Visiting Our Friends to the North

Wotcha!

As always when I take a trip somewhere new, I make a note of the non-alcoholic drinks I find so I can pass them on to you.

Usually, I’ll do some research in advance to maximize the time I have.

But with just 2.5 days in both Toronto and Montreal—and with family time and a bit of “rest” in mind—I decided to simply see what came my way.

It didn’t disappoint.

Here’s a round-up of my week in Canada.

Cheers,

Myles

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

BEER
The Canadian Ousts the Italian

SPARKLING WATER
Bumping into Barbet

FERMENTATION
The Secret Ingredient

STORE
A Visit to Søbr Market

BEER
Three Canadian NA Beers

Read time: 7 minutes 15 seconds

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WINE: Rhyme after me, Yes Way Rosé launches Yes Way NA. (Link)

COCKTAILS: New functional RTDs from Barsmith, including a Margarita, a Paloma and a Spritz. (Link)

BEER: Over in Rhode Island, Grey Sail Brewing has debuted Zero Knots. Love that name! (Link)

COCKTAILS: Bee Wild Mocktails is a new line from Arizona’s Wild Tonic. They’ve launched three functional RTDs. (Link)

BEER: Wild American Pilsner is the latest release from Best Day Brewing. (Link)

BEER

My late father was a Hard Rock Cafe enthusiast, owning a collection of those famous branded T-shirts that traced the history of his travels—akin to pins on a map of the world. The ModSub family is drawn to Eatalys in much the same way, though it’s more about filling our stomachs than collecting merch. I’m not sure I like to be described as a “-phile” of any country, but like many, our little family is very fond of Italy and its fabulous culinary delights.

So this past week, we added Toronto to our Eataly experience, on the back of previous visits to Genoa, New York, and London. The food was as delicious as ever, but as has been the case in other locations, the NA drinks menu was disappointingly subpar. Given the wealth of Italian and Italian-inspired non-alcoholic options out there, the chain gets low marks for effort on their non-alc menu. At the very least, someone from Crodino needs to have a word.

Still, all whinging aside, there was one bit of good news on this front—they offered Harmon’s Tresette Non-Alcoholic Italian-Style Pilsner. Now we’re talking.

I’ve only had one other beer from the Toronto brewery, and that was such a treat I knew the odds were good this pilsner would be up to snuff. I was once told that pilsners are among the hardest NA beers to make. This may be true, but more and more breweries are starting to nail them. Tresette was as impressive as any of the best I’ve tried.

Despite my disappointment with Eataly’s non-alc offerings, I have to give credit where credit is due. They do offer Peroni and could easily have just added Peroni 0.0 for the non-alc crowd—it would have been a no-brainer. Instead, they decided to go local and include Tresette. Fair play to them. They picked a winner.

SPARKLING WATER

Talking of Eataly, possibly just as fun as eating at one of their restaurants—if not more—is wandering around the numerous produce and grocery sections that surround the eateries. I’d recommend this as a rewarding salivatory preamble to lunch or dinner, especially if you haven’t made a reservation. 

Of course, I always make a beeline for the drinks section, which is where I came across Barbet. The Toronto-based beverage company, run by two sisters, currently has four flavours—all of which sound delicious. I opted for Love Bite, a fabulous sparkling water featuring pink grapefruit, a little kick of ginger rounded off by the lovely piney citrus of juniper. It was fab. My only regret is not buying all four flavours or at the very least Wild Card, with its blood orange, calamansi and jalapeño. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.

FERMENTATION

One of the highlights of our Canadian vacation was an invitation to visit Mannanova in Montreal. The company was started in 2014 by fermentation expert and mad scientist Sébastien Bureau, primarily creating fermentation bases for a wide array of beverages. Their initial focus—and what they are most known for—is their role in creating the bases for numerous kombucha brands, not only in their native Canada but across the world.

As Daniel Nahmias-Leónard and Bernadette Cardin-Simard mentioned while talking me through the company’s history, if you’ve had a kombucha in Canada, Sébastien has likely had a hand in it somewhere. Understandably, the pair are quite tight-lipped about who they work with, but with over 250 clients worldwide, my bet is you’ve tried some of their fermentation wizardry at one point or another.

