Non-alcoholic drinks have come a long way. Like gluten-free food, what was once an anomaly is now a frequent menu option. But while the mocktail is great for happy hour, just sitting at a bar and sipping, what happens when you’re looking for something to drink at the dinner table?
Your Guide to Pairing Non-Alcoholic Drinks with Food
At the table, alcohol isn’t just about the buzz. An apéritif stimulates the stomach to get you hungrier with its acidity. A glass of wine or finger of scotch with a steak both complement the flavor of the food and keep you feeling satisfied rather than overindulged. It’s difficult to replicate this with a non-alcoholic drink, because the “burn” that helps you digest comes from alcohol. Luckily, there are solutions to pairing non-alcoholic drinks with food, and they’re often simpler than you think.
Non-Alcoholic Apéritifs and Digestifs
Apéritifs make your stomach produce more digestive juices. So, an apéritif will be a swig of Lillet Blanc or an Aperol Spritz, something that’s very light and very dry. A digestif, in contrast, will either be very sweet or very bitter, depending on what you’re looking for, like grappa, aquavit, limoncello, or brandy.
A good way to think of this relationship to alcohol during a meal is similarly to how Americans drink coffee. We’ll often drink it in the morning to get its stimulating effect, but many people still like coffee throughout the day for its taste regardless of the effect. In this European style of drinking, getting drunk isn’t necessarily the point, but rather a byproduct that helps you relax as you’re enjoying part of a meal. So, just as there are decaf coffees, there are alcohol-free apéritifs and digestifs. Fittingly, an espresso (or decaf espresso) is a good replacement for a digestif at the end of a meal, too.
For a non-alcoholic start to a meal, an easy option is Wilfred’s Bittersweet Apéritif, a non-alcoholic herbal mixture that mirrors Aperol. Something closer to a vermouth or an amaro is Ritual’s Zero-Proof Apéritif, which describes itself as having “the assertive bitterness of Italian aperitivo and the complex sweetness of French vermouth.” The St. Agrestis brand is another way to expand your non-alcoholic palate for a pre-dinner drink—their “Phony Negroni” starter pack is as good as the alcoholic version and stands on its own.
Sparkling Water as Non-Alcoholic Drink Pairing
While there are a variety of non-alcoholic (or “de-alcoholized”) wines out there, sommelier Adam Knoerzer recommened something different. “Sparking water is the most obvious [food pairing]; the carbonation provides a clean-slate-after-each-bite effect, a sort of palate cleanser in the way that sparkling wines and other high-acid whites will do,” he said. So, you heard it here, there’s no need to go crazy buying non-alcoholic spirits if you’re on a budget—plain old sparkling water will do.
It can also be a lot of fun to get into the nitty gritty of different qualities of sparkling water. Mineral-heavy Gerolsteiner will probably mirror a very high-acid white wine, whereas the smoother San Pellegrino will be closer to a mellower, more balanced wine. Many sommeliers or beverage professionals prefer the sparkling water-pairing method, because water is one of the few beverages that has been around even longer than wine. Why buck tradition if you don’t have to?
Non-Alcoholic Wines and Food
One of the misconceptions about non-alcoholic drinks is that they are an American-only phenomenon. While Europeans do tend to have a somewhat different relationship to alcohol, people around the world have been fermenting zero ABV drinks for centuries. The Fjell or Skog fermented Norwegian botanicals from Villbrygg are one such example.
The Fjell “would be great to bring some juiciness to pair with a radicchio salad and to finish off with rye cavatelli, something that’s also playful and complex. That’s exactly what I think the Fjell does best,” bartender Teddy Savinda of James Beard nominee Fet-Fisk explained. Fet-Fisk added these Norwegian drinks to their menu to have non-alcoholic drinks that matched the rest of their Nordic fare (the cavatelli and radicchio are both items on Fet-Fisk’s menu). The Skog, which is closer to white wine and made with spruce and yarrow, goes well with fish dishes like branzino or crudo. “It’s great to start the meal with the smoked sturgeon, the scallop crudo, but it can also walk you to caesar salad by helping cut through the richness and smokiness of the charred salad,” Savinda said.
The Vilbrygg drinks are technically non-alcoholic wines, but if you’re looking for literally wine but without alcohol, a de-alcoholized wine can do the trick. A de-alcoholized wine goes through the same process as any other wine, but the alcohol is taken out with vacuum distillation or reverse osmosis. An affordable and good quality example is California’s Fre, which uses a spinning cone to delicately remove the alcohol during the winemaking process while preserving the aromas and flavors. Fre has an entire section of their website showcasing recipes to pair with their wine to start you off.
Meals Should Be Pleasurable
While convention often sidelines non-alcoholic drinks, the reality is most beverages are non-alcoholic. It’s just a matter of finding the right configuration for maximum enjoyment. In an ideal world, drinking with a meal is about pleasure and enjoyment. A non-alcoholic drink should produce the same feeling.
“We now have so many complex and varied options available that it’s not just ‘Which juice will pair with this?’” Savinda said. “You have ginger, citrus, angelic root, pine, body and tannins, and texture to experiment with. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in the non-alcoholic world!”
Story by Emma Riva
Photo courtesy of Fre
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