LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2024

LESS IS MORE

Less-Spirited Cocktails Although many people use de-alcoholized spirits primarily for delicious Non & Tonics and other simple highballs, they’re also great tools for “proofing down” (lowering the ABV of) other classic drinks.

Mulled Muscat, p.196 Now that we have excel lent de-alcoholized fizzy and still wines, it’s seri ously easy to proof down wine cocktails, from Champagne classics like the Kir Royale or French 75 to the much-loved mulled wine that’s a holi day must for many.

PROOF IT DOWN

Use Natureo White instead of full-strength wine to make this mulled wine much lower in alcohol.

Spanish Fizz, p. 197 Long before de-alcoholized spirits landed, many cocktail bartenders were creating drinks with old school proofing-down products, often called “suppressors.” The idea was to create lower-ABV cocktails built around port and sherry wines, vermouths, aperitivos and bitter amari, which are typically lower in alcohol. None of these ingre dients are new to the cocktail world, but this new trend finally makes them the star of the show.

Hanky Panky, p.196 A lot of classic cocktails that have been revived over the past decade are spirit forward in their original forms, but can be easily tweaked. Consider the Negroni, a boozy cocktail with an ABV of more than 20 per cent. It can be transformed into a Lowgroni with less than 10 per cent ABV simply by using a de-alc spirit in place of the gin. Since the vermouth and Campari deliver a lot of the flavour, the drink tastes essentially the same as the original—a formula that works for a lot of drinks, including the Hanky Panky.

PROOF IT DOWN

PROOF IT DOWN

Use a dry, de-alcoholized sparkling wine like Nozeco instead of full-strength fizz to lower the ABV of this drink.

Swap out the gin and, instead, use Canadian-made Lumette! Bright Light Alt-Spirit (enjoylumette.com) for a lower-proof version of the Hanky Panky.

DID YOU KNOW? Almost all cocktail bitters contain alcohol, and the ABV of some famous brands like Angostura is as high as 45 per cent. Ontario brand Bark & Bitter is one of the first non-alcoholic bitters on the market (barkandbitter.com).

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———————— HOLIDAY 2024