Best Ready

Giving up booze doesn't mean giving up on fun

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Young people are increasingly getting the message to "just say no"—at least some of the time. According to Nielsen, in 2021, 22 percent of consumers reported they were cutting down on their drinking. Nonalcoholic products are seeing a big boost in sales in recent years. Research shows that young folks don't view heavy drinking as essential to socializing anymore, and that competing activities (such as studying and extracurriculars) and less peer pressure mean that Gen Z, in particular, is less likely to indulge. Many of these teens and young adults are citing health as a reason they’re drinking less than previous generations did at their age, which is smart considering that alcohol is, well, pretty terrible for you.

Though many people here at Consumer Reports love wine and cocktails, we also enjoy our nights off. And while some of us are drinking canned seltzer by the boatload, sometimes you want a spirits-free drink that feels a bit more special. Enter the nonalcoholic cocktail, a drink that attempts to duplicate your favorite boozy beverage with none of the booze.

My team and I tried seven different bottled or canned nonalcoholic cocktails so that you can enjoy your holidays—and any night thereafter—with a drink in hand, even when you’re not indulging in the hard stuff.

And are we glad we did, because we regret to say that most of these cocktails aren't quite there yet. They’re not hitting the mark. There are a couple, though, that we might want to enjoy by the pool or savor by the fire. Though everyone has their own flavor profiles and tastes, we recommend you start with those first. You can also make your own.

This bottled spritz is light, slightly (but not overwhelmingly) bitter, and refreshing. It's gently spiced with juniper, allspice, cloves, and other ingredients. The juniper comes through the most clearly, making this a good choice for folks who like gin—but it's not powerfully gin-y, either. Rather, it tastes mostly like a super-fancy seltzer, which is essentially what it is.

"Allspice and anise make this a bit medicinal, but it's not off-putting," says Althea Chang-Cook, an associate director of content development at Consumer Reports and one of the mocktail evaluators. "I might actually drink this one at a party, ideally in a fancy glass."

This drink absolutely lends itself to beautiful glassware. I served it to myself in a thin-walled wine glass without ice, which made for a crisp yet delicate evening drink. It's also great in a highball glass filled with ice and garnished with an orange peel or a slice of orange. And if you really want to go wild, add a couple of dashes of orange bitters. Serve it to your favorite nondrinking friends alongside a lavish cheeseboard.

This was, indeed, curious. At first sip, I was hit with the unexpected flavor of celery. There's certainly no celery and nothing resembling celery in this cocktail, but Althea said it "tastes green, if that makes sense."

Rather than celery, this cocktail contains jalapeño extract, pineapple, and orange juice concentrates, smoked sea salt, and other ingredients. The jalapño extract may be what lends the drink its green edge. It isn't especially spicy, though folks who are especially sensitive to heat may find it unpleasant. The company calls it a cross between a Dark and Stormy and a spicy pineapple margarita, but that didn't come through for us. "Neither the Dark and Stormy nor the margarita traditionally have a chili flavor, though I don't mind a salt-and-chili powder blend on a margarita rim from a restaurant or bar occasionally," Althea said. "I expected to taste more ginger and lime, and I expected it to be more sweet." Still, she liked it, though she didn't want to drink a nearly 12-ounce bottle in one sitting. That's a good thing if you’re on any kind of budget because this bottle was 10 bucks a pop.

Some evaluators had, at best, what one could consider a "mixed reaction" to this cocktail. My husband scowled at me after I served it to him, calling it "nasty." (When I returned to the kitchen, I heard him mutter "That was disgusting" to himself.) Mary Beth Quirk, a CR shopping editor, said "it smells like someone pooped pumpkin into a diaper," though she also noted that it tasted better than it smelled, much like some people think kombucha tastes better than its aroma. Tara Claesgens, a CR office manager, said "it smells like baby formula but it tastes good." In my entire time writing Outside the Labs articles at CR, I can't say I can remember a time when evaluator reviews were this divergent and surprising. All of which is to say: You might like this and you might really not. And it's an expensive gamble.

Curious Elixir recommends serving this over ice with a lime wedge and, optionally, a salt rim. We recommend both. Its energetic flavor and approximation of margaritas lead us to believe you should serve this with tacos to friends who like strong, unusual flavors.

This brand was started by the singer Katy Perry and the wine and spirits veteran Morgan McLachlan, who have been on journeys to lessen their alcohol intake without giving up happy hour. De Soi, which makes three nonalcoholic aperitifs, is their attempt at raising the bar to include anyone who chooses not to drink.

