32 Premium Alcohol Alternatives, Ranked

There's so much more to the world of alcohol alternatives than nonalcoholic beer or bright pink, saccharine Shirley Temples. In recent years, many different types of complex, carefully-made nonalcoholic options have entered the market. You can find beverages like dealcoholized wine that try to closely mimic specific alcoholic drinks, but many of the new alcohol alternatives try to replicate the depth of flavor of quality alcohol while also coming up with entirely new taste experiences.

High-quality alcohol alternatives aren't only for sober people or dry January, either. Tasting Table spoke to Ben Branson, the founder of nonalcoholic spirits company Seedlip, and Nick Bodkins, the co-founder of the NYC-based premium alcohol alternative boutique Boisson, and both told us that the majority of their customers are people who drink alcohol but are looking for options for when they don't feel like drinking (or drinking as much). Branson said he has noticed a real attitudinal shift in the years since he first introduced his product, noting that more people are accepting of the idea of nonalcoholic drinks than ever before.

These premium alcohol alternatives don't come cheap. Like the craft cocktails and spirits they're based on, these beverages are made carefully using high-quality ingredients, and that level of craftsmanship is reflected in their price. If you're willing to shell out for them, however, some of them do taste truly incredible. We tried a lot of them and ranked them so you know which ones are worth seeking out.

ISH is a Danish maker of alcohol alternatives with a wide range of products. It sells non-alcoholic wines, spirits, and canned cocktails — all of which previously had names that ended in -ISH (Château delISH, RumISH, etc.).

Spritz is a riff on an aperol spritz, that classic combination of Italian herbal liqueur and sparkling wine. While aperol lends a certain mild bitterness to a classic spritz, Spritz leans into the bitterness, with quinine and gentian hitting that flavor note quite hard. The drink has a citrus taste as well, but, once again, it's more of a bitter citrus peel flavor than sweet citrus juice. It lacks the balance of a traditional spritz because of its emphasis on the bitter side of the equation.

Another odd thing about Spritz is that it includes capsicum extract (aka hot chili pepper flavor), in an attempt to mimic the burn of alcohol. An aperol spritz is a relatively low-alcohol beverage to begin with, so we're not looking for a burn from a spritz. The spiciness in this drink was pretty strange, and, combined with the bitterness, it made our mouth feel weird and gave us heartburn.

For Bitter For Worse is a company that makes three different bottled cocktails. The Saskatoon was the one we liked least out of the three, though it was quite interesting. The description on the website name-checks negronis, but, to our palate, the Saskatoon didn't seem like it was trying too hard to replicate any existing beverage. We enjoyed the originality, but, taste-wise, The Saskatoon didn't resonate with us.

The Saskatoon is made with saskatoon berries, a native North American fruit that looks like a blueberry but tastes kind of nutty. The drink also contains citrus, grape juice concentrate, a variety of herbs and spices, and Douglas fir needles.

The smell of The Saskatoon promises berry flavors, but the taste was surprisingly bland. It was neither sweet nor tart, and the most prominent flavor note was a kind of tannic bitterness. It felt quite dry in the mouth and finished with a black pepper kick. Without sweetness to back them up, the bitter and spicy flavors felt out of place.

According to a Tasting Table interview with Nick Bodkins, the co-founder of zero-alcohol drink store Boisson, dealcoholized wine is made by putting regular wine in a vacuum. In a vacuum, wine boils at room temperature, so the alcohol in the wine boils away. The dealcoholized sauvignon blanc from the New Zealand winemaker uses a special process that first separates the wine's aroma before the alcohol is removed. The aromatic compounds are then added back to the wine, along with a little bit of grape juice.

This sauvignon blanc wasn't our favorite non-alcoholic wine. It did taste like white wine, but it reminded us of a budget bottle. It also had the off-taste we associate with leaving an open bottle of white wine in the fridge for too long. The wine was exceptionally dry, but other than that it didn't have a very strong flavor. We could taste a mild hint of grape juice, but we wanted more fruit from this bottle.

For Bitter For Worse Smokey No. 56 is marketed as a good option for people who like whiskey. It's made with lapsang souchong tea, a type of smoked black tea. Presumably, the smokiness of the tea is a nod towards whiskey, which is usually aged in charred wooden barrels. Maple syrup is another main flavor component of this drink. The maple could help replicate the caramel-like sweetness of some whiskeys.

