Top 8: Raise your glass with these shop-bought, non-alcoholic favourites
Pic: iStock
New Year’s Eve is a big party night — the last celebration of the festive season for many.Â
But you may want to ease up on your alcohol intake to avoid paying the price the following day.Â
Or if a taxi and babysitter prove hard to find, you may need to drive.Â
We searched high and low shelves for the most interesting alcohol-free drinks to help keep the cheer flowing.Â
We avoided too much sweetness (a common complaint with alcohol-free wines), and some drinks we tested had very low alcohol content: 0.05%, 0.5%, or 1%.
In past Top 8 surveys, top markers Meisel’s Weisser, Birra Moretti and Guinness 0.0 were popular.Â
But we don’t always need to look to drinks that taste like alcoholic originals.Â
Instead, make the best of delicious Irish products, such as apple juices from The Apple Farm, Ballyhoura Apple Farm, and Attyflin Estate.Â
Highbank makes good apple juice and syrup that can be added to sparkling water.
Sometimes, it’s about how you present a drink, and a Champagne flute, a large glass with cucumber (use a potato peeler), and a slice of ginger or pomegranate seeds added to your favourite soft drink will give it a lift.
Happy, hangover-free new year.
Made from fermented Darjeeling tea with a hint of vanilla, sugars are a low 2.6%, so it’s not too sweet.Â
A fermentation culture and carbon dioxide pair to make a decent fizz that lasts for hours.Â
Very interesting, with no pretensions to be an alcohol substitute. In pretty, slim cans, also in a white version which has more peachy flavours.
Stonewell non-alcoholic cider 0% alcohol - 330ml €2.99
Made from Irish apples, this has the edginess and dryness of an alcoholic cider, which makes it good with food.Â
4% sugars isn’t noticeable. The alcoholic version is also very good, and this one comes up to the mark. Widely available.
This came close to Stonewell for depth of flavour, and with 5.6% sugars was just a tad sweeter than it.Â
Made in Co Kerry, it is good value and tasters loved it. We found this in O’Driscolls, Ballinlough, Cork.
Good bubbles here make a festive start with chardonnay biscuity and bready flavours typical of some Champagnes.Â
With a low 2.6% sugars, not at all sweet.Â
Good for mixing with peach juice for Italian Bellini, or float a few festive halved cranberries or pomegranate, just for fun.Â
From O’Driscolls, Ballinlough, Cork.
Torres is a very good, reliable wine company. This de-alcoholised wine is made traditionally with the alcohol removed later.Â
Typical Spanish grapes, garnacha and syrah, often used in this brand’s regular wines, have a good edge to them, making it good with food.Â
Widely available, we bought in O’Briens, and spotted it also in Tesco (at a slightly lower price).
The simple recipe here is sparkling grape juice made with fizzy water, 31% white grape concentrate and 7% merlot red grape juice, with citric and malic acids to preserve and give it a tart edge.Â
The bubbles are frothy. Plenty of fruit flavours. Tasters found it a little sweet, with 5.5% sugars, but very pleasant.
Made in Donegal from water, barley, hops, yeast, this attractive can (featuring a cute dog), appealed to tasters who liked the freshness, slight edginess and lightness.Â
With a decent head, it’s not complex (few alcoholic beers are). A pleasant drink with a hint of pineapple. Widely available.
There is plenty of frothy fizz in this rainbow-coloured can with a strong beer/malted barley flavour and not too many raspberry and elderflower fruits. The fruitiness appeared more in the scent or nose.
Widely available.