Golden Hour, the lemongrass and herb-inflected aperitif we tried, wasn't bad. It's most strongly flavored with both lemon and lemongrass, so it tastes less warm and cozy golden and more like a vibrant, piquant citron. Over ice and served with a sprig of rosemary, it was pleasant if somewhat too medicinal. After stirring and allowing the ice to melt a little bit improved the drink, though my husband noted that it mostly just tasted like lemon-flavored Pellegrino water. Hannah Stoppelman, an associate director of strategic analytics at CR, thought it tasted primarily like lemonade.

I’d consider serving this to friends at a dinner party (its forceful flavors are best enjoyed when balanced by bolder foods such as a high-end pizza or a Mediterranean mezze platter), though I think anyone who drank it would be slightly disappointed and envious of their champagne-swilling peers.

This drink is hella intense. It's a gorgeous ruby red, and the taste is like a rave in your mouth: vivid, overpowering, bitter, sweet. Like several other nonalcoholic cocktails we tried, it's flavored with clove, allspice, and star anise, though this one has a heavy dose of sugar, making it one of the sweetest sparklers we tried.

On its own, it's a bit much. There's just too much going on, as if someone used to attending the ballet were suddenly dropped into an EDM festival. "While the flavor is more pleasant than some of the others, the smell is better than the taste," Althea said. "Likely because of the roots and star anise in the ingredients list, the taste is very medicinal." Mary Beth compared it to Robitussin, the cough medicine.

But mixed with alcohol, it works, though it does defeat the purpose of a nonalcoholic cocktail. I mixed a highball of the Hella with an ounce of bourbon, and found that the smooth, gentle sweetness of the Four Roses complemented and calmed the outrageous flavor of the Hella. Brian Vines, a deputy of special projects, said he would pair it with gin or replace ginger beer with it in a Dark and Stormy. Althea said she would drink or serve it but only if diluted. Though we haven't done it ourselves, it's possible this would be equally as delicious with nonalcoholic bourbon or gin as with the real stuff. If you’re currently not partaking in anything above an ABV (alcohol by volume) of .5, give it a try and let us know what you think.

The Negroni is my No. 1 cocktail. It is, by its nature, perfectly balanced, composed of equal parts sweet vermouth, gin, and Campari (or another bitter aperitivo). An out-of-balance Negroni, however, is evident immediately. Too sweet, and the bartender misjudged the amount of vermouth or used a vermouth that wasn't right for the drink. Too bitter, and clearly whoever's behind the bar went overboard with the Campari.

That's the case here. The St. Agrestis Phony Negroni is indeed reminiscent of the real thing—albeit one that's a bit too sweet. Mary Beth said that it smelled like Kool-Aid, and though she liked it, it was far too sugary. To me, it tasted like kid's Tylenol, with the accompanying syrupy texture and bold red color. And Althea, who isn't a Negroni drinker, detested it. "I generally found it nauseating," she said. "I guess for Negroni fans, it could make for a decent substitute." It tasted like Robitussin PE to her. I think the real bottled Negroni from St. Agrestis has the same syrupy flavor and texture as this one. Perhaps it's just a taste issue, and the folks at St. Agrestis really like their sweet cocktails.

But most of us evaluators at Consumer Reports don't. We want a more balanced sweetness than one that overwhelms. We found that serving it over ice and garnishing it with an orange peel helped a lot; this thing needs to be diluted. Better yet, serve it with prosecco (the real stuff or nonalcoholic) for a lower-alcohol Negroni sbagliato. With some bright and creamy bubbles, this cocktail could be a winner.

Oh, we had fun trying to describe this one! I was immediately transported to my childhood, when my mother would drive my sister and me to the mall to pick up bathroom soap dispensers, decorative mirrors, and the like. This cocktail smells and tastes exactly like a candle from Pier 1 Imports. Brian was also carried back in time. "It's like when you were a kid and your parents had a party and this is what was left in the glasses the next day," he said. Who doesn't love a little nostalgia?

To its credit, the bourbon really does taste like bourbon. It's pretty impressive. But that's where its resemblance to an old-fashioned ends, unfortunately. It's oddly watery—hence Brian's read on it as tasting like day-after cocktails—and tastes like some sort of soda, though the evaluators were torn between flat Coke or flat root beer.

I served it over ice with an orange twist, which didn't do much to improve it. Adding a couple of dashes of orange bitters punched it up a bit, but not enough that I would want to serve it at a party or drink the rest of it myself. My husband, who orders an old-fashioned whenever we go out to dinner, despised it. "Yuck," he said loudly, though I was standing next to him at the time.

Point taken.