Smokey No. 56 doesn't taste anything like whiskey. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if that's what you're looking for, you might be disappointed. The most predominant flavor is the smoke from the lapsang souchong. Behind that, maple syrup, fig concentrate, and apple cider vinegar make their presences known. The vinegar gives this beverage a little bit of a shrub vibe. In the aftertaste, you get a little bit of herbal bitterness and spice. It tastes like there might be black pepper or cayenne in this, though the ingredients label just says "spices."

The closest thing we can compare this drink to is mulled cider, but it's unlike anything we've ever tasted. It's not shy about bringing bold flavors, but we're not sure if all the competing tastes harmonize well.

We got a chance to sample several different varieties of Fre Alcohol-Removed Wine, including a pair of reds, a pair of whites, a rosé, and a Champagne-like sparkling brut. Of the ones we tried, the sparkling brut was our favorite. While no one would confuse it for Dom Perignon, it closely mimicked the taste of a mid-level bottle of prosecco, cava, or Champagne.

The sparkling brut had a pleasantly sweet flavor, a good level of carbonation, and enough acidity and sharpness to be reminiscent of conventional wine. It did seem slightly fruitier than alcoholic Champagne would be and almost tasted like Champagne mixed with Martinelli's sparkling cider. The other Fre bottles were also tasty, but they weren't quite as successful as the sparkling brut.

The company says it uses a spinning cone to filter the alcohol out of the wine — though we suspect this filtration system also deprives the wine of flavor. After all, Fre products include grape concentrate and other flavoring in addition to the dealcoholized wine. Without bubbles to smooth things over, we could detect more of the grape juice character in the non-sparkling wines. They also tended to have a vinegar-like acidity that read less like wine and more like kombucha. All in all, they weren't bad, but a couple of the other brands of dealcoholized wine tasted more convincing and luxurious.

This powder with a punny name is marketed as an alcohol-free way to unwind. Its manufacturer says that it's made with ingredients that will relax you and ease your anxiety. Unlike most of the products on this list, Stop Your Wine-ing comes with some health warnings: The description on the website hints that the product may have a sedative effect in large doses, and it's not safe to drink if you're pregnant. Its active ingredients include motherwort, açaí, aronia berries, and jujube dates.

The ingredients in this may pack a kick if you drink a lot of it, but we didn't notice any tiredness from consuming the recommended dose. Apothékary recommends mixing it with warm milk, warm water, or fruit juice if you're looking for something more wine-like in flavor. The powder has a slightly gritty texture and doesn't dissolve super easily, so we would recommend using some kind of hot liquid if you don't want a powdery beverage.

When drunk with hot water, Stop Your Wine-ing seemed a lot more like tea than wine. It had some fruity notes in the aroma, but it also smelled like matcha. The flavor was even more tea-like than the smell, with an earthiness that reminded us of wood. It had a little bit of tartness in the aftertaste. It became progressively grittier as we approached the bottom of our cup. It was overall pleasant and relaxing but didn't scratch the same itch as wine.

You wouldn't necessarily think about it since they're used in such small quantities in drinks, but traditional bitters are actually quite alcoholic. The two most popular kinds of bitters, Angostura and Peychaud's, are 89.4 and 70 proof, respectively. That means that if you are committed to mixing 100% alcohol-free drinks, you need alternative bitters with no booze.

This is where All the Bitter comes in. The company makes three different types of nonalcoholic bitters. The one we sampled, New Orleans Style, seems to be modeled after Peychaud's, which was first sold in New Orleans. Like Peychaud's, its main flavor components are cherry and anise.

You get a lot of cherry in its aroma, but less in the flavor. The taste is anise-forward, with a savory complexity that reminded us of five-spice-scented Chinese food. There is a hint of bitterness in the aftertaste. All the Bitter is less strong than most alcoholic bitters we've tried. We tasted it in some plain seltzer and ended up putting about a dozen drops in our glass to get the full flavor. If we tried the same thing with Peychaud's, it would have been hard to drink the results.

