Cocktails & Bartenders: Part 2, 'Spirit Free Cocktails'

The appeal of The Cocktail is not singularly about the buzz the alcohol offers. It’s the distinctive company you keep at the 200 year old Village tavern or the new rooftop bar in Tribeca. It is the charm and conversation of the bartender and the skill of the show involved in making your drink. Certainly, the choice of the glass and the care of the ice play a part, as does all the ingredients being properly purveyed! Seems to me the spirits may or may not be as necessary as we believe, the choice is certainly yours alone! To that end, the Washington Post had a bit to say about the matter!

We have visited Julia Momose before and she is still making waves in the world of Cocktails, Mixology, and Spirit Free beverages. Julia spoke with USA Today and made a valid case for today being the right moment for Spirit Free Cocktails! Before we move on with this conversation Julie’s quote follows and should be heeded lest we offend those not partaking in alcoholic beverages!

“The very term ‘mocktail’ evokes negative feelings,” Momose wrote in the manifesto. “The word is merely the combination of ‘mock’ and ‘cocktail.’ So then, is it a mockery of a cocktail, a disappointment since it isn’t a ‘real’ cocktail?“

“I believe now is the time for us to take a step back and look at the beverages we are creating with the incredible teas, syrups, juices, herbs, etc. that we now have on hand to see how we can take care of our guests who do not drink alcohol.” Last week I mentioned Tales of the Cocktail, they mentioned Julia and her Spirit Free Manifesto, it’s certainly worth a look.

Ben Branson posed the question ‘What to drink when you are not drinking’ as a reaction to a poorly concocted drink he was served one evening, his only crime was asking for a spirit free beverage. Enter the first non-alcohol distilled spirit from a 320 year old Lincolnshire family farm. The Branson’s hand sowing seeds using baskets called ‘seedlips’. Over three hundred years ago, it was common for physicians to distill herbal remedies using copper stills, harnessing the power of nature & alchemy to solve medical maladies. In 1651, John French, published The Art of Distillation curating these non-alcoholic recipes. It was a copy of this bible of early medicine that began Ben on his journey. Ben’s Spirits and the rest of his story are recommended reading at Seedlip.

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