It’s that time of year again when many of us choose to lay off the booze and go dry for July.
Zero- and low-alcohol wines and beers might seem like the obvious go-tos when cutting back on the juice. But the Australian drinks industry has seen a surge in upmarket cordials, shrubs, sodas, spritzes and fermented beverages competing for your attention – and your wallet.
But the question is, are these bougie beverages any good? And how do they compare with the classic drinks – the soft drinks, the cordials – we know and love?
Over a two-and-a-half-hour Zoom session, sommelier Samantha Payne and I charged through 95 non-alcoholic drinks in a side-by-side tasting, which featured sexy newcomers flaunting weird and wacky flavour combinations and “wellness tonics” with various health claims.
As you can imagine, the effects of drinking almost 100 carbonated drinks, back to back, is … rough. But in our combined act of public service, we whittled them down to our top 10 picks – plus five dishonourable mentions – for this month’s dry spell and beyond. Bottoms up!
The honours list: our top 10 non-alcoholic drinks
1. TINA, All Natural Lightly Sparkling – Jasmine Pearl, Raspberry (Fruit + Leaf) and Waxflower ($24 for 4 x 330ml cans, tinadrinks.com)
In a world of sugary sodas, over carbonated beverages and weird probiotic tonics, TINA teas are a welcome, refreshing reprieve. With an oolong tea base, this delicate and complex beverage sports flavours of raspberry, verjuice, pear and mandarin, with a herbaceous edge – and not an artificial sweetener in sight. We drank it chilled, straight from the can, and it was clean, refreshing and what an iced tea should be in 2023. A standout on the day of our taste test.
2. NON, 3 Toasted Cinnamon and Yuzu ($30 for 750ml bottle, non.world)
There’s a reason NON is often considered the benchmark for non-alcoholic drinks in this country – the complexity of flavours is hard to beat. While each of their creations is incredibly interesting in its own way, the No 3 is one of their best. Layered with flavours of yuzu, oranges, cinnamon, Murray River salt, organic cane sugar and verjuice, it’s fruity, savoury, delicate and complex. Serve it like Sam did - pour it into a wine glass and serve with ice.
3. Naked Life, Canadian Rye Dry & Lime Non-Alcoholic Cocktail ($89.95 for 24 x 250ml cans, nakedlifespirits.com.au)
Rye and dry is not a flavour of cocktail either of us enjoy. But credit where credit’s due – they’ve nailed the brief with a non-alcoholic replica that feels and tastes very close to the OG. We’re talking rich, textural oak, paired with dry ginger ale and lime. If you dig your rye and dry, this little number won’t leave you high and dry.
4. Sorted, Passionfruit Sparkling Prebiotic Drink ($42 for 12 x 250ml cans, drinksorted.com.au)
Pre- and probiotic drinks are all the rage at the moment, touting various claims about improving gut health, digestion and immunity. This one claims to be “bloat free”, but as we were 20 drinks deep into our 90-plus cavalcade of carbonated friends, we can’t be faithful judges of this claim. We do, however, vouch for this passionfruit flavour – it gave us major Passiona vibes, without the refined sugar taste.
The finish was vibrant, tart and mouthwatering, and during the taste test, it was one of the few drinks we polished off in its entirety.
5. Arepa The Brain Drink for Performance, Full Flavour Blackcurrant ($53 for 8 x 300ml bottles, drinkarepa.com.au)
Arepa is marketed as “the brain drink” and claims to increase cognitive performance, reduce stress and tackle brain fog.
And while we didn’t necessarily wake smarter and sharper the following day, we’ll definitely be returning for more of this. Sam described it as “the birth child of Ribena and Ocean Spray cranberry juice”. We’re talking luscious blackcurrant notes, with a complex mid-palate of dark earthy spices and a silky mouthfeel. A cracking drink.
6. No Ugly, Skin Pineapple Wellness Tonic ($49.99 for 12 x 250ml bottles, nougly.nz)
This “wellness tonic” describes itself as “skincare on super-drive”. I’m unsure what this means exactly, but given what I spend on skincare these days, I was a sucker for the sales pitch (see me in a few weeks to see whether the “tonic” worked). Flavour-wise, it was like a taste of the tropics, like biting into a ripe, juicy pineapple, with a hint of softer coconut notes on the finish. It was soft on the palate and felt … vaguely healthy? As Sam said, “looking good never tasted so delicious”.