Ghia is one of the most ubiquitous of the new nonalcoholic spirits brands, with its rusty red aperitif gracing many a high-end Brooklyn bodega shelf. But I struggle to imagine that the hugely popular product tastes anything like its canned spritz. It's bitter to the point of being disturbing, as if someone were trying to poison me—or, conversely, treat me if it were the year 1450 and I lived in a tiny European village and the closest thing to a doctor was the apothecary/suspected witch whose little house was a good hour-long walk from the edge of town.

While taking a break from drinking (whether for a short period of time or forever) has its benefits for your physical and mental health, we think there are better ways to practice sobriety than to drink the Ghia Le Spritz. CR's enterprise editor, Kevin Doyle, said it tasted like "being on Paxlovid," the COVID-19 treatment that some people say makes their mouth taste bitter and metallic.

And it is incredibly, incredibly bitter, like sucking on a penny. I usually like bitter flavors—a Campari soda is my favorite low-ABV Friday night cocktail, and peppery arugula makes up my favorite side salad—but this is something else entirely. Only the most hardcore of bitters lovers will like this one. Althea said the medicinal flavor was simply too intense. "Like many of the mocktails in our evaluations, I would drink anything but this at a dinner party, much less spend my own money on it," she said. The final nail in the coffin? Lauren Kirchner, special projects deputy editor at CR, said it reminded her of gasoline. We’re gonna have to pass.

While you could certainly serve these cocktails in the packaging they come in—part of their appeal is that they’re premade, after all—it takes away some of the pleasure that comes with enjoying a drink. Research shows that how food looks can affect how it tastes. If you wouldn't serve a dry-aged filet mignon on a disposable plate or a fine wine in a plastic cup, why serve a nonalcoholic cocktail in the can it came in?

"Glassware, garnishes, punch bowls are a must" when serving nonalcoholic cocktails, says Maureen Petrosky, the author of"Zero Proof Drinks and More." "This category is beyond being an afterthought."

Ceremony, glamour, and aesthetics go hand-in-hand with cocktails. Unlike tossing back a shot of whiskey, a simple cocktail is often served with at least a garnish of some type—a lemon twist, an olive or two—and, on a good day, is spectacular with stunning glassware and unexpected embellishments. These details help differentiate a cocktail from, say, a soda, and can help explain why children delight in a Shirley Temple. It's all about the creativity and attention that went into the drink, from its invention to the way it dances across a drinker's tongue.

"We think of a cocktail as having a mixture of often diverse elements or ingredients, right? We think of a cocktail as requiring care and skill to make," says Julia Bainbridge, who writes about cocktails and is the author of"Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You’re Not Drinking for Whatever Reason." "I’d venture to say that fizzy lemonade isn't really a nonalcoholic cocktail. Syrup and soda water isn't a nonalcoholic cocktail." Serving a complex drink in an attractive manner helps adjust your guest's expectations. They’re not getting a Pellegrino on ice.

There's an additional reason to serve nonalcoholic cocktails in beautiful glassware, says Elva Ramirez, the author of"Zero Proof: 90 Non-Alcoholic Recipes for Mindful Drinking." "No one wants to be meant to feel ‘other,’ " she says. "No one needs to explain why they aren't drinking. Therefore, a zero-proof drink should be served in the same kind of glassware, with the same thoughtful garnish, as all the other drinks at a party. The idea is that when you scan a room, you shouldn't be able to tell, by glassware alone, who has a boozy drink and who doesn't."

Think about a parent-to-be at a New Year's party who isn't showing yet—and isn't ready to tell people she's pregnant. A former heavy drinker who knows their friends will hound them for not partaking. Even a moderate drinker who's simply taking a step back and doesn't feel like answering questions about it. All these people deserve to drink their cocktails in peace if that's what they desire. And because a good host's job is to help guests feel comfortable, ensuring that their cocktail of choice doesn't invite unwanted conversation comes with the territory.

Most of these cocktails taste better with a little extra added, anyway. Some fresh ice, a slice of lemon, a sprig of rosemary or mint, a beautiful stemmed glass or vintage highball. All these can elevate the experience from a premade drink poured from the fridge to one that feels creative and thoughtful. They also add flavor—or dilute it—something that many of these drinks could benefit from.

Not to mention that these drinks aren't exactly cheap. If you’re going to spend your hard-earned money on a four-pack of nonalcoholic drinks, they may as well look the part.

Angela Lashbrook

Angela Lashbrook is a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports. She has been with CR since 2021 and covers a wide range of topics, but she is particularly interested in anything health- or parenting-related. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and her dog, a Libra named Gordo.