Celebrating Bars with Alcohol-Free Drinks

Mixing alcohol-free drinks using Noa

At the North America's 50 Best Bar awards I didn't sip cocktails, but mocktails.

I tried drinks mixed with Noa, a Canadian alcohol-free gin using botanicals. The sophisticated flavours reminded me of Seedlip, the first non-alcoholic gin I tried when it was launched in Hong Kong in 2018. 

The founder, Ben Branson explained how he took fresh herbs and vegetables and distilled them in an old fashioned distillery using old recipes he found in a leather-bound book and made them into alcohol-free gin.

It's the perfect solution for me when I find myself in a bar and want something other than sparkling water.

Seedlip is meant to be mixed with soda water and other ingredients to create a mocktail, and in some cases with Noa, depending on the "spirit".

According to its website, Noa started in 2014 in Quebec with founder Patrice Plante making non-alcoholic drinks, but it was really around 2019 that he came up with alcohol-free gin, and a line of other "spirits".

We sampled the Italian Aperitif, and Sweet Vermouth. The Italian Aperitif was mixed with some juice and lots of ice cubes, making it refreshing and extremely easy to drink thanks to the aperitif's mandarin juice, rhubarb and caramelised barley sugar flavour.

On the other hand the Sweet Vermouth was served on the rocks (a lot of rocks), with an orange peel rubbed on the rim of the glass before being placed inside the drink. There are notes of caramel, grapes, black currant, and cinnamon with a touch of bitterness.

While Seedlip leaves it up to the mixologist on how they want to use the product, Noa has a line of different "spirits", such as amaretto, dry gin, Italian bitter and Jamaican spiced rum.

Cheers!