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Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Speaker 3: Melanie Young, and welcome to another episode that I hope
Speaker 3: will inspire enlighten you to live life to your fullest
Speaker 3: and always on your terms. You can follow me at
Speaker 3: Melanie Fabulous, check out my step stack at Melanie Fabulous,
Speaker 3: and of course read my book for Less Fabulous You,
Speaker 3: Lessons on Living Life on Your Terms, which you can
Speaker 3: get on Amazon. We are going to talk about what
Speaker 3: to drink when you're not drinking that's right? And what
Speaker 3: inspired this well a lot of things. I just attended
Speaker 3: Tales of the Cocktail, which is the largest gathering of
Speaker 3: bar tenders and spirits industry professionals from around the world.
Speaker 3: It was created in two thousand and three here in
Speaker 3: my new home of New Orleans, which is the birthplace
Speaker 3: of the cocktail and has it has some of the
Speaker 3: greatest cocktail bars in the world, and it is where
Speaker 3: the home of the Sazarak, the French seventy five, the Ramos,
Speaker 3: Gin Fizz, Cafe Brulau, and other legendary cocktails. I have
Speaker 3: been attending Tales of the Cocktail with my husband David
Speaker 3: for many, many years. It is probably like my tenth
Speaker 3: but in twenty ten I was the only, probably the
Speaker 3: only teatotaler Tales because I attended after I had finished
Speaker 3: treatment for breast cancer and I was not drinking, and
Speaker 3: I remember that there was really not a lot of
Speaker 3: great options for me. There was coffee, there was tea,
Speaker 3: there was soda, There was water and juice, and the
Speaker 3: juices all had too much sugar, and I remember lamenting
Speaker 3: the David, Gosh, there's just nothing for people who don't
Speaker 3: imbibe and consume alcohol, and I want better options now.
Speaker 3: We all remember when we were young and you go
Speaker 3: out with your mom and dad or I would, and
Speaker 3: they order you a Shirley Temple or a Tom Collins
Speaker 3: so you feel sophisticated. And I still like a good
Speaker 3: Shirley Temple in Tom Collins, but I wanted more, I
Speaker 3: wanted better options. But here's the good news. Since then,
Speaker 3: and that was two thousand and ten, we're now in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. The no alcohol movement you can call
Speaker 3: what it is, but people who there's actually a thirty
Speaker 3: percent of the US population adult drinking age population, choose
Speaker 3: not to consume alcohol. Now it's actually at a higher
Speaker 3: level than ever. Many people decided to stop consuming alcohol
Speaker 3: after COVID nineteen because maybe they were consuming a little
Speaker 3: bit too much during COVID nineteen. A lot of people
Speaker 3: are older like me. I'm over sixty, and I don't
Speaker 3: metabolize certain types of alcohol as well as I used to.
Speaker 3: And I also have, you know, middle age gain or
Speaker 3: actually senior age gay menopause belly, and I'm always trying
Speaker 3: to lose it, and consuming too much of anything seems
Speaker 3: to go straight to my belly. I do okay with wine,
Speaker 3: that's a whole nother story. I do fine with wine.
Speaker 3: I drink it with food, It's fine. But vodka, tequila,
Speaker 3: gin who I can do I can become pretty weird
Speaker 3: on all those things and not very nice, so I
Speaker 3: have to cut back. So here's the good news. If
Speaker 3: you were in the same boat as me, Maybe you
Speaker 3: don't drink because you're pregnant, or you're trying to become pregnant,
Speaker 3: or you don't are unable to metabolize alcohol. Maybe you
Speaker 3: had consumed a lot of alcohol and you have chosen
Speaker 3: to stop drinking to change your lifestyle and behavior because
Speaker 3: you liked alcohol a little too much. Maybe your religious
Speaker 3: beliefs dictate that you do not drink alcohol for religious reasons.
Speaker 3: Whatever your reason, it's your personal choice. And I absolutely
Speaker 3: hate it when somebody says to me socially, why aren't
Speaker 3: you drinking? Well, it's none of your business. Why aren't
Speaker 3: you drinking? You should never say why aren't you doing anything?
Speaker 3: Why aren't you eating? Why don't you eat me? Why
Speaker 3: don't you drink? You never asked that question. Just say
Speaker 3: what would you like to drink? What can I get you?
Speaker 3: What are your preferences? And if you're entertaining at home,
Speaker 3: you should always have some really great non alcohol options
Speaker 3: for guests. This also goes whether you're doing a bra
Speaker 3: I shower, or a wedding or any kind of event.
Speaker 3: There should always be options that are good for people
Speaker 3: who choose not to invite. You know, the last thing
Speaker 3: you want is for someone to over indulge and then
Speaker 3: go drive home, because I'm very much against drinking and
Speaker 3: driving and it's against the law. So you need to
Speaker 3: have options. But here's the good news. So I went
Speaker 3: to Tails of the Cocktail this year with the soul
Speaker 3: mission to find better low and low alcohol products. I
Speaker 3: did this last year as well, and boyit, there's some
Speaker 3: really great options out there. So I'm going to share
Speaker 3: them with you. And I just want to say from
Speaker 3: the onset, I have no commercial relationship with any of
Speaker 3: these brands. I just happen to like them. I do
Speaker 3: have to check my notes, so if I'm looking down,
Speaker 3: I'm checking my notes for accuracy because it's a lot
Speaker 3: and I'll always remember everything. But these are just a
Speaker 3: few that I liked that I'm going to share with you,
Speaker 3: and hopefully wherever you are you can find them in
Speaker 3: your market. I'll also provide you a handy source website
Speaker 3: where you can find all sorts of no and low
Speaker 3: alcohol products. I'm going to start with no alcohol and
Speaker 3: I'm going to start with what you just have at home.