7. Midnight Mixers, Bitter Lemon Tonic ($54 for 24 x 200ml cans, midnightmixers.com)
Don’t let the faint yellow hue deceive you. This zesty soda is refreshing, vibrant and pleasantly bitter. Unlike many of the drinks we tried, the levels of quinine (a bitter-tasting compound that gives tonic water its characteristic flavour) are bang on, with its drier notes balancing out the lemon.
It’s a throwback to the days of Schweppes’ bitter lemon mixer. This one will stand on its own during dry July and if you return to booze, it will blend beautifully with a quality gin or vodka.
8. Somersault Soda, Raspberry & Vanilla ( $35.50 for 12 x 330ml bottles, somersaultsoda.com.au)
Pure nostalgia. Consider this the classic raspberry soda we loved as kids, elevated. (Better yet, it contains a lot less sugar so if you give it to your kids, they won’t run amok at parties like we used to.)
It’s well-balanced, doesn’t taste “unnatural” and the vanilla adds a lovely creaminess on the palate. The result is a textural and layered beverage to enjoy at birthday parties and beyond.
9. Comet, Lemon, Lime & Kaffir Lime Natural Syrup ($15.40, for a 500ml bottle, drinkcomet.co)
Remember the old Bickford’s lime juice cordial your grandparents had stashed in the back of their pantry? Well, it’s had a glow-up.
Comet’s whole range was tremendous but this was the standout. The first thing that struck us was its luscious and silky viscosity. On the palate, it was refreshing and citrusy, with flavours of ripe lemon and lime, with floral undertones. Mix with soda and ice for a very refreshing drink.
10. StrangeLove, Holy Grapefruit Lo-Cal Soda ($78 for 24 x 300ml bottles, strangelove.com.au)
You don’t often see holy basil and grapefruit together, at least in the packaged drinks world. Here the holy basil extract offers a gorgeous savouriness that’s peppery and herbaceous. While the flavour is quite pronounced straight off the bat, the white grapefruit rounds it out with much needed tartness and the combination is tied together with some subtle carbonation. A textural masterpiece and a delicious soda. Post dry July, Sam suggests serving this with a dash of gin.
The dishonourable mentions: our bottom five
1. Nocktail, Non-Alcoholic Mai Tai ($18.99 for 4 x 250ml cans, danmurphys.com.au)
Where do we start? This was rough. Sam introduced me to a new term, orgeat, which is a syrup made predominantly from almonds and likened to that of liquid marzipan. And that’s all we could taste. We felt it needed more acidity from the lime to help cut through the marzipan dominance.
2. Naked Life, Non-Alcoholic Negroni Spritz ($89.95 for 24 x 250ml cans, nakedlifespirits.com.au)
The negroni is, arguably, one of the world’s greatest cocktails, so I can’t tell you how much we wanted to love this. Tragically, the combination of quinine and artificial-tasting Italian apero was a bitter mess. It was promising on the nose, out of balance on the palate and the bitterness of the quinine and bitter orange dominated.
3. No Ugly, Sleep Passionfruit Wellness Tonic ($49.99 for 12 x 250ml bottles, nougly.nz)
The tart cherry and passionfruit situation clashed terribly – it gave a big sweet and sour vibe, but not in a good way. Hard pass, unfortunately.
4. Lo Bros, Passionfruit Feel Good Kombucha ($7.50 for a 750ml bottle, coles.com.au)
Kombucha is a “living” – ie not shelf-stable – product. So to see it outside of the fridge doesn’t feel right. While the passionfruit notes were pronounced, they also tasted artificial. And combined with the fermented, vinegary flavours typical of kombucha, this was a drink that is best left on the shelf.
5. Strangelove, Cloudy Pear & Cinnamon Lo-Cal Soda ( $78 for 24 x 300ml bottles, strangelove.com.au)
You wouldn’t think something as innocuous as cloudy pear would be in the bottom five, but this missed the mark. It was akin to eating a pear that has turned and, while length in wine is considered a good thing, the lingering flavours of this soda were anything but. A wild and weird ride from start to finish.
An honourable mention …
Schweppes Solo Original Lemon
We included a few OG soft drinks as a benchmark for our tasting. And in our endeavour to find the perfect lemon squash, we found ourselves drawn back, time and time again, to this thirst-quenching magic. There is no comparison. It’s zesty, lemony, sweet, with 5% crushed lemons that delivers 100% refreshment.
