A Little Creative License

Wotcha!

When I first started this newsletter, I used to write about cocktail recipes I came across from various corners of the internet. I can’t remember the last time I did that. With the flash flood of ready-to-drink non-alcoholic cocktails over the last few years, I’ve had my hands full covering them.

But a simple recipe I saw this week from Dappled Tonics inspired me to pick up some ingredients and give it a try.

I feel like it’s time to get back to basics and start experimenting again.

Enjoy some great drinks this week.

Myles

In last week’s issue (MODSUB152), Untangling First Impressions, this link got the most attention for two weeks in a row.

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

CIDER
ACE Cider - Pineapple Zero

COCKTAIL
Dappled Tonic Water - Fall Cocktail

Read time: 5 minutes 24 seconds

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NORTH AMERICA

BEER: It’s never to early to start thinking about your Thanksgiving dinner shopping list. Go Brewing have you covered on the pie front with their new limited Baked Pecan Pie Fall Brew. But you’ll have to join their Beer Club to get your hands on some. (Link)

WINE: Soon to be available in the U.S. is Enjoy Vertu’s line of non-alcoholic wines thanks to a new deal with importer, M.S. Walker Brands. (Link)

WINE: B.C. winery, Okanagan Crush Pad has released its first non-alcoholic wine with Narrative XC Sparkling 0.5. (Link)

WINE: More non-alc wine news, this time from California, with Bernadus Winery launching their 2025 Blanc de Blancs Griva Vineyard Premium Alcohol Removed Sparkling Wine. (Link)

WORLDWIDE

BEER: New beer drop from Mash Gang with Electro-Beer Citrus Lager. Available in the UK but not sure about the U.S. (Link)

CIDER

ModSub thoughts: As I’ve been researching this non-alcoholic cider guide I’ve been working on, I’ve been sampling a few of the ciders along the way. One I’d like to shine a light on this week is Pineapple Zero from California’s ACE Cider.

ACE Cider opened its doors back in 1993 when fellow British chap and former advertising executive Jeffery House and his wife, Angela, moved to the States and wanted to introduce Americans to the delights of English cider-making. The couple set up shop in Sonoma County, an area more widely known for wine, of course, but also blessed with extensive apple orchards.

Over the course of three decades, House built the company into the first nationally distributed cidery in the country. No small feat, and its ciders are now distributed across all 50 states. However, it was only in January of this year that ACE started producing non-alcoholic versions of two of its core ciders—Perry and Pineapple.

I’ve yet to try Perry Zero, but on the basis of how happily I’m guzzling down Pineapple Zero, I can’t wait to try it out. As for Pineapple Zero, a blend of fermented apple and pineapple juices makes for a tropical-inspired cider sitting somewhere between semi-sweet and semi-dry. What sweetness there is fades quickly into acidity. The finished product could so easily have been overwhelmed by the distinct flavours and boldness of pineapple juice, but instead, the pineapple helps steer the cider in a tropical direction without ever dominating its natural apple character. It’s not quite what you’d expect, and that’s its strength.

In 2021, Vintage Wine Estates acquired ACE Cider but filed for bankruptcy three years later. The cider company was bought once again at auction, this time by sisters Riva Lipton and Gila Lipton Blum. One of the other bidders that day was none other than the original founder, Jeffery House. Despite missing out on buying back the brand he’d founded, the sisters hired House to rejoin the company as general manager, revive its operations, and oversee distribution. Lucky for us they did!

So here’s to Jeffery House’s vision of bringing English cider to the States, to these two non-alc ciders getting a little more of the spotlight on ACE Cider’s website (please!), and to many more non-alc ciders from Sonoma County.

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COCKTAIL

Ingredients:
• Dappled Aromatic Aromatic Tonic Water
• Pumpkin Spice Creamer
• Spiritless Kentucky 74
• Becketts ‘27 Cinnamon Whiskey
• All The Bitter Fig and Black Walnut

ModSub thoughts: Early this week I made a brief commute to Instagram to drop off a little promo for the previous week’s newsletter. I never stay long anymore, as I made a promise to myself during the summer to take a long break from the platform. It does make it harder to grow this newsletter, though. Trade-offs.

As I was uploading a carousel to Instagram on Monday morning, a post from Dappled Tonic Water caught my eye. The Portland-based, women-owned premium tonic company had posted a recipe for a fall cocktail with just two ingredients: Dappled Aromatic Tonic Water and pumpkin spice creamer.

Now, on the face of it, that may not sound terribly appealing. I mentioned I was making this cocktail to three people, and all three grimaced at the idea. And I suppose, as someone who turns their nose up at the annual infiltration of pumpkin spice lattes into our favourite coffee shops, I’m not really one to talk.

But I trust those ladies over at Dappled, and unsurprisingly, they didn’t lead me astray. So off I popped to the supermarket to pick up some Califia Farms Pumpkin Spice Creamer to add to the stash of Aromatic Tonic Water I keep on the bottom shelf of my drinks cart.

The recipe is about as simple as it gets: 1.5–2 fl oz of pumpkin spice creamer in a tumbler full of ice, topped off with Aromatic Tonic Water. Done, and voilà, you have an easy fall cocktail, reminiscent of an ice cream soda if you’ve left it to melt for 10 minutes.

It turned out I had actually picked up an almond milk version of the creamer instead of the regular version, but honestly, I think it enhanced the drink, adding a nuttiness along with a thankfully light touch of pumpkin. Dappled’s Aromatic Tonic Water adds its quinine fizz to the mix, along with vanilla, cardamom, lemongrass and orange.

It’s a fun drink and, given its simplicity, one to pull out of your back pocket if you have friends coming around for an early evening dinner this fall.

As lovely as this simple recipe is, a comment on the IG post from @alcoholfreealchemist suggesting the addition of Spiritless Spiced Kentucky 74 got me excited to experiment.

I didn’t have the spiced version of Kentucky 74, but 1 fl oz of the regular version, added to an ounce of Beckett’s ’27 Cinnamon Whiskey and mixed into the cocktail, elevated the vanilla and cinnamon while also bringing a little oak and smoke to the table. Then came five dashes of All The Bitter’s Fig and Black Walnut to add some of their magical botanical depth. Oh yeah, I’m pretty happy with this version. 

Try them out and let me know which one you prefer. Or let me know what changes you would make!

Purchase the ingredients: Dappled Aromatic Tonic Water, Spiritless Kentucky 74, Becketts ‘27 Cinnamon Whiskey and All The Bitter Fig and Black Walnut.

_{A quick heads-up: some links here are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission—thank you for supporting my work at no extra cost to you.}