Currently, the company offers four bases: Manna-K, made with green tea; Manna-KN, made with black tea; Manna-KX, a combination of both teas; and Manna-Fir, a water kefir base. While I’m not going to pretend I understand any of the science behind these bases, what they provide to beverage companies is a foundation for consistency, scalability, time savings, and ultimately reduced costs. They also offer consultation—if your drink isn’t quite where it needs to be, these guys will very likely have a solution. And if you fancy trying your hand at making kombucha, they also have a 16-hour online masterclass.

While kombucha has been Mannanova’s bread and butter over the last decade, their work can be found in all manner of drinks. Daniel and Bernadette let me sample an IPA and a cider they are working on. I know they’ve worked with alternative wine companies, and they also let me try one drink—something Sébastien came up with on a whim—which Mrs ModSub and I ooo’ed and ahh’ed about for the rest of the day. I’m sworn to secrecy, but golly, whoever picks that drink up is on to a winner.

It was a fun morning and fascinating to get an inside peek at the early creative stages of some of the types of drinks I write about. It was also evident that the team at Mannanova love what they do and take great pride in the drinks they help produce.

So if you happen to be looking for some help with your next beverage creation, the team at Mannanova are worth a call. I’d wager you’ll be in the company of some giants.

STORE

A visit to a new city isn’t complete without at least checking whether there’s a dedicated non-alc bottle shop nearby and a quick look at the Zero Proof Nation Global Map reminded me I should try to track down a Søbr Market. Lucky for me, there were three locations in Toronto.

Søbr Market started back in 2022 as an online store out of Winnipeg, importing non-alc drinks from the U.S. and Europe and sampling them at farmers’ markets and festivals. Fast forward to today, and just four years on, the company now has nine stores across four provinces, three of which are franchises. That’s some growth in just a handful of years.

The store I visited was in the Wellington Market Food Hall—a large, open space with permanent food stands and a vibrant, bustling atmosphere. The shop’s open front makes it easy to grab a quick bottle of wine or beer to go with your dinner, or—if you’re simply curious while munching on a lunchtime sandwich—to get lured in by the rows and rows of labels you’re perhaps not familiar with.

For me, it was eye-opening walking into an NA bottle shop and recognizing maybe just a quarter of the products on the shelves. In the U.S., I can usually scan the inventory of a store and only be stopped by a handful of drinks I haven’t seen before. Walking into Søbr Market almost felt like starting all over again—which was exciting, even if slightly overwhelming.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed a 30-minute visit, chatting with Alina, who let us sample a handful of drinks. I came away with a bagful of cans and bottles—just enough to feel like a proper haul, but not so many I’d struggle to squeeze them into the little room left in my suitcase.

There are so many fantastic bottle shops across the U.S., but it’s pretty cool to see how Søbr Market has taken things to the next level, creating a chain of retail outlets that seem to be thriving. More stores are planned in the near future, and it won’t be long before Søbr Market locations stretch from one Canadian coast to the other.

BEER

A quick round-up of the other NA beers I came across during the week in Canada. 

First up was the very tasty Swoon, a stout from Burdock Brewery, which I came across while wandering around the Kensington Market neighbourhood. The brewery has two locations in Toronto where you can enjoy Swoon, along with two other NA offerings: Swishh (IPA) and Salt Lick (Lime Sour).

Next up was Stay Classy from Bellwoods Brewery, which I enjoyed in the hotel restaurant one evening. The sharp grapefruit tang and a generous dose of hops made it a great beer to accompany the lovely mushroom, Gorgonzola, and caramelised onion pizza I’d ordered. A quick check of Bellwoods Brewery’s website shows they also offer two NA sours: Jelly King Dry Hopped Sour and Jelly King Dry Hopped Sour with Raspberry and Blackberry.

Last up was a beer that caught my eye while I was perusing the shelves at Søbr Market. A dear friend of mine is fond of loudly responding to anything with a modicum of urgency with, “Easy, tiger!” So when I saw a can of Town Brewery’s Easy Tiger, it felt like an unavoidable purchase. Town Brewery is located in Whitby, just a short shunt clockwise around Lake Ontario from Toronto. This robust, biscuity NA lager is their only non-alcoholic beer to date, but it’s a cracker nonetheless—and well worth tracking down.

EXTRA READS

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• Blog thumbnail photo credit: ModSub Jnr