Yahoo News How to have a booze-free bank holiday with these top drinks
Here’s a stat that might surprise, the number coming from Fortnum & Mason wine and spirit buyer Oscar Dodd: 28 per cent of all sparkling sales in the past ten months at Fortnums were for sparkling… tea! That includes sales of Champagne and other sparkling wines. Those looking for grown-up soft drinks with which to toast the Coronation and other summer celebrations, high days and holidays, take note. Sparkling tea is a seriously good alternative to the usual alcoholic bubblies.
Sparkling tea has been sold at Fortnums since 2018. It’s made by the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company which crafts these delicate drinks (beautifully, in my view) out of organic black, white, green and herbal teas, grape must (for sweetness), lemon, hibiscus and other botanicals. The rosé version, tasting of strawberry Eton Mess, is every bit as good as the white which I’ve described below and they come in pretty, stylish bottles.
Or there’s Saicho sparkling teas made in London in a range of flavours, designed to go with food. Saicho Jasmine is my favourite, but you might prefer the richer Saicho Darjeeling or Hojicha, made from Sencha green tea. Again, the smart bottles look appealing at a party – decent gift for the host or driver…
And I came across PiQi quite recently. It’s a new range of raw, probiotic drinks based on water kefir rather than the usual dairy products, founded by Aksana Fitzpatrick and Nick Young. Each naturally flavoured PiQi drink is refreshing and well-balanced, with lively, tangy flavours – good for your gut without seeming too worthy.
There are still a lot of ‘no-lo’ adult drinks out there which just don’t taste nice – some of the luminous, over-sweet or over-bitter concoctions have me racing straight back to the elderflower pressé. Others, while more pleasant, are crazily over-priced for soft drinks. Tread carefully.
My final choices below are two more which tick the boxes – a keenly priced can of pre-made no-alc spritz and a booze-free spirit which makes terrific teetotal versions of G&T for your summer parties.
Try these...
Fortnum & Mason Sparkling Tea, Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company, Denmark
(Fortnum & Mason, £17.95 for 75cl)
From its bright gold colour, scent of green grapes and lemon-drops, to the fresh, tangy and drier flavour with a subtle tea note and lively bubbles, this is the non-drinker’s answer to Champagne (or fine English sparkling wine). Looks smart too, worthy of a celebration – chill well and pour into tall flutes.
Bax Botanics Zingy Lemon Verbena and Tonic, West Yorkshire
(baxbotanics.com and masterofmalt.com, £28.80 for 12 x 250ml cans; thealcoholfreeco.co.uk, from £2.49 for a single can)
Chris and Rose Bax’s non-alcoholic drinks are all impressive, no surprise perhaps since the couple have 30 years between them working in the food industry with wild ingredients and culinary herbs. This canned pre-mixed drink is a treat, balanced with a light touch, the lemon refreshing and natural. Plunge a few into an ice bucket at a barbecue or picnic.
PiQi Grapefruit & Cardamom Kefir, Somerset
(piqilife.com, £28.50 for 8 x 250ml bottles)
Unpasteurised probiotic sparkling water drink, fermented using a ‘scoby’ colony of bacteria and yeast, sugar and water. Tastes great – there’s no sour flavour or sugariness (the yeast eats up some of the sugar), just light touches of tangy organic pink grapefruit and warmer cardamom and a refreshing effervescence.
Pentire Adrift Botanical Non-Alcoholic Spirit, Cornwall
(spiritskiosk.com & thewhiskyexchange.com, £24.95 for 70cl)
Here’s a no-alc spirit that really is worth the price tag. Made from botanicals native to the north Cornish coast, including wild sage and rock samphire, as well as citrus fruit, its got a lemon tang and more herbal, savoury notes with a dab of salt on the finish. Use exactly as you would the gin in a G&T/P&T!
Saicho Jasmine Sparkling Tea, London
(masterofmalt.com, £15.74 for 75cl; thewhiskyexchange.com)
There’s a distinctive green tea flavour to this; it’s soft sparkling and slightly grassy with citrus, melon and herbal notes and balanced floral note. Made from green tea scented with jasmine flowers produced in Fujian province, China, it’s a clean-tasting aperitif and goes very well with light white fish dishes.