Speaker 3: For people who don't like to drink water all the time,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know about you, but I get
Speaker 3: really tired of just drinking still water. And I drink
Speaker 3: at least eight glasses a day. So sometimes I'll add
Speaker 3: crushed cucumber or berries or oranges or lime and lemon
Speaker 3: to spike up my water. And lately what I've been
Speaker 3: doing is I've been taking frozen fruit, like frozen strawberries
Speaker 3: and blueberries that we have for smoothies in the freezer,
Speaker 3: and I'll put them in my water so they're like
Speaker 3: little mini berry cubes to make my water taste better. Well,
Speaker 3: that's like level one. Level two is to go for
Speaker 3: fizzy water that has some flavor in it. I again
Speaker 3: no commercial relationship, but I went gaga over Topachka, which
Speaker 3: was one of the sponsors of Tails of the Cocktail.
Speaker 3: They have all sorts of really great flavor with waters. Now.
Speaker 3: I like the blueberry met that was my absolute favorite.
Speaker 3: I like Topachica because the bubbles are very very fine,
Speaker 3: kind of like with the way I like my sparkling wines,
Speaker 3: like champagne, very fine bubbles. I like that because I
Speaker 3: have gastro esophagal reflux disorder and big bubbles make me burp.
Speaker 3: And the last thing I want to do, whether I'm
Speaker 3: talking to you or talking to anybody socially, is belch.
Speaker 3: So I love the topuchico. They also make great mixers.
Speaker 3: I also think that tea is a great iced tea,
Speaker 3: herbal tea, green teas, those make great mixers. If you
Speaker 3: want to create an alcohol free cocktail. We don't call
Speaker 3: them mocktails because you're mocking something and we don't mock
Speaker 3: We just have true, non alcohol alcohol free whatever you
Speaker 3: want to call it, zero proof cocktails. Tea is a
Speaker 3: great bass. I like green tea, iced is a bass.
Speaker 3: Another one is coconut water. I love coconut water mixed
Speaker 3: with other types of no or low alcohol products to
Speaker 3: create that layer and level that you want that creates balance,
Speaker 3: but lots of interesting flavors. And I have also discovered
Speaker 3: some really terrific sparkling coconut waters, so I always keep
Speaker 3: that in refrigerator. It's great for hydration. Also, the other
Speaker 3: product I recommend is if you can find vegetable juices
Speaker 3: or reduced sugar juices, they're great. I don't particularly like.
Speaker 3: I like fresh juice period I'd rather squeeze my own
Speaker 3: and make my own then go buy bottle. But she
Speaker 3: usually has added sugar and sugar, and for me, sugar
Speaker 3: mixed with any alcohol is combustible in my brain, I
Speaker 3: don't do well. So those are some things you could have.
Speaker 3: There's also coffee if you want to make coffee drinks.
Speaker 3: A little tip is when I go traveling, I take
Speaker 3: the little packets of nescafe that they have in my
Speaker 3: hotel and I'll take them home with me and I'll
Speaker 3: use those if I'm making people coffee drinks, coffee beverages,
Speaker 3: and I also use it as a scrub on my
Speaker 3: face with coconut coconut oil. So I often take all
Speaker 3: the packages of teas and sugar, teas and coffee so
Speaker 3: I can drink them later. So those are some basic
Speaker 3: products you can have that are no alcohol options that
Speaker 3: taste a little bit better than water, and you can
Speaker 3: enhance with other products. So let's talk about that. As
Speaker 3: I said about thirty percent, which is almost ten percent,
Speaker 3: then it used to be of alcohol of adult age,
Speaker 3: drinking age adults or not consuming or choosing to consume
Speaker 3: less hard alcohol or any alcohol. So I'm going to
Speaker 3: explain non alcohol versus low alcohol. A non alcohol apperteef,
Speaker 3: for example, an aperteef is what you drink. You drink
Speaker 3: before meal to aparto open up your palate to prepare
Speaker 3: for your meal. It's very popular in Europe. They have
Speaker 3: this what I call the mad hour where everybody gets
Speaker 3: their apperol spritzes, their Campari sprints. Is they're spritzes which
Speaker 3: are light low alcohol beverages and they have them before
Speaker 3: they have a meal, and it's great. Everybody should do that.
Speaker 3: A non alcohol operatife usually contains less than point five
Speaker 3: percent alcohol by volume. Okay, point oh five percent. Let
Speaker 3: me clarify that point oh five percent okay, So you
Speaker 3: can look in the labels to see they're all required
Speaker 3: to list what percentage they have. In comparison, in alcohols
Speaker 3: and spirits have like forty to seventy percent alcohol by volume,
Speaker 3: depending on what it is, so it's a big difference.
Speaker 3: So low alcohol is usually in the spirit end around
Speaker 3: twenty percent. Okay, So you've got o five for no
Speaker 3: alcohol or less oh five percent twenty percent eighteen to
Speaker 3: twenty percent lower alcohol, and then the regular forty to
Speaker 3: seventy percent for spirits wine just as an example, just
Speaker 3: so I bring that up. Wine on average is thirteen
Speaker 3: point five percent alcohol by volume. However, some of the
Speaker 3: great my favorite lower alcohol wines, Champagne, sparkly wine usually
Speaker 3: eleven percent to twelve point five percent alcohol by volume
Speaker 3: versus thirteen to fourteen percent. Another one is dry reaslings
Speaker 3: Orvieto wines. The wines of Orvieto. I was just there
Speaker 3: tasting their gurkettos. They're amazing. Eleven to twelve percent. So
Speaker 3: many wines have lower alcohol. Here's a tip. If the
Speaker 3: wine is made in a cooler climate, okay, a cooler climate,
Speaker 3: higher altitude, there is likelihood it has lower alcohol by volume.
