol free option for people who still
want to get a little bit of comfort or buzz
when they can sume but they don't want alcohol. One
here in New Orleans. I don't have a sample. It's
called Louis Louie. It's made with something called delta nine,
(32:11):
which I learned is the natural derivata for THHC, and
it comes in different levels. On average is two point
five percent. I have friends who cannot drink alcohol for
medical reasons who do drink the THHC products because they
want that little bit of peaceful, easy feeling when they're social,
and they love Louis Louis. I don't know if you
(32:33):
can get it outside of Louisiana. But this is the
one I tried it tails. It's called Wink Wink, and
I met the founder. This is strawberry lemonade. It's ten
milligrams of THC, so that's a lot. That's like three cocktails.
And this is the smaller one, which is only two
point five milligrams in the mini container. And this one
(32:56):
is tangerine wink. It's These are both seltzers. They're sparkling.
I knows them. David tasted him. He said he liked
the flavors quite a bit. The founder is interesting. He
doesn't even smoke pot. He's just like a finance technology
whiz who said he saw an opportunity to create a
solution to a category, to get these products out and
(33:20):
transported in the marketplace. And they're fairly new, they're very flavorful.
They were being introduced at tails.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
They have zero calories, they have zero carbs, zero protein,
and zero fat.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
So if you're looking for something that is not gonna
have a lot of calories, fat, sugar and all the
stuff you really don't want, these may epet you want
a little bit of buzz, These may work for you.
I have not tasted them yet, David has I'm gonna
taste them in the comfort of my home, probably with
the two point five first, which is the lowest amount.
But they they smelled good and David said they tasted
(34:02):
really great. And if you really are looking for something
that's not alcohol, that is an option for you. And
there's a lot of those. Now this is a growing category.
The THHC category is huge and growing. You're going to
see more of it. You're probably going to see more
conferences tied to this in category. So keep your ears
(34:24):
and eyes open again, try these products in your home first,
don't go out and do it socially. See if they
work for you before you just go out and spend
your money and whatnot. Now, in the time we have left,
I'm a still going to talk about some low alcohol,
low ABV alcohol ba VYE products I really like.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Now.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I've always talked about wines that have lower alcohol with
cooler climate. Wines, reasling vino, verities from Portugal, Alberinos from
the coast of Spain, Galithia or Vieto, all terrific options,
sparkling wines, mooths, all great options. When in down sprits,
it it cuts the alcohol, it cuts the flavor, cuts everything,
(35:09):
And those are great options. Now, the product that really
I just loved a lot and probably had to stop
consuming because it was so good it tells of the
cocktail was called low l O dash Fi Fi hi
fi lo fi apartiefs. These are vermouths and amos using
(35:31):
California wine. So just something to clarify here. A lot
of spirits are grain based, Okay grain based vermouth and
tomorrows are botanical and wine based Okay wine based with botanical,
so big difference because they follow in a different category.
They really are spirits, but they're also wine based. I
(35:52):
loved these products. I had them just with I think
they had just water, sparklay water and mixed and they
were just so refreshing. The vermooth one is infused with fenyl, coriander, elderflower.
You've heard those. You've heard those ingredients before, a little
spicy with notes of Gentian. You compare as a mixer
(36:14):
to cut your the alcohol and a regular cocktail or
you can mix it with as a spritz. I had
it with ice. They were serving these little carry these
portable water carriers. I love so refreshing. So the vermooth
one has citrus, elderflower and other spices. It's sixteen point
(36:36):
five percent ABV. So that's low in the spirit category.
If it was a wine category, it'd be high, because
high is like to me, fifteen percent okay, really really good.
The other one is called Gentian amaro citrus fruit ginger,
heard that term before. Exotic flowers and spices with chinconi
(36:56):
bark and bitter roots. You got that bitters. Teen point
five percent alcohol. Chinchoni bark, by the way, is what
they make tonic from. The Historically, gin and tonic was created,
believe or not, many years ago to help sailors not
get sick when they were sailing from Europe to the Americas.
So the gin was safer than water, and the tonic
(37:20):
was better for your stomach. And that's how gin and
tonics were created. And the tonic was from the Chinchona bark,
which is produced in South America and it's used as
a tonic and herb to cure as a medicinal cure
in Indian culture. So again that's why a lot of
(37:40):
amaros are used as curatives or digestives at the end
of Emio, because they had all these herbs and ingredients
that are traditionally used in Indian and historic medicinal practices.
So anyway, these were really good. Okay, So one I
(38:00):
liked here it is. It was the Lo Fi Sweet
romooth with coconut water. Okay, David brought that to me.
It was like nine that it was one hundred degrees
the week of tails of cocktail. I was sweating. I
was so hot, I was sick of water. He brought
me two of those in those great little water bottles,
which I'm gonna carry forever, and I was sucking it down.
I'm like, you sure this doesn't have alcohol on it?
(38:21):
You're sure this doesn't. It had alcohol, but not a lot,
thank god, and I didn't get a buzz. I felt great,
and more importantly, I felt completely hydrated. I think coconut
water is the ultimate hydration. So I loved that product.
The other one that I'm going to sing praises to
from here to the moon, and apparently a lot of
other people do too. It's called La pertivo Nonino botanical drink. Okay.
