Elva Ramirez - Zero Proof

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Copyright 2021 by Elva Ramirez

Photography copyright 2021 by Robert Bredvad

Food styling by Mallory Lance

Prop styling by Maeve Sheridan

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ramirez, Elva, author.

Title: Zero proof cocktails : 90 non-alcoholic recipes for mindful drinking / Elva Ramirez; photography by Robert Bredvad.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020039131 (print) | LCCN 2020039132 (ebook)

ISBN 9780358211914 (hardback) | ISBN 9780358213468 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cocktails. | Non-alcoholic beverages. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX951 .R152 2021 (print) | LCC TX951 (ebook) | DDC 641.87/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039131

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039132

ISBN 978-0-358-21191-4 (pob)

ISBN 978-0-358-21346-8 (ebk)

Book design by Claudia Wu

Author and cover photo by Robert Bredvad

Cover design by Claudia Wu

v2.0321

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Team Zero Proof.

First round of gratitude goes to my agent, Leigh Eisenman, and my editor, Justin Schwartz, for believing in me and this project from the start. It all starts here.

Thank you, Susan Choung, for your sharp eyes, hard work, and patience in recipe editing.

Thank you, Abeo Miller, my lovely recipe-testing partner, for invaluable bartending help and for taking on extra-long workdays so we could spend several hours making drinks. Thank you, Masa Urushido, for kindly letting us use Katana Kittens bar for drinks testing.

Thank you, Robert Bredvad, Maeve Sheridan, and Mallory Lance, for your unflagging enthusiasm in bringing this project to life with your unmatched visual skills.

Thank you, Ben Branson and Lorena Tapiero. Your crucial insights into the developing no-proof space and your dedication to drinking better are the cornerstones of this emerging category and lifestyle.

Thank you, Charles Gibb and Amanda Stackman. Few people can pivot from silly martinis to no-proof drinks in a single conversationand identify global drinking trends as they emerge.

Thank you to my circle of BFFs. Jenna Gerbino Kaplan, Mark Silver, Madeleine Andrews, and Helen Zhang, you are always around to offer support and listen to rants, no matter the time of night or the messaging platform.

Thank you, Phil Pearson. You listen like a best friend and give advice like a CEO. This would have turned out much differently if it werent for you.

Thank you, Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Will Davis, and Jason Velasquez. A girl always needs someone to count on; thanks for being there, no questions asked.

Thank you to every bartender who contributed recipes to this project. I couldnt have done this without you. You are all stars.

Thank you to everyone I interviewed for this book. The first interview took place in the East Village in March 2019. I interviewed experts in New York, London, Paris, Mexico City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Glasgow, Rotterdam, and Los Angeles before it was all over.

Lastly, thank you, Tyler, the Creator. Im not going to front like I know you. But your entire discography formed the soundtrack to a years worth of hard work, and your boundless creative energy is contagious.

A New Era of No-Proof Drinking

Its been nearly one hundred years since Prohibition was repealed, but the biggest trend in cocktails has nothing to do with alcohol.

Non-alcoholic drinks first came to my mind in August 2013, when I wrote about summer mocktails in the Wall Street Journal. The short piece, which featured no-proof recipes as well as their boozy adaptations, noted that the alcohol-free cocktail is cropping up everywhere around town. And while that was true, it would be several more years before the non-alcoholic drink would be taken seriously, in New York City and elsewhere. I recall it took some effort to find a few no-proof drinks, and on the advice of an editor we profiled a fresh juice venue that wasnt properly a bar but that did serve inventive drinks.

As late as 2013, we were still calling these drinks mocktails, as the WSJ headline says. Later, as the zero-proof drink gained the attention of the bar community, its terminology, as well as composition, was given serious reconsideration.

There was a turning point for bars in 2015. That was the year Seedlip, the first non-alcoholic distillate, launched in London, where it not only sold out its inaugural Selfridges run, but found itself embraced by Londons top bars, including American Bar at The Savoy Hotel. Seedlips smashing debut turned heads at spirits behemoth Diageo, which bought a minority stake in the fledgling brand just a year after its launch. That marked the first time that Diageo, through their accelerator, Distill Ventures, invested in a non-alcoholic company. By the time Diageo acquired a majority stake in Seedlip a few years later, the brand had grown to encompass two product lines, six expressions, and over 10,000 global accounts.

When Seedlip arrived stateside, it inspired American bartenders to begin toying around with the mixer; more non-alcoholic drink options, Seedlip or otherwise, began edging onto menus at places like Manhattans The Fat Radish.

I think it is here to stay, Brian Evans, head bartender at Sunday in Brooklyn, said of the emerging movement. One of the biggest trends in cocktails last year was zero proof. It took us all by storm.

In July 2018, at the Tales of the Cocktail spirits conference, William Grant & Sons, which owns Reyka vodka, Hendricks Gin, and Glenfiddich, among other spirits brands, took an unprecedented step to throw its first fully non-alcoholic party. The conference, held every July in New Orleans, is famous for splashy portfolio parties, in which brands such as Bacardi, Pernod Ricard, and others spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on all-you-can-drink bacchanalias. For William Grant & Sons, hosting a fully dry event was a significant gesture that nodded toward the conversation about wellness in the bar world and the growing sophistication of no-proof cocktails. It was also a tacit acknowledgment that the liquor industry need not be threatened by the rise in boozeless drinks.