Speaker 3: Hotter climates tend to have higher alcohol. It's a rule
Speaker 3: of thumb. Of course, there's variations, but that's just a tip.
Speaker 3: Vino Verity wines and Portugal rate lower alcohol all wines.
Speaker 3: Same with Albertino from Spain, white wines crisp and white,
Speaker 3: and the average alcohol by volume is eleven percent twelve percent. Okay,
Speaker 3: so that's the wine end of it. I went in
Speaker 3: down drink champagne, okay, eleven percent to twelve percent and
Speaker 3: a good brute has minimal residual sugar. So here's what
Speaker 3: I have found when I have been looking around for
Speaker 3: no alcohol options. And I'm going to get to my
Speaker 3: little tip sheet here down here the first one which
Speaker 3: I love, and these were sent to me. It's called Amethysts. Okay,
Speaker 3: I love the name already because I love amethysts. You
Speaker 3: can see I have a beautiful purple painting behind me
Speaker 3: that is from my gifted cousin, Hunt Slonem look him up,
Speaker 3: Hunt Sloanem, and it's a beautiful purple painting that he
Speaker 3: gave my mother, the Purple Lady. So naturally I have
Speaker 3: a thing for amethysts. These are great. This is the bottle.
Speaker 3: It's really attractive. It's got amethysts written on it, and
Speaker 3: there's four different kind So this is a no alcohol
Speaker 3: botanical beverage that you can mix with your coconut water,
Speaker 3: your tea, your sparkling beverage, or you can make it
Speaker 3: into a low alcohol apartef sprints it. It's no alcohol,
Speaker 3: it is botanical. There's about thirteen calories no sugar. Love
Speaker 3: that and it was started by two brothers who worked
Speaker 3: in the Craft whiskey distillery. In Bluffton, South Carolina, beautiful
Speaker 3: place if you haven't been, and they wanted to create
Speaker 3: a no alcohol product because they had read that at
Speaker 3: the time, roughly twenty percent of the population had chosen
Speaker 3: not to consume alcohol. Now we're at thirty percent, so
Speaker 3: this is a big movement. So they created these organic
Speaker 3: brands called Amethyst. They have four blens i'll call them.
Speaker 3: One is blueberry ginger mint, and one watermelon lime, lemon
Speaker 3: cucumber serrano. That one has a bit of a bite
Speaker 3: in the back, so watch it. And grapefruit basil. The
Speaker 3: one I have is the lemon cucumber serrano. That's got
Speaker 3: the bit of the bite. I tell you, this one
Speaker 3: is really good with tomato juice. Then you have a
Speaker 3: no alcohol bloody marry. Very good tomato juice are really
Speaker 3: really good bloody marry mix. This one is the grapefruit basil.
Speaker 3: I love this one. It's really good with juice or tea.
Speaker 3: I like the basil because I happen to love herbs
Speaker 3: in my beverages. I think the more products should have herbs,
Speaker 3: and of course I love this blueberry ginger mint ginger.
Speaker 3: When I was going to chemotherapy, everybody told me to
Speaker 3: drink ginger tea. So ginger tea. I brew ginger, I
Speaker 3: drink ginger tea. I still love ginger. I think it's
Speaker 3: very soothing on the stomach. I love this combination of blueberry, mint,
Speaker 3: and ginger. Probably mixes all together and make a great cocktail.
Speaker 3: So they're called amethysts. The retail price suggested as twenty
Speaker 3: nine ninety nine. They also provide on the website a
Speaker 3: recipe for turning these into freezer pops using fresh blueberries
Speaker 3: and a gaby and the botanicals and coconut milk. It
Speaker 3: sounds really great. Speaking of coconut milk is another great
Speaker 3: mixer if you want a creamier type of cocktail. So
Speaker 3: that's amethyst and on average thirteen calories in one point
Speaker 3: five ounces, so thirteen calories, no sugar, totally botanical. I
Speaker 3: love this product. I wish I did have an affiliation
Speaker 3: with them. I think they're awesome. Okay, moving quite along,
Speaker 3: I also found I'm finding these interesting products that are
Speaker 3: like pint based and barley based. Actually, I'm going to
Speaker 3: pull this one up. This is one that came to me.
Speaker 3: It just came to me. It's called grass. I guess
Speaker 3: grassy like grass gra C g R A S S I.
Speaker 3: It's organic barley water with vitamin C D and zinc.
Speaker 3: This one is lemon, grass and ginger. I like it.
Speaker 3: There's also a cucumber mint. This one citrus ment. Here.
Speaker 3: It's actually the one. I'm drinking citrus mint right here.
Speaker 3: Citrus mint. This is a little bit of sugar. It's
Speaker 3: got roughly eight eight grams of added sugar, so still low,
Speaker 3: but it has it. It's thirty five calories in a
Speaker 3: sixteen ounce serving. It's a little grassy tasting. My husband
Speaker 3: David said he tasted hey, but I actually like it.
Speaker 3: It's like water but enhanced with a little bit of
Speaker 3: herbaceousness in it. I think these are good though, and
Speaker 3: it was developed by people who wanted to have healthier,
Speaker 3: functional beverages with lower sugar. So grassy organic barley water.
