Whether you’re wrapping up Dry January and thinking about carrying it on into February, or maybe you just want to cut back on alcohol and/or calories, non-alcoholic spirits could be a welcome addition to your highball glass. And you want them organic and pesticide-free, right? Oregon-based DHŌS Spirits makes three non-alcoholic spirits that you might want to try.
The DHŌS backstory
The line of non-alcoholic spirits grew out of a distillery and organic farm in Sheridan, Oregon. Ransom Spirits started more than 25 years ago and was a pioneer in the American crafts spirits movement. The farm became organic certified in 2011 and prides itself on a low-tech, labor of love approach to distilling. In the alcoholic world, the brand prides itself on its gin, whiskey and vermouth.
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DHŌS stemmed from a conversation at Ransom Farm & Distillery. According to the DHŌS website, “Someone asked, ‘What if we could provide the craft cocktail experience, yet without any of the alcohol, giving people the freedom to drink on their own terms?’ With that, we tasted through the ‘virtual brands’ currently on the market and quickly realized that a grounding in actual craft spirits would be invaluable in creating a true quality craft spirit experience, without the alcohol.”
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The masterminds at Ransom went about crafting N/A spirits with the same aromas, flavors and mixability of their inebriating counterparts.
There are several ways of making N/A spirits. One is to remove the alcohol from regular spirits. Instead, DHŌS mixes ingredients to produce their products. They mix small batches, using spices, citrus and natural botanicals “to deliver a craft experience without the proof,” as they put it. “Production is done by our team at the distillery, and each batch receives the same attention that goes into crafting and blending our whiskey and barrel aged gin.” The unfiltered spirits are aged and tested for microbial stability.
Why would anybody drink N/A spirits?
Many readers might be asking what’s the point? Don’t drinkers want to feel the effects of alcohol? And might this be playing with fire for somebody in recovery? These are interesting questions. While there are still plenty of people seeking intoxication, quite a few people aren’t. A 2022 poll found that Gen Zs spent 40% less on alcohol than Millennials. Some of their reasons included alcohol’s impact on their mood, level of alertness and image on social media.
Things like the sober curious movement, Dry January and Sober October have raised awareness about the possibility of not drinking. Many people also realized their drinking had crept up to unsavory levels during the pandemic.
However, going out with friends for a glass of water seems insufficiently celebratory. And that classic mocktail, the Shirley Temple, is sweet and not especially grownup. Non-alcoholic spirits squarely aim at the adult market.
“DHŌS has been created for people of legal drinking age looking for a flavorful non-alcohol alternative,” says the website. “While it may technically cause no harm, DHŌS in no way endorses or encourages consumption of our product by anyone who is not of legal drinking age.”
The DHŌS experience
It turns out, DHŌS wasn’t kidding about their product being made for adults. The company sent me samples to try for this review, and I was surprised that I had to sign for them saying I was over 21. The UPS guy was like, “Have fun!” as though I would be home guzzling a box full of booze. As I’m in long-term recovery and live in a sober household, this was all a little unsettling.
DHŌS had sent me a bottle of each of its three N/A spirits: orange, bittersweet and gin-free. Not knowing exactly what to do with them, I perused the website for recipes. And was surprised to find that some of the recipes included prosecco or white wine. Again, it felt very weird as a sober person to be innocently looking for a non-alc recipe and being like “what, isn’t that ingredient booze?!” I wished the recipes were separated into alcohol and non-alc recipes.
But I also began to realize I’m not necessarily the demographic. There seems to be a whole spectrum of drinking these days, with more people interested in drinking low-alcohol drinks as well as no-alcohol. And also cutting the calories in their drinks. DHŌS spirits have zero to five calories per serving, versus, say, 73 calories for an ounce of gin.
Anyway, I wound up adapting my own recipes, combining DHŌS with items I bought at Trader Joe’s, such as sparkling water, ginger beer, purple juice, lemons and limes.
I started with the orange, which is a blend of navel and Curaçao oranges, tangerines, vanilla, citrus blossoms and a touch of menthol. I was surprised by how sweet it was. Originally I had planned to mix it with ginger beer. But it was sweet enough — thanks to monkfruit — that I just went with soda water and a squeeze of lemon. Slightly complicated, not just sweet. Quite nice drink for a 5-calories drink. DHŌS recommends using it to replace triple sec in a margarita.
The bittersweet blends bitter rhubarb, bitter herbs, oranges, cinchona and gentian root with fruity stuff like watermelon, kumquat, yellow cherries and baked oranges. It wasn’t as sweet as the orange, but sweeter than I expected — sweet enough to mix just with soda water. Again, an interesting and complicated five-calorie drink.
The gin-free was the most liquor-like, but not exactly like gin that I remember, though it’s been a long time. It has the juniper berries, but also botanicals. This one isn’t sweet at all, so I mixed it with a little ginger beer and lemon. While my husband liked the orange the best, I’m fascinated by the faux gin. With its essences of pine, spearmint, chalk, wet earth, candied lemon and dried citrus, it’s unlike anything I’ve tasted in my years of sobriety. And if you like gin and tonics but want to cut down on alcohol and calories, gin-free lets you have your drink with no calorie at all.
It’s only been a couple of days, but the idea of mocktail hour is already taking hold in my sober household. There’s something alluring about taking out the attractive bottles of DHŌS, complete with glass stoppers, and mixing an exotic concoction. It feels a lot more sophisticated than my usual twist-off bottle of sparkling water.
Photography by Teresa Bergen
Editor’s Note: This product review is not sponsored by DHŌS. All opinions on the products and company are the author’s own.
