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Ever heard of something called ‘the tyranny of choice’?

It’s when you’re given a multitude of options, which should offer you a sense of freedom, but they actually the opposite effect, leaving you anxious.

This was the exact feeling I had yesterday when I left Parched in East London (in a good way, if that makes sense), the UK’s largest tasting event showcasing low and no-alcohol drinks.

The show was heaving, and the venue was decked out with wall-to-wall (literally, there was a beer wall) tables offering tasters from bottles off all shapes and sizes, with kaleidoscopic labels and catchy brand names.

And the thing I couldn’t get my head around; everything was under 0.5% alcohol.

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You name it, they were showing it. Non-alcohol replacements for gin, rum, whisky, tequila, wine, champagne and beer, then there were the stand-alone blends that weren’t there to replace anything.

So, when you consider that, even as recently as last year, there weren’t nearly as many low and no-alcohol drink options. What has inspired the Great British Booze Shift?

The short answer is, people are drinking less. In fact, one in five adults now report not drinking alcohol at all.

According to a Drinkaware survey from 2023, around 25% of 16 to 24-year-olds are teetotal, with health and wellness cited as a massive factor, as well as financial motivations and quite simply, the sheer range of non-alcoholic options availabe.

There’s also less stigma around not drinking alcohol, you no longer have to be the designated driver who nurses a watery, warm glass of Coke all night. Ring a bell?

We live in a world of dealcoholised wine, botanically-built drinks, options with a spicy kick, decent kombucha, abstemious spritzes, non-boozy beer with ramped up hoppiness, and it’s far more about personal choice than ever before.   

But while I’m buoyed up by the sheer amount of delicious low and non-alcoholic drinking options available for Sober October and beyond, it’s worth noting that they’re not all cheap. In fact, in a lot of cases they’re still pretty expensive and hard to find.

But, it’s my job to free you from the tyranny of choice, so here are the top low-and-no alcohol beverages, some of which I tried at Parched…

Bolle Blanc de Blancs, £19.99 (0% abv), drinksupermarket.com

Bolle produces some of the finest non-alcoholic wines in existence. This is a blend of Chardonnay and Silvaner, with dry and delicious notes of fresh pears on toast, lemon thyme and sherbet on the finish. They use a patented technique to keep in as many of the flavours as possible, and it works.  

Future Château Sparkling, £28.99 (5% abv), Selfridges

The founder of this aimed to produce a flavoursome, low-alcohol (it has 5% abv) session wine you could drink, minus the guilt and fuzzy head in the morning. Hey presto, Future Château was born (after 5 years in the making). It blew me away, so get in there quick as first batch will sell out soon.

Pale Fox Prosecco, £26.41 (0% abv), Master of Malt

This has been billed as ‘The world’s finest Prosecco’. I was actually blindsided that this contained no alcohol; it has all the hallmarks of a well-made Prosecco, and apparently none of the alcohol. It’s a blend of Prosecco’s very own Glera grape, along with some Pinot Grigio. The result is dry and mineral wine with a pear and lemon sherbet froth.  

Bolle Spritz, £17.99 (0% abv), bolledrinks.com

Bolle again, producing one of the most authentic versions of an Aperol Spritz I’ve tried, alcohol or not (there’s none). The base wine is sparkling Chardonnay, layered over with bitter orange and herbs, which really kick in on the finish. Chill it down, hard, pour into an oversized wine glass, garnish with orange and enjoy. It’s 60% less calories than the alcoholic version too.

Fevertree Non-Alcoholic Italian Spritz, £1.90 (0% abv), Waitrose

Slightly sweeter than Bolle’s, but with balancing bitter notes. Fevertree’s is a fantastic non-alcoholic spritz with a carbonate water base with blood orange, vanilla and liquorice flavouring.

Mother Root, £27.95, Waitrose

This has just won big investment from Steven Bartlett on Dragon’s Den. It’s an all-natural aperitif drink, crafted from an apple cider vinegar base, designed to deliver the same ‘flavour punch and slow-sip satisfaction’ as alcohol. I admire the fact it’s not trying to replace anything, plus it’s balanced and delicious with gingery fire, a kick of chilli and soothing honey.

Longbottom Virgin Mary, £1.80, Ocado

If loving Longbottom is wrong (which it isn’t), I don’t want to be right. I’m a superfan of this product, which is now poured on 12 major airlines, including BA. Made with proper tomato juice (Canary and Pear tomatoes juiced within 2 hours of harvest), with warming, balanced spices. I can’t get enough of it, no wonder a can is opened every 60 seconds in the sky.

Botaniets Triple Distilled, £35 (0% abv), Fortnum & Mason

This is inspired by an old-timey recipe dating back to 1887. It’s billed as a gin replacement, but I think that’s doing it a disservice. Made from wild juniper, Sicilian citrus peel, ginger, rosemary, cardamom and 9 other botanicals, it’s bright and lip-smacking when sipped with Fevertree original tonic.

Nolia IPA, £4.25 (0.5% abv), beershophq.uk

Delicous and mega-hoppy, made from hops hand-selected from farms in the Yakima Valley in Washington and Nelson, New Zealand. They maintain that one of the major flavour profiles of this beer is lime mojitos, and now I can’t taste anything else. Apart from the tropical notes of mango and papaya that is.

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