Speaker 3: I have no idea what the price point is. They
Speaker 3: were just sent to me and I'm still tasting them,
Speaker 3: and they're so good. I may have to have a
Speaker 3: sip right now because I'm thirsty. Young citrus mint mint
Speaker 3: is so amazing. So that's another fun product I've just
Speaker 3: discovered now, Pathfinder. I discovered this one it Tails with
Speaker 3: the Cocktail. Last year Tails with Cocktail thankfully started a
Speaker 3: no and low bar. And I love going and trotting
Speaker 3: in there and tasting everything and beating all the people
Speaker 3: because you learn the most interesting stories and taste some
Speaker 3: products you like and some you don't. I like Pathfinder.
Speaker 3: It is a fermented and distilled hemp based liquid that
Speaker 3: can be used as a spread. So it's herbal. It's
Speaker 3: an herbal elixir, a herbal lickor like in tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: What's great about herbal lixers is they're also really great digestives.
Speaker 3: If you had too much to eat and you want
Speaker 3: to sell your stomach, they make really great digestives. This
Speaker 3: is fir made from hemp and copper pot and it's
Speaker 3: got an alchemy of wormwood, which is kind of like
Speaker 3: what they put into pasty, so that's kind of interesting.
Speaker 3: Angelica root, ginger, sage, juniper, saffron, orange peel, and wild
Speaker 3: crafted Douglas fur. It's got very intense herbaceous character. I
Speaker 3: would drink this spritzed with just club soda or some
Speaker 3: topa Chica fizzy water. I would also probably try it
Speaker 3: with this grassy product. I haven't Yeah, because I don't
Speaker 3: have any, but I think it would be really interesting,
Speaker 3: so it's called Pathfinder. I also tasted a product at
Speaker 3: this year's Tales of the COCKTAILK Giffords g I F
Speaker 3: F A r DS. These are let me inclute my notes.
Speaker 3: These are syrups that are sweet, but they're not like
Speaker 3: you know, high fruit dose corn syrup. They're derived. The
Speaker 3: sweetness is from French sugar beets, so it's gonna be sweet,
Speaker 3: but it's made from beees. These are French made products,
Speaker 3: lactose free, gluten free, and vegan. They have a three
Speaker 3: year self live. They're great for zero proof cocktails or
Speaker 3: low abb alcohol bove i Am creations. I liked the
Speaker 3: Pompeo Moose was my favorite. I also had a really
Speaker 3: great elderflower cocktail. I think the one that I liked
Speaker 3: the most was pineapple. They had mixed it with coconut
Speaker 3: milk and some herbs, and it was the most refreshing
Speaker 3: cocktail with just the coconut milk or coconut cree maybe
Speaker 3: in pineapple, kind of like a no alcohol peanut colada.
Speaker 3: But then they added RBS to it, which is made
Speaker 3: it fabulous. Again. They have ginger as well. Gingers like
Speaker 3: the product of ginger and elderflower are like the end
Speaker 3: products right now, and mint and blueberry. I'm finding so
Speaker 3: that product is called Gifford's g I F F ar Ds.
Speaker 3: They are distributed in the United States. I tasted all
Speaker 3: the other cocktails. I think they're just awesome. You would
Speaker 3: mix those. I think they make a great sprints Okay
Speaker 3: in the I like amorros and formose. Formoth is a
Speaker 3: great product if you want to have a low alcohol
Speaker 3: by volume. Sprits for moose are I'm still exploring these.
Speaker 3: They're a type of bitter. They're very you know driver sweet.
Speaker 3: Formoth for mooth is used in Martini's. I've been trying
Speaker 3: them just on ice with a slice of lime, and
Speaker 3: once I did it with frozen grapes is my little
Speaker 3: ice cubes. It's really good. I'm still exploring these and learning.
Speaker 3: But some of the best for moose I've ever tasted,
Speaker 3: or from France, Italy and Spain just really awesome products.
Speaker 3: And I really would love to go over to France,
Speaker 3: Italy and Spain just drink for mouth and learn more.
Speaker 3: So with that in mind, the other is the Amorrow's
Speaker 3: it's wonderful more digestives that are very popular, often as
Speaker 3: an after dinner drink, but I like them sprits to
Speaker 3: give that herbaceousness character to a low alcohol cocktail. Opious,
Speaker 3: not to be confused with opiom Opius from Opious Distillery,
Speaker 3: is a no alcohol a type of amorrow. Okay, no alcohol,
Speaker 3: we're still It was found in twenty twenty by two
Speaker 3: quote restless cocktail enthusiasts who wanted to create a non
Speaker 3: alcohol option for those people who choose not to drink
Speaker 3: because it's a big market and a big marketing opportunity.
Speaker 3: They wanted something that had good quality, that was all
Speaker 3: natural and really great flavor. They gave me a whole
Speaker 3: long discussion about how they do this alchemistic alchemy and
Speaker 3: reviving old recipes and batching and mixing all these different spices.
Speaker 3: It was very quite intense, but at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, it's all about the proof in what I tasted,
Speaker 3: and these are really terrific products. There's four styles. The
Speaker 3: first one's cold and this is a very new product,
Speaker 3: so I don't know if you'll see your market yet,
Speaker 3: but hopefully you will. Opious. I tasted rubetto Rubetto has
Speaker 3: it's a lixer basically orange peel, Gentian shinato, which is
Speaker 3: a type of Italian orange. I had to look it
Speaker 3: up and rhubarb. This is like notes of orange and
Speaker 3: Gentian and a little bit of bitter. Really, I would
Speaker 3: just pop some pub soda or sparkling water in that
Speaker 3: and sip it as a spritz. Next one was called Amorrow.
Speaker 3: It was angelica, lemon, peel, coriander, and almond, my personal
Speaker 3: favorite because I love anything that has a nutty characteristic
Speaker 3: to it. It was like lemony, nutty. Again, sprits it.