Earthen was our favorite offering from Wilderton. Like the company's other non-alcoholic spirits, it's obviously meant to be used in cocktails rather than quaffed straight. The recipe's white peppercorn is nose-clearingly strong on its own. However, taking Wilderton's suggestion by mixing Earthen with ginger ale made for a tasty beverage.

The white peppercorn remained the dominant flavor, but dilution allowed us to pick up some smokiness from the tea along with floral notes from the cardamom. The savory flavors of Earthen, in turn, tamped down the sweetness of the ginger ale and turned it into a cocktail that tasted distinctly adult.

Wilderton Earthen and ginger ale did a wonderful job of evoking the experience of drinking soda mixed with real spirits. Although it didn't taste exactly the same, the pepper gave the drink a sharpness that was quite similar to ethanol burn — and made us feel like we were sipping a whiskey ginger at a fancy cocktail bar.

When alcohol-free beverage makers try to imitate the burn of real alcohol, it often doesn't go well. We usually prefer when manufacturers focus on flavor rather than attempting to recreate that aspect of the alcohol experience. However, Free AF does a better job than most with the proprietary Afterglow flavoring it puts in its canned mocktails.

Now, we're not entirely sure what Afterglow is ... but it made our mouths tingle like real booze. Beyond that, the flavor of these canned beverages was pretty good. Our least favorite was the Vød%a Spritz, since it seemed strange to try and replicate a vodka soda (which is basically a flavor-free drink even with alcohol). The other three flavors we tried — Apero Spritz, Cuba Libre, and Paloma — were all tasty, though they could have been sweeter to our palates.

This might be because Free AF is trying to limit calorie counts. The 8.4-ounce can of Cuba Libre clocked in at only 50 calories while trying to mimic the flavor of a rum and Coke — but the drink could have used more calories and sugar. Still, we'd bet many people will be happy to sacrifice a bit of flavor in order to be a bit healthier by drinking less sugar, so we can't ding the company too much for the lack of sweetness.

Livener, as the name suggests, is supposed to perk you up. Three Spirit says it's a good drink for parties. It contains some caffeine from guayusa, also known as Amazonian holly, so it should actually give you a little bit of energy. The company claims that the drink's schisandra berries should also contribute a mild euphoric effect. We drank this right before bed and fell asleep normally, but, to be fair, we didn't drink very much.

Three Spirit recommends that you mix this with tonic, and we agree. On its own, Livener is incredibly intense. It has notes of red fruits like berries and plums. There's a little bit of acid to balance the sweetness and a fair amount of heat from a dash of pepper. We could detect a little bit of vinegar as well.

Mixed with a tonic, it turned into a yummy spritz-like beverage. The acid from the Livener neutralizes the tonic's bitterness, leaving you with something sweet, fruity, and delicious. The one thing we weren't huge fans of was the amount of heat. It became less intense once we mixed the Livener with tonic, but it still burned on the way down in a way we didn't love.

De Soi is a line of carbonated nonalcoholic aperitifs from Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. As with many of the drinks we tested, De Soi is made with supposedly nootropic ingredients that are intended to affect your brain and mood in various ways. Also, like other drinks on this list, the nootropics didn't seem to do anything to us, though your results may vary.

Golden Hour is the thickest and most full-bodied drink in De Soi's lineup, probably because it's made with pear juice concentrate. Other than pear, the thing you taste the most in it is tea. It contains several tea extracts, including earl gray, chamomile, and green tea. It's one of the sweetest drinks we tried for this test, though that doesn't mean it's not complex. The blend of tea and herbal extracts gave this a nuanced flavor. However, we would have liked Golden Hour more if it had a little more acidity to counter the sweetness.

Social Elixir is supposed to make you feel happy and ready to socialize, with the cacao in Social Elixir intended to lift your mood. Lion's mane mushroom is added for its claimed nootropic, focus-enhancing benefits. Intriguingly, Social Elixir also contains damiana, which Three Spirit says is a natural aphrodisiac.

This beverage pairs well with ginger ale. On its own, it has a very strong but not unpleasant flavor. However, it's so thick and syrupy that it's much better when thinned out. Social Elixir has an intense dried fruit flavor. It tastes and smells like a blend of dates, prunes, and raisins. You get a little bit of herbal bitterness, but not much.