(38:48):
The Nonino family of the Freely area in Italy is
known for their botanical made centuries old recipe used to
make granpa grappa is you know, a really intense spirit.
Usually have it at the end of a meal. Pure
(39:08):
Italian beauty. They came out with a product. It's all
run by sisters and women. It's amazing. They're wonderful women.
And they came up with the recipe that comes from
an old, carefully guarded recipe created from Silvio and Antonio
no Nina, the guardians of the family spirit tradition in
(39:29):
nineteen twenty eight. And they used to make these products
for medicinal purposes because there was a lot of botanicals
in them as then eventually they made them for pleasure drinks.
They went from medicinal to pleasure and then long story short,
the family is now run by Christina Antonella and ELIZABETHA. Nonino,
(39:53):
just the nicest people, and they brought back this incredible
apartivo that has many, many different botanicals in it. It's fruity,
there's a lot of citrus notes, sens of berries, a
little bit of bitter. Twenty one percent alcohol by volume,
So when you think that vodka is about forty percent
alcohol by volume, whiskey forty to fifty, rum thirty five
(40:15):
to sixty and gin thirty seven to fifty percent, so
this is half the alcohol by volume. Then other spirits.
So drink this, cut it with some soda water or
topachico or something even a little bit of sparkling coconut water. Whatever,
you get a great drink. I love this product. I
don't have it here to show you because I'm out,
(40:38):
but it's a really pretty bottle too. Most of the
bottles have images of women on them and they're very colorful. Again,
the company is no Nino Nono. This product has one
a zillion awards for its quality. Again total botanical, and
you know my attitude is go for go for fresh,
(41:02):
go for anything that's not artificially made. You know, read
the ingredients, ask questions, do your homework. So those are
my various discoveries that I'm bringing you. This one is
another example. It's not No Nino, but it's as pretty
as No Nino. This isn't Tomorrow. I'm very Intomorrow's right now.
(41:24):
This one is actually was given to me when I
was in Florence at a beautiful restaurant called Jean's xi Ge.
It's an incredible Asian restaurant in Florence, and it's by Santoni.
It's an Tomorrow Santoni and Appartibo born in Florence, and
it's got rhubarb root, iris flower, and olive leaf. And
(41:45):
I love this product. It was given to me by
the bartender. He made a cocktail with me for it.
I brought it home sixteen percent alcohol, BA volumes are
very low. I sip this with just a little bit
of little bit of sprits because I don't want too much,
because I really want to joy all this but tannicle flavors.
You can find many of these, probably at your not
this one, but at your local wine store. You should
(42:09):
go in and say I'm interested in trying some for Moose,
or some Amorrows or some low alcohol products. You probably
will not find no alcohol products at a wine shop
or alcohol shop because their job is to sell you alcohol.
You also will not find THHC there, but you may
find it at your supermarket or online. But you can
(42:30):
ask for a low alcohol option and they will gladly
suggest some wines. I've already given you some examples or
some Amorrows over moose. But experiment, experiment and see what
you like. See what makes you feel good, see what
you like. It's refreshing. I mean it all should appeal
to your palette more than anything. And of course, if
(42:52):
you find yourself getting a little too buzzy, One, start
drinking more water. Two, make sure you always have food
you're serving alcohol or consuming it, particularly when you're having
people over. Always have nibbles. I always like salty nibbles
and thinks that are a little more filling, But not sugar,
because sugar just only adds to my woo woo if
(43:13):
I'm drinking. Always have no alcohol options. I've given you
several wonderful things, from coconut water to fresh teas to
some of these alcohol free drinks that I gave you.
Always have options, and if someone is not feeling their best,
(43:34):
call them a call them a car service to get home.
Do not give them the keys of the car. Okay,
we always if we know we're going out and consuming alcohol,
we call an uber or a lyft. It's worth not
doing anything that can get you in trouble or hurt
anyone else. So always consume alcohol in moderation with pleasure.
(43:56):
Never question someone's choice as to why they're not drinking.
It's only none of your business. It's the same as
why aren't you eating meat? Or why aren't you married?
Or why don't you have children. You should never ask
anything that makes people feel uncomfortable. Okay, just say what
would you like to have? What? What would you like
to drink? What would you like to eat? Do you
(44:17):
have any preferences? And I ask people when you're having
a dinner party, do you have any special requests or
dietary restrictions. It's better to ask than to be not prepared.
So in closing, I hope this you know helps. I
gave you a site for the No and LO your
online non alcohol bottle shop. Tails of the Cocktail had
(44:40):
a list of tails Ofothcocktail dot org has a list
of products. I'll pop these up on my step stack
at Melanie Fabulous. I'm always looking for products. If I
like them, I'll talk about them. If I don't like them,
I don't talk about them. So if you do have
products you found, let me hear from you. You can
message me at Melanie Fabulous at Instagram. As always, I
(45:04):
like to close out this way. You have a choice
to live life on your terms and not on other
people's terms, and I hope you're considering that. Close out
the news that you don't want to hear. Don't listen
to people complain, Try to keep things on the upbeat,
because really the less stress in your life, the younger
(45:24):
you'll stay. Hopefully, and of course, if you do follow
your choices, always choose fearless and fabulous. Thanks for joining me,
Have a great day.
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