Speaker 3: The third one was called Negretto, made with sugar beets. Again,
Speaker 3: sugar beets. We talked about them in the Gifferts. French oak,
Speaker 3: roasted coffee beans. Okay, this one. If you wanted the
Speaker 3: aversion of an alcohol free espresso martini, this is your product.
Speaker 3: Find an alcohol free voga. Not going on this show
Speaker 3: because I didn't taste those, but I'm really delicious and sultry.
Speaker 3: I got notes of toffee and French oak. I would
Speaker 3: actually just put it in my coffee and spike it
Speaker 3: up and make it really good, or pour it over
Speaker 3: ice cream because I think These would be really good
Speaker 3: over ice cream because you can cope with all these products,
Speaker 3: you know, pour them over pancakes. And the last one
Speaker 3: was called Albeto alb e do O. It was Fennel
Speaker 3: juniper Cardamin Clothes loved this product. I love Fenel based
Speaker 3: ani spased products. I've been a drinker of parano or
Speaker 3: ricard and herb sent for years. I drink that as
Speaker 3: an app para teef, particularly when I'm in Falfa, France
Speaker 3: with some water, and I love that appeeling mouthfeel that
Speaker 3: is not sugary. Again, these are really great apt paratifs
Speaker 3: to open up your palate before dinner, or if you
Speaker 3: can enjoy them as digestives to relax and digest your
Speaker 3: mail and have that last sip of the night really delicious. Again,
Speaker 3: it's called Opious. I don't have the bottles here, but
Speaker 3: they're beautiful, square and very elegant looking. Ritual is a
Speaker 3: type of alcohol free dark rum with notes of honey, banana,
Speaker 3: bitter orange, cinnamon, annis and really great for creating an
Speaker 3: alcohol free mohito or dakri, you know, so freeze it up.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of alcohol free options in the
Speaker 3: rum gin Scotch category. I didn't taste a lot because
Speaker 3: there was just so much, but I did taste ritual
Speaker 3: mixed in the beverage. It was really good. Now Here
Speaker 3: was the last product I tasted in the alcohol free
Speaker 3: The Tales of the cocktail was also one of the
Speaker 3: most interesting. It's founded by a woman. It's called Tomo
Speaker 3: Tomo Tobala. It's a non alcohol distilled a gave spirit. Now,
Speaker 3: gave is what you have when you drink agave products
Speaker 3: like tequila, so margaritas and any kind of product like that.
Speaker 3: Agave is from Mexico. It's a plant. It takes years
Speaker 3: to grow. It's this one is made from the one
Speaker 3: hundred percent rare Tobala agave, which is roasted in a
Speaker 3: pit oven.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: These are from Wahaka. I actually met the owner, who
Speaker 3: is a woman. A woman own She her name is
Speaker 3: Amanda Chen and she was formerly a bartender. She, like
Speaker 3: many people in the hospitality industry, lost her job during
Speaker 3: COVID and didn't know what she was going to do
Speaker 3: with the rest of her life. But one of the
Speaker 3: things she decided is she was going to stop drinking.
Speaker 3: A lot of people did that during COVID. They started
Speaker 3: drinking and then they stopped drinking, and that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 3: So she said that she was developing coctos and cottaos
Speaker 3: in Toronto for many years and the pandemic took her
Speaker 3: out of the bar scene completely. So she went to Mexico.
Speaker 3: She said it was the only place opened during lockdown
Speaker 3: and she was desperate to find new purpose. So she
Speaker 3: stopped drinking completely in May twenty twenty one and moved
Speaker 3: to Wahaka, and there she started researching agave plants and
Speaker 3: trying to figure out a way to create an alcohol
Speaker 3: free option. I think this product is terrific. It is
Speaker 3: the winner of the twenty twenty four International No Alcohol
Speaker 3: Spirits Competition for non alcohol Agavi of the Year. It
Speaker 3: is distilled with it's called pomono tomo or tomo. It's
Speaker 3: distilled with local botanicals including ginger, passilia mixe, chili, florida, cacao, basil, poleo, camamil,
Speaker 3: black cardamoen, nutmeg, cinnamon, hibiscus, rose, petal, lemon, grass, clothes,
Speaker 3: and smoked pineapple. Well, it's a mouthful. It tastes so
Speaker 3: smoky and soft and smooth. It's delicious. I would probably
Speaker 3: put it in my coconut water and maybe try it
Speaker 3: in this grassy barley water. It smokes something up. I
Speaker 3: think it also be great for cooking. It had that
Speaker 3: amazing smokiness that I love. I tend to go herbaceous
Speaker 3: and smoky and bitter versus sweet and fruity, two dy
Speaker 3: fruity when I that's just me. I hope she does
Speaker 3: really a while, Amanda Chad. She was really sweet. She
Speaker 3: was pouring it herself. A lot of these are small
Speaker 3: companies and they're just out plugging away. They travel around
Speaker 3: the country serving their product hoping somebody will talk it up.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing it for you, Amanda, and I think
Speaker 3: your product's awesome.
Speaker 5: It's called Tomino Tomo Tomo Tomo Domino Tomo one of
Speaker 5: the earliest products in the non alcohol and we actually
Speaker 5: had this founder who's from England.
Speaker 3: His name is Branson, but not related to Richard. I
Speaker 3: don't think. He had a big herb farm in the
Speaker 3: English countryside and created a product called seed lip. We
Speaker 3: interviewed him a zillion years ago. I think he sold
Speaker 3: out to a big company DA for him. It was
Speaker 3: really the product that kicked off the modern non alcohol
Speaker 3: spirits category. In twenty fifteen, so this is still a
Speaker 3: very young category. Twenty fifteen is when it kicked off,
Speaker 3: and we're in twenty twenty five. All botanicals love the brand.
