The Best Eight Drinks Without Booze
What does fake gin taste like, anyway? A ranking of some new nonalcoholic beverage options.
Photograph by Isa Zapata for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop Stylist: Christina Allen
For years, the knock on nonalcoholic beverages was that they were boring, disappointing simulacra of the real deal. Who in their right mind would want to sip fake vodka? But over the past decade, the nonalcoholic space—specifically, drinks designed to be consumed with intention and care—has quietly transformed into an unlikely sandbox for zany experimentation, one in which zero-proof makers are blowing up fusty distinctions such as “whiskey” and “gin” and redefining what a spirit can be. Small surprise the $13 billion global market for non- or low-alcoholic beers, wines and spirits is expected to compound by about 7% annually at least through 2028.
To understand this shift, Bloomberg Businessweek stopped in at Minus Moonshine, the first nonalcoholic wine and spirits shop in Brooklyn, New York, to solicit a few cutting-edge recommendations from Aqxyl Storms, the store’s proprietor and a panel judge for the LA Spirits Awards. Here are a few favorites, ranked.