After we diluted Social Elixir with ginger ale, it became significantly less raisiny in flavor. It turned into some kind of mixed-fruit soda, almost like an artisanal Dr. Pepper. We also noticed a vanilla-like flavor. It was quite tasty.

The branding of Mocktail Club stood out to us. Most new-school alcohol alternatives seem to shy away from this term, after all, as it conjures images of childish, sugary Shirley Temples and virgin piña coladas. We wondered if the whimsical name meant the drinks would taste a little more fun than some of their competitors — and after tasting? Our predictions were confirmed.

The company sent us four canned cocktails: Manhattan Berry, Capri Spritz, Havana Twist, and Bombay Fire. The first three were nominally inspired by classic cocktails (a Manhattan, aperol spritz, and mojito, respectively), while the Bombay Fire was an original creation. In reality, none of these drinks tasted like cocktails, and it didn't seem like they were working very hard to replicate a true alcoholic experience. This worked in the drinks' favor, though, as they were more like fancy natural sodas or juice drinks than boozy libations. Each is carbonated and sweetened with agave, and the mocktails don't hit you over the head with challenging flavors like some competitors.

Each one was refreshing and quaffable, but our favorite was the Havana Twist, which leaned heavily into cucumber, mint, and lime. It was like a much fancier version of Lime Cucumber Gatorade. Manhattan Berry's blackberry and ginger flavors came through strong, while Capri Spritz impressed us with an unexpected cranberry-lemongrass combo. The only one we didn't love was Bombay Fire, as the chile peppers in the recipe drowned out the other ingredients.

This was one of the prettiest drinks we tried. It had a lovely ruddy purple hue when poured into a glass. Its flavor was almost wine-like, though not to the same extent as the dealcoholized wines we sampled. Purple Lune was unabashedly fruity, with peaches, blackberries, black currants, and tart cherries all contributing their unique essences to the party. It also included fig syrup for extra sweetness, which gave it a little bit of dried fruit complexity. Balsamic vinegar added some much-appreciated tartness.

The aroma of Purple Lune is almost perfume-like. The drink contains some rose petal extract, which comes through much stronger in the nose than on the tongue. It also has some myrrh, another ingredient that's often used in fragrances. Purple Lune is a great example of how to make a beverage that tastes sophisticated and adult while still being sweet and easy to drink. It avoids the trap that some drinks on this list fall into of using so many botanicals that the result tastes medicinal.

Champignon may be the French word for "mushroom," but if you're worried that Champignon Dreams is going to taste like fungus, rest easy. Instead, it's yet another spritz riff. It does contain reishi mushroom powder for its purported health benefits, but we couldn't taste the shrooms at all.

You'd think at this point we'd be tired of the endless variations on aperol spritzes we've tried. However, we're big fans of that drink and were happy to sample so many tasty takes on its formula. This one was lovely and perfectly balanced, with strawberry, apricot, and black currant juices lending a natural fruity sweetness to the beverage. Bitterness came from grapefruit juice and extract as well as juniper and gentian root.

We thought Champignon Dreams would take the battle of the spritzes, but it ended up placing second to another drink that had a little bit more of a unique character. It was a tough competition, and we would happily drink Champignon Dreams any day.

This was our favorite For Bitter For Worse bottle. Eva's Spritz is another aperol spritz riff, but it's not trying too hard to be a dead ringer for its inspiration, which works in its favor. Instead, it replicates the experience of an aperol spritz: light, fruity, and fun.

Eva's Spritz is a carbonated beverage infused with a variety of different fruit and herbal flavors. The aroma leans hard into herbal and sour notes, but the taste is a lot friendlier and sweeter. The dominant taste is rhubarb, which lends a lovely tartness and a nice bright color to the drink. Orange and hibiscus contribute more sourness and fruitiness, and white grape juice adds just the right amount of sweetness. There's some bitterness from gentian, but not enough to overwhelm the delicate balance of the fruity flavors.

We appreciated that this drink was made with real juices and botanicals instead of extracts. It tasted fresh and natural, and all the flavors worked together well. It was the best of all the spritzes and the best thing we tasted.