Speaker 3: There's three flagship favors. One is citrus, ginger, all spice
Speaker 3: and cardamoen and then there's a garden flavor filled with
Speaker 3: herbs and English peas and another spicy one. These are
Speaker 3: really great for non alcohol martinis, spiking or boring this
Speaker 3: fizzy water whatever I liked it as is with sprits.
Speaker 3: Most of these are just spreads because if I just
Speaker 3: really want something simple and everybody else is drinking cocktails,
Speaker 3: I sprints it or I order my champagne. So it's
Speaker 3: called seed Lip. I think it's widely available. I think
Speaker 3: some big company bought the brand. It's really awesome. The
Speaker 3: other one is which is there a little more syrupy.
Speaker 3: They're from Australia, but they're doing they're making inroads. It's
Speaker 3: called Liars l Yres. It's found in twenty nineteen by
Speaker 3: some Australians. They make a whole line of alcohol free
Speaker 3: cocktail ingredients from mixers and basically their goal is to
Speaker 3: create alternative non alcohol alternatives Suburban Gin, Triple Sac, Almaretto,
Speaker 3: it's all zero proof. One of the most popular is
Speaker 3: the coffee liqueur, which they're all very popular and used
Speaker 3: frequently by restaurants who now should all offer alcohol free
Speaker 3: options for their customers that they use the coffee, the
Speaker 3: coffee option for espresso martinis, which are really popular. Years ago,
Speaker 3: I did an article on the sessionable cocktail movement. Sessionable
Speaker 3: means they're lower alcohol or no alcohol, but usually lower alcohol,
Speaker 3: and that means you can drink a few more of
Speaker 3: them in sessions without just getting wasted, and I interviewed
Speaker 3: a lot of bartenders around the country. I think it
Speaker 3: was for seven to fifty daily. I'll pop it up
Speaker 3: again on my substack Melanie fabulous. But the whole premise
Speaker 3: is that most establishments, dining bars, beverage should offer a fair,
Speaker 3: easy to find reason they'll be priced zero proof cocktail menu.
Speaker 3: I went to a seminar last year on this topic,
Speaker 3: and again, everybody on the everybody on the panel, they
Speaker 3: were all bartenders, and they all said, we don't use
Speaker 3: the word mocktail. We don't hide and tuck them way
Speaker 3: under in the back of the list. They should be
Speaker 3: front and center. Much like vegetarian options should be front
Speaker 3: and center on the menu. This is important because everybody
Speaker 3: nobody wants to feel marginalized because they don't drink same way,
Speaker 3: no vegetans. When I go out and realize there's no
Speaker 3: food for them, it happens to me a lot. So
Speaker 3: I think this is really important because the whole idea
Speaker 3: is to make people feel welcome and comfortable wherever they
Speaker 3: are and whatever they choose to imbibe. So those are
Speaker 3: some of the alcohol free options I have found. There's
Speaker 3: a really terrific website. It's called Know and Low, your
Speaker 3: online non alcohol bottle shop that you can check. Now,
Speaker 3: I'm going to touch on some other products that are
Speaker 3: low and also alcohol free. I'm gonna start with alcohol free,
Speaker 3: so this is kind of a new movement. I'll be
Speaker 3: honest with you. I'm still nervous about trying them because
Speaker 3: I had a bad experience once. But THHD beverages are
Speaker 3: all over the place here in Louisiana in my supermarket,
Speaker 3: and we're legal. They are really making huge inroads and
Speaker 3: they provide an alcohol free option for people who still
Speaker 3: want to get a little bit of comfort or buzz
Speaker 3: when they can sume but they don't want alcohol. One
Speaker 3: here in New Orleans. I don't have a sample. It's
Speaker 3: called Louis Louie. It's made with something called delta nine,
Speaker 3: which I learned is the natural derivata for THHC, and
Speaker 3: it comes in different levels. On average is two point
Speaker 3: five percent. I have friends who cannot drink alcohol for
Speaker 3: medical reasons who do drink the THHC products because they
Speaker 3: want that little bit of peaceful, easy feeling when they're social,
Speaker 3: and they love Louis Louis. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: can get it outside of Louisiana. But this is the
Speaker 3: one I tried it tails. It's called Wink Wink, and
Speaker 3: I met the founder. This is strawberry lemonade. It's ten
Speaker 3: milligrams of THC, so that's a lot. That's like three cocktails.
Speaker 3: And this is the smaller one, which is only two
Speaker 3: point five milligrams in the mini container. And this one
Speaker 3: is tangerine wink. It's These are both seltzers. They're sparkling.
Speaker 3: I knows them. David tasted him. He said he liked
Speaker 3: the flavors quite a bit. The founder is interesting. He
Speaker 3: doesn't even smoke pot. He's just like a finance technology
Speaker 3: whiz who said he saw an opportunity to create a
Speaker 3: solution to a category, to get these products out and
Speaker 3: transported in the marketplace. And they're fairly new, they're very flavorful.
Speaker 3: They were being introduced at tails.
Speaker 4: They have zero calories, they have zero carbs, zero protein,
Speaker 4: and zero fat.
Speaker 3: So if you're looking for something that is not gonna
Speaker 3: have a lot of calories, fat, sugar and all the
Speaker 3: stuff you really don't want, these may epet you want
Speaker 3: a little bit of buzz, These may work for you.
Speaker 3: I have not tasted them yet, David has I'm gonna
Speaker 3: taste them in the comfort of my home, probably with
Speaker 3: the two point five first, which is the lowest amount.
Speaker 3: But they they smelled good and David said they tasted
Speaker 3: really great. And if you really are looking for something
Speaker 3: that's not alcohol, that is an option for you. And
Speaker 3: there's a lot of those. Now this is a growing category.
