How Much is Too Much?

Wotcha!

As I was writing this week’s newsletter I got to thinking about price points for non-alcoholic drinks. Specifically for non-alcoholic wine and wine alternatives.

So I thought I would turn this around on you and ask your opinion. Would you take 10 seconds to answer this quick one-question poll for me? There should also be a box to leave further thoughts and I’d love to hear them.

Here you go …

Enjoy some great drinks this week.

Cheers,

Myles

In last week’s issue (MODSUB147), A Road Less Travelled, this link got the most attention.

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

WINE ALTERNATIVE
Proxies - Crisp White

BEER
Athletic Brewing - Dark & Gourdy

Read time: 4 minutes 29 seconds

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NORTH AMERICA

BEER: Teaming up with Wisconsin Brewing Company, Optimum Nutrition has launched an American pilsner called ChampionSips. (Link)

COCKTAIL: Talking of Wisconsin, Mock and Co. is soon to be adding Wiscy Tea Sour to its lineup. (Link)

WORLDWIDE

BEER: Over in England, fans of Old Speckled Hen may be excited to hear that a 0% version of the English pale ale will be coming soon. This new edition will gradually phase out and replace Old Speckled Hen 0.5%. (Link)

COCKTAILS: Staying in the UK, earlier this summer, Nazcal Spirits made the natural leap into RTD cans with a trio of cocktails. (Link)

WINE: Australian winemaker Daniel Shaw has lifted the lid on Lidster with a non-alcoholic Chardonnay and Shiraz. (Link)

WINE ALTERNATIVE

ModSub thoughts: I’m in the middle of writing an article on wine alternatives for another publication, and I was rather excited to sample two of the still wines I’ve yet to try from Proxies. Big Red I’ll save for another day, because Crisp White has kind of blown me away this week, and it deserves my full and undivided attention.

My first sip took me back to the days when my mother would halve a white grapefruit and share it with me for breakfast. It was the kind of early-morning tartness that makes a young lad’s face pucker up, one eyelid firmly closed, the other flickering as if signaling an unmouthable request for help. I loved and hated the fruit in equal measure. Later in life, I would attempt to suppress the facial twitches while enjoying Greyhound cocktails in homage to Robert Smith.

To be fair, Crisp White has none of the tartness of white grapefruit, and besides checking the ingredients, there is in fact zero grapefruit juice in play. Either my taste buds have betrayed me, or the combination of white grape, lemon, mandarin and quassia extract has conjured up a similar flavor. Still, a second glass brought the mandarin and peach to the fore, lychee added a sweet floral undertow, and the slightest touch of ginger keeps all the other ingredients from getting too carried away.

Crisp White, as with all Proxies wines, has a tongue-in-cheek statement right on the front of the label: “Not Wine.” And of course, it isn’t truly wine in the truest sense, but I’ll happily pull the cork on this fantastic wine alternative any day of the week. Because once you’ve tried it, why wouldn’t you?

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BEER

ModSub thoughts: Despite my annual attempts to stave off the end of summer for as long as possible, as mentioned last week, it’s also a time to look forward to the return of dark beers. If you can’t beat the turn of the seasons, you may as well embrace it by enjoying the stouts, porters, dark IPAs and brown ales that accompany it. I welcome the chocolate, coffee, caramel, nutty and smoky flavors that some of these NA beers produce.

During a recent shopping trip to Trader Joe’s, I spied a 6-pack of Athletic Brewing’s seasonal Dark & Gourdy and thought, may as well. Now, I’m fairly sure I have already revealed my puzzlement over why pumpkin is so popular. Pumpkin pie ranks very low on the pie-o-meter at Thanksgiving, and the obsession with the sugar-laden pumpkin spice latte is baffling. So when I picked up this 6-pack, there was a moment as I was standing in line for the cashier when I questioned: do I really want this?

But I’m glad I did. Mostly because I can only just about make out the pumpkin somewhere in the background. Instead dark toasted malts form the base for the spices to play—cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger whip up a flurry before nudging up against a mild rasted bitterness. There’s a also decent body to it and, thankfully, low carbonation.

Thereare plenty of very good dark ales that pop up at this time of year and, if pushed, I probably wouldn’t be putting Dark & Gourdy at the top of the pile, despite how much more impressed I am than I thought I'd be. But it wouldn’t be too far off, and I certainly won’t be giving it the cold shoulder I have in the past. Bring on the weather. I think I’m ready for it.

EXTRA READS

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