The best low-alcs for 2025
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Sparkling teas, for my money, still offer some of the most sophisticated non-alc drinking experiences. New to Saicho’s high-end Rare Tea Collection is Sixty Stone Mountain (£60 for 75cl), a sparkling zero-abv made from leaves grown on a high-altitude plot in Hualien County, Taiwan. The result is gorgeously fragrant, with notes of apricot, honey, hay and cedarwood and a fine, dry tannin. It is complex but crisp: an excellent food match or champagne alternative.
If you like your tea with a kombucha-like tang, try Real’s 0.5 per cent abv Small-Batch Collection. It features the champagne-like Brut, made from oak-aged oolong tea, and the Noir, fermented from earthy puerh tea and grape skins to approximate a Pinot Noir (both £25 for 75cl). Real is also behind the new own-label zero-abv sparkling Darjeeling for Berry Bros & Rudd (£16.95 for 75cl).
Berry Bros & Rudd Sparkling Darjeeling, £16.95
Opius Albedo 0 per cent elixir, €31.95
We Can Be Friends Turbo Wave 0.5per cent abv IPA, £3.50 a can
Botivo non-alcoholic aperitivo, £38
The Danish company Muri creates wine-like blends of juices, botanicals and ferments for some of the biggest names in the restaurant biz. Its latest collab, with chef Anne-Sophie Pic, whose restaurants have 12 Michelin stars, is Uzume, a 0.4 per cent abv sparkler made from fermented strawberry, tomato and smoky vanilla. There’s also a full-bodied, quite savoury 0.4 per cent “red” made from sour cherry wine, tomato water and bay leaf, for The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn (both about £25 for 75cl). No one’s yet making flawless alcohol-free wine, but the landgrab has begun. Moët Hennessy recently announced it had bought a stake in French Bloom, maker of the world’s first €100-plus non-alcoholic “wine”.
In the bittersweet aperitivo department, Botivo is the name on everyone’s lips. Its latest 1 per cent abv limited edition, created for Berry Bros & Rudd, is infused with peated malt, cherry bark and gentian and aged in oak barrels. Drink with ice, soda and a slice (£38 for 50cl).
A good sub for Campari or red vermouth would be Midi Ruby Rush (£29.95 for 70cl, thewhiskyexchange.com), a zero-abv aperitif with tart cherry, orange and spicy botanical notes. The smart-looking zero-abv “elixirs” by Belgium’s Opius are interesting – I like the silver-gold Albedo, which has fennel and juniper notes (€31.95 for 50cl).
The Pathfinder (£29.75 for 70cl, thewhiskyexchange.com) is a less than 0.5 per cent abv “spirit” from the US that’s full-bodied enough to sip neat on ice. It’s woody and caramelised, with notes of bitter marmalade peel (though avoid if you hate cloves). Meanwhile, the aperitif brand Three Spirit has embraced the spicy cocktail trend with its Livener XS (£25.99 for 50cl), an invigoratingly fiery, less than 0.5 per cent abv nip for drinking on ice, with tonic or in zero-abv cocktails.
Craft breweries dedicated to making non-alc beer are also on the rise. In south London, We Can Be Friends does naturally 0.5 per cent abvs; its hazy Turbo Wave IPA (£3.50 for 440ml) marries full-bodied fruitiness with nice Citra-hop bite. Temperance tastes increasingly good – make mine a pint.
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