Speaker 3: The THHC category is huge and growing. You're going to
Speaker 3: see more of it. You're probably going to see more
Speaker 3: conferences tied to this in category. So keep your ears
Speaker 3: and eyes open again, try these products in your home first,
Speaker 3: don't go out and do it socially. See if they
Speaker 3: work for you before you just go out and spend
Speaker 3: your money and whatnot. Now, in the time we have left,
Speaker 3: I'm a still going to talk about some low alcohol,
Speaker 3: low ABV alcohol ba VYE products I really like.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I've always talked about wines that have lower alcohol with
Speaker 3: cooler climate. Wines, reasling vino, verities from Portugal, Alberinos from
Speaker 3: the coast of Spain, Galithia or Vieto, all terrific options,
Speaker 3: sparkling wines, mooths, all great options. When in down sprits,
Speaker 3: it it cuts the alcohol, it cuts the flavor, cuts everything,
Speaker 3: And those are great options. Now, the product that really
Speaker 3: I just loved a lot and probably had to stop
Speaker 3: consuming because it was so good it tells of the
Speaker 3: cocktail was called low l O dash Fi Fi hi
Speaker 3: fi lo fi apartiefs. These are vermouths and amos using
Speaker 3: California wine. So just something to clarify here. A lot
Speaker 3: of spirits are grain based, Okay grain based vermouth and
Speaker 3: tomorrows are botanical and wine based Okay wine based with botanical,
Speaker 3: so big difference because they follow in a different category.
Speaker 3: They really are spirits, but they're also wine based. I
Speaker 3: loved these products. I had them just with I think
Speaker 3: they had just water, sparklay water and mixed and they
Speaker 3: were just so refreshing. The vermooth one is infused with fenyl, coriander, elderflower.
Speaker 3: You've heard those. You've heard those ingredients before, a little
Speaker 3: spicy with notes of Gentian. You compare as a mixer
Speaker 3: to cut your the alcohol and a regular cocktail or
Speaker 3: you can mix it with as a spritz. I had
Speaker 3: it with ice. They were serving these little carry these
Speaker 3: portable water carriers. I love so refreshing. So the vermooth
Speaker 3: one has citrus, elderflower and other spices. It's sixteen point
Speaker 3: five percent ABV. So that's low in the spirit category.
Speaker 3: If it was a wine category, it'd be high, because
Speaker 3: high is like to me, fifteen percent okay, really really good.
Speaker 3: The other one is called Gentian amaro citrus fruit ginger,
Speaker 3: heard that term before. Exotic flowers and spices with chinconi
Speaker 3: bark and bitter roots. You got that bitters. Teen point
Speaker 3: five percent alcohol. Chinchoni bark, by the way, is what
Speaker 3: they make tonic from. The Historically, gin and tonic was created,
Speaker 3: believe or not, many years ago to help sailors not
Speaker 3: get sick when they were sailing from Europe to the Americas.
Speaker 3: So the gin was safer than water, and the tonic
Speaker 3: was better for your stomach. And that's how gin and
Speaker 3: tonics were created. And the tonic was from the Chinchona bark,
Speaker 3: which is produced in South America and it's used as
Speaker 3: a tonic and herb to cure as a medicinal cure
Speaker 3: in Indian culture. So again that's why a lot of
Speaker 3: amaros are used as curatives or digestives at the end
Speaker 3: of Emio, because they had all these herbs and ingredients
Speaker 3: that are traditionally used in Indian and historic medicinal practices.
Speaker 3: So anyway, these were really good. Okay, So one I
Speaker 3: liked here it is. It was the Lo Fi Sweet
Speaker 3: romooth with coconut water. Okay, David brought that to me.
Speaker 3: It was like nine that it was one hundred degrees
Speaker 3: the week of tails of cocktail. I was sweating. I
Speaker 3: was so hot, I was sick of water. He brought
Speaker 3: me two of those in those great little water bottles,
Speaker 3: which I'm gonna carry forever, and I was sucking it down.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you sure this doesn't have alcohol on it?
Speaker 3: You're sure this doesn't. It had alcohol, but not a lot,
Speaker 3: thank god, and I didn't get a buzz. I felt great,
Speaker 3: and more importantly, I felt completely hydrated. I think coconut
Speaker 3: water is the ultimate hydration. So I loved that product.
Speaker 3: The other one that I'm going to sing praises to
Speaker 3: from here to the moon, and apparently a lot of
Speaker 3: other people do too. It's called La pertivo Nonino botanical drink. Okay.
Speaker 3: The Nonino family of the Freely area in Italy is
Speaker 3: known for their botanical made centuries old recipe used to
Speaker 3: make granpa grappa is you know, a really intense spirit.
Speaker 3: Usually have it at the end of a meal. Pure
Speaker 3: Italian beauty. They came out with a product. It's all
Speaker 3: run by sisters and women. It's amazing. They're wonderful women.
Speaker 3: And they came up with the recipe that comes from
Speaker 3: an old, carefully guarded recipe created from Silvio and Antonio
Speaker 3: no Nina, the guardians of the family spirit tradition in
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty eight. And they used to make these products
Speaker 3: for medicinal purposes because there was a lot of botanicals
Speaker 3: in them as then eventually they made them for pleasure drinks.
