Curious Elixirs No. 1

Two different things get called non-alcoholic, and the difference matters.

• 0.0% means what it says. Nothing.
• Non-alcoholic is a legal term in the US for anything under 0.5% ABV — roughly what you would find in a ripe banana, a glass of kombucha or a slice of rye bread.

Where a brand states 0.0% we put it in the description. If you are avoiding alcohol for medical, religious or recovery reasons, read the can rather than the category, and ask us if it is not clear.

There are two routes to an alcohol-free drink and they taste different.

Dealcoholized means it was brewed or fermented normally and then had the alcohol removed, usually by vacuum distillation or reverse osmosis. It tends to keep more of the character of the original.

Built alcohol-free means it never had any, either through arrested fermentation or by building the flavour from botanicals. It usually reads cleaner and lighter, and it is the route most zero-proof spirits take.

Neither is better. They are different drinks, and which one you like is worth finding out with a sampler rather than a full case.

• Alcohol-free does not mean calorie-free. Most NA beer and wine still carries calories and sugar.
• If you are in recovery, only you know whether an alcohol-free version of the thing is helpful for you. We stock it, we will never push it, and we are happy to point you at something that tastes nothing like a beer.
• Store dealcoholized wine like real wine. It is more fragile once opened, not less.