Calories: 0
These have to be some of the most unusual additions to the alcohol-free drinks world. And we'll confess, we didn't know quite what to make of them. They're marketed as "the world's first non-alcoholic spirits". It may be a matter of how you define that, since drinks claiming to be alcohol-free whiskeys have been around since the 1990s (although not always well-received!) Seedlip's recipes are based on a remarkable 17th century text The Art of Distillation. The products have the look of artisan gins, and that's what we thought they might taste like, but there's not a sniff of juniper here. The two drinks have very distinct flavours:
- Spirit 94 is made with allspice, cardamom, oak, lemon and grapefruit, and it's the oak that comes through strongest. This stuff tastes really woody - like sandalwood, maybe
- Garden 108 contains peas, spearmint, rosemary and thyme. Again, one flavour comes through most, and that's the peas
Once we'd bought them, our next question was how to drink them. They come with serving suggestions - premium tonic for the 94 and elderflower tonic for the 108 - so we had a go at that. The result is two very light, very clean drinks. We could imagine drinking them on a river-boat trip on a summer's evening. This is not G&T. In fact, we're still not sure what it is, but if you're in the market for unexpected flavours, give it a go. The price is pretty top-end: £26 for a 70cl bottle in Tesco. Unless it really does cost close to that to produce, we're guessing this was a deliberate decision to make this a premium brand. That may be smart business, but it puts it well out of reach of many drinkers' pockets.
Looking at the nutritional information, they are calorie-free, so the only calories you might want to think about are the ones in your tonic.
Check out their website for more details https://www.seedlipdrinks.com/