Speaker 3: They went from medicinal to pleasure and then long story short,
Speaker 3: the family is now run by Christina Antonella and ELIZABETHA. Nonino,
Speaker 3: just the nicest people, and they brought back this incredible
Speaker 3: apartivo that has many, many different botanicals in it. It's fruity,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of citrus notes, sens of berries, a
Speaker 3: little bit of bitter. Twenty one percent alcohol by volume,
Speaker 3: So when you think that vodka is about forty percent
Speaker 3: alcohol by volume, whiskey forty to fifty, rum thirty five
Speaker 3: to sixty and gin thirty seven to fifty percent, so
Speaker 3: this is half the alcohol by volume. Then other spirits.
Speaker 3: So drink this, cut it with some soda water or
Speaker 3: topachico or something even a little bit of sparkling coconut water. Whatever,
Speaker 3: you get a great drink. I love this product. I
Speaker 3: don't have it here to show you because I'm out,
Speaker 3: but it's a really pretty bottle too. Most of the
Speaker 3: bottles have images of women on them and they're very colorful. Again,
Speaker 3: the company is no Nino Nono. This product has one
Speaker 3: a zillion awards for its quality. Again total botanical, and
Speaker 3: you know my attitude is go for go for fresh,
Speaker 3: go for anything that's not artificially made. You know, read
Speaker 3: the ingredients, ask questions, do your homework. So those are
Speaker 3: my various discoveries that I'm bringing you. This one is
Speaker 3: another example. It's not No Nino, but it's as pretty
Speaker 3: as No Nino. This isn't Tomorrow. I'm very Intomorrow's right now.
Speaker 3: This one is actually was given to me when I
Speaker 3: was in Florence at a beautiful restaurant called Jean's xi Ge.
Speaker 3: It's an incredible Asian restaurant in Florence, and it's by Santoni.
Speaker 3: It's an Tomorrow Santoni and Appartibo born in Florence, and
Speaker 3: it's got rhubarb root, iris flower, and olive leaf. And
Speaker 3: I love this product. It was given to me by
Speaker 3: the bartender. He made a cocktail with me for it.
Speaker 3: I brought it home sixteen percent alcohol, BA volumes are
Speaker 3: very low. I sip this with just a little bit
Speaker 3: of little bit of sprits because I don't want too much,
Speaker 3: because I really want to joy all this but tannicle flavors.
Speaker 3: You can find many of these, probably at your not
Speaker 3: this one, but at your local wine store. You should
Speaker 3: go in and say I'm interested in trying some for Moose,
Speaker 3: or some Amorrows or some low alcohol products. You probably
Speaker 3: will not find no alcohol products at a wine shop
Speaker 3: or alcohol shop because their job is to sell you alcohol.
Speaker 3: You also will not find THHC there, but you may
Speaker 3: find it at your supermarket or online. But you can
Speaker 3: ask for a low alcohol option and they will gladly
Speaker 3: suggest some wines. I've already given you some examples or
Speaker 3: some Amorrows over moose. But experiment, experiment and see what
Speaker 3: you like. See what makes you feel good, see what
Speaker 3: you like. It's refreshing. I mean it all should appeal
Speaker 3: to your palette more than anything. And of course, if
Speaker 3: you find yourself getting a little too buzzy, One, start
Speaker 3: drinking more water. Two, make sure you always have food
Speaker 3: you're serving alcohol or consuming it, particularly when you're having
Speaker 3: people over. Always have nibbles. I always like salty nibbles
Speaker 3: and thinks that are a little more filling, But not sugar,
Speaker 3: because sugar just only adds to my woo woo if
Speaker 3: I'm drinking. Always have no alcohol options. I've given you
Speaker 3: several wonderful things, from coconut water to fresh teas to
Speaker 3: some of these alcohol free drinks that I gave you.
Speaker 3: Always have options, and if someone is not feeling their best,
Speaker 3: call them a call them a car service to get home.
Speaker 3: Do not give them the keys of the car. Okay,
Speaker 3: we always if we know we're going out and consuming alcohol,
Speaker 3: we call an uber or a lyft. It's worth not
Speaker 3: doing anything that can get you in trouble or hurt
Speaker 3: anyone else. So always consume alcohol in moderation with pleasure.
Speaker 3: Never question someone's choice as to why they're not drinking.
Speaker 3: It's only none of your business. It's the same as
Speaker 3: why aren't you eating meat? Or why aren't you married?
Speaker 3: Or why don't you have children. You should never ask
Speaker 3: anything that makes people feel uncomfortable. Okay, just say what
Speaker 3: would you like to have? What? What would you like
Speaker 3: to drink? What would you like to eat? Do you
Speaker 3: have any preferences? And I ask people when you're having
Speaker 3: a dinner party, do you have any special requests or
Speaker 3: dietary restrictions. It's better to ask than to be not prepared.
Speaker 3: So in closing, I hope this you know helps. I
Speaker 3: gave you a site for the No and LO your
Speaker 3: online non alcohol bottle shop. Tails of the Cocktail had
Speaker 3: a list of tails Ofothcocktail dot org has a list
Speaker 3: of products. I'll pop these up on my step stack
Speaker 3: at Melanie Fabulous. I'm always looking for products. If I
Speaker 3: like them, I'll talk about them. If I don't like them,
Speaker 3: I don't talk about them. So if you do have
Speaker 3: products you found, let me hear from you. You can
Speaker 3: message me at Melanie Fabulous at Instagram. As always, I
Speaker 3: like to close out this way. You have a choice
Speaker 3: to live life on your terms and not on other
Speaker 3: people's terms, and I hope you're considering that. Close out
Speaker 3: the news that you don't want to hear. Don't listen
Speaker 3: to people complain, Try to keep things on the upbeat,
Speaker 3: because really the less stress in your life, the younger
Speaker 3: you'll stay. Hopefully, and of course, if you do follow
Speaker 3: your choices, always choose fearless and fabulous. Thanks for joining me,
Speaker 3: Have a great day.