Amass Riverine is peppery, astringent, and overwhelmingly piney. You may like this drink if you go for forest-floor flavors, and we should note that several experts recommended it to us. But we couldn’t get over an association with floor cleaner.Aplós Chili Margarita was the weak link among Aplós’ canned cocktails, with a vegetal flavor that tasters described as musty and wet-dog-like, and an imbalanced lime tartness that tasted acrid. Plus, it needs more spice.Bax Botanics’s Lemon Verbena and Sea Buckthorn were too lightly flavored and overpowered by sage and pine, respectively.Bonbuz had a one-note cinnamon flavor that fell flat and clashed with seltzer.Botan Wakataya Sour was too mild for some tasters, with faint hints of citrus and toasted rice. And for others, it was rife with off flavors, tasting of plastic and new-car smell.Brooklyn Brewed Sorrel, based on a family recipe, is tasty and sweeter than many NA options, but we found that the flavors weren’t as nuanced as in the more-layered, complex herbal drinks we tried. It’s a good option if you’re looking for something juicy and floral and you don’t mind a milder drink.Caleño Dark & Spicy lacked complexity and was overly sweet, tasting of butterscotch candy and artificial coconut. Caleño Light & Zesty was underwhelming but inoffensive, tasting of banana, bay leaf, and lychee.Casamara Club Fora and Casamara Club Isla were only faintly flavored, offering mere whispers of strawberry and ginger, respectively, mixed into cans of seltzer. La Croix is more satisfying.Curious Elixir No. 1, Curious Elixir No. 3, and Curious Elixir No. 4 were off-balance and odd-tasting, with unpleasant funks and strange industrial flavors.De Soi’s Golden Hour was off-puttingly savory and lacking in fizz.Everleaf’s aperitifs were overly subtle, leaving us searching for flavor. Everleaf Forest smelled better than it tasted and gave us the great idea of making a saffron simple syrup to create our own NA bevs. Everleaf Marine was a little briny and perfumey. Everleaf Mountain was the most complex of the three, with notes of jasmine, green tea, and strawberry—it reminded one taster of flavored vodka. But all three were too mild and too sweet.Even our tasters who favored more bitter drinks said that the bitterness of For Bitter For Worse Eva’s Spritz was a bit much, and we found the clashing sweetness off-putting. We picked up notes of dried grass, chamomile, honey, and roots.For Bitter For Worse’s The Saskatoon was similarly too bitter, tasting of tannic hibiscus tea with black pepper and prevailing grassy, bitter notes. Likewise, the company’s Rose City Fizz was too intensely flavored with medicinal herbs, and its Smoky No. 56 was overpowered by smoke.Though we’re impressed by Ghia’s Original Aperitif, and we also liked the company’s Berry Aperitif and Sumac & Chili spritz, we’re less enamored with the other canned spritzes in the line. Ghia Le Spritz tasted of chalky dried ginger, Ghia Ginger was too bitter, and Ghia Lime & Salt lacked complexity, resembling 7-up. Ghia Le Spritz Blood Orange tasted off for most of our panelists, with notes of grass and menthol.Gnista Barreled Oak aims for the flavors of bourbon, but it reminded us more of a fizzless malty beer and vinegary barbecue sauce. Gnista Floral Wormwood, which was also quite vinegary, brought to mind canned peaches and vegetable stock.We tasted Hiyo’s variety pack of blackberry lemon, peach mango, strawberry guava, and watermelon lime cans. The flavors were artificial and off; our testers likened various flavors to lip balm, sunscreen, and rotten fruit. You would be much better served by going with almost any vitamin-free conventional-flavored seltzer or soda.We also tried a couple of other flavors of Hella Bitters & Soda. Bitters & Soda Grapefruit was too one-note, like a simple seltzer, and Bitters & Soda Classic Dry Aromatic was too dry, tasting of mouthwash.Kin Lightwave tasted of artificial caramel, mushroom, and licorice—a bit too funky for our tastes. Kin Dream Light and Kin High Rhode both tasted medicinal.Lapo’s Aperitivo is a juicy, slightly tannic quaff, but it lacks the bitterness and warm spice that makes Wilfred’s Bittersweet layered and savorable. Lapo’s Non-alcoholic Negroni was easy to drink, but it lacked the complexity and bitterness of the St. Agrestis Phony Negroni.Melati Classic is deeply earthy, with notes of pomegranate, beets, and grape. It looks, smells, and tastes like a concentrated berry juice. It reminded us of medicinal elderflower syrup, and we struggled to drink it.We liked Ooso’s canned sparkling teas — the hibiscus ginger currant flavor is juicy and simple, and the green tea mint lime was Arnold Palmer–esque, with a slightly funky sencha tea flavor and brightening lime. But the drinks are not layered or strong enough to hold up as nonalcoholic beverages.Parch’s Prickly Paloma and Spiced Piñarita were overly sweet and lacking in complexity, needing a stronger hit of acid to elevate them.Pentire’s Coastal Spritz was juicy and drinkable but not especially interesting. If you’re looking for an aperitif with similar notes of blood orange and herbs, we recommend Wilfred’s, which packs a more compelling bitterness and stronger herbal notes.Pentire Seaward tastes like bitter grapefruit pith, with some light salinity and a hint of juniper. It proved too subtle, and its delicate flavor got lost when we mixed it with tonic and seltzer. For saline and juniper flavors, we preferred Pentire Adrift.Rasāsvāda Black Ginger was too savory, like beef braising liquid, and the company’s Ruby Artemesia was cloyingly sweet and thin.The Recess Happy Hour Sampler of canned mocktails had flat, perfume-y, artificial-tasting flavors that failed to evoke the source cocktails. La Croix is more flavorful and satisfying.Seedlip Grove 42 was overly mild and subtle, tasting primarily of lemongrass and citrus. And Seedlip Spice 94 was one-note, tasting overwhelmingly of allspice. Both were overpowered by mixers.St. Agrestis Non-Alcoholic Amaro Falso tasted like a mix of ginger beer, flat cola, and root beer. We didn’t mind it, but we thought it needed more herbal complexity. If you want a fancy root beer, you can find a better one for less. If you’re looking to match the vibe of an amaro, The Pathfinder is a much better dupe.Sylva Orchard, an NA spirit distilled from fruit wood and malted barley, smelled of banana liqueur and tasted like apple brandy, with a strong alcohol aroma. It was odd, one-note, and prohibitively sweet.We liked how different the two spirits from Tilden — Tandem and Lacewing — are from each other. Tandem is a gingery dark-and-stormy–esque drink, and Lacewing is a lighter mix of green flavors. But other drinks, like Curious Elixirs or Aplós, achieve these flavor profiles more successfully, and testers who dislike the taste of stevia found Tilden’s spirits offputting.Tenneyson Black Ginger was a jolting, difficult drink with a nice fresh ginger flavor but a disappointing grape juice finish, and it failed to hold up to mixing.Three Spirit Nightcap was funky, earthy, and herby, with prominent mushroom flavors, but it lacked any sweetness to balance all of that out.Three Spirit Social Elixir reminded us of an amaro or fortified wine with notes of mushroom, forest floor, red wine, plum, sage, and yerba mate. But it was too bitter for us to enjoy.Vera Aperitvø Classicø was strong, mature, and complex but overwhelmingly bitter. Tasters detected a funk and mustiness along with sweetness and floral notes, but the primary experience was an unpleasant bitterness that spread through the entire mouth. One taster likened the flavor to bile.Wilderton Bittersweet Aperitivo halted our testers with its bitterness; our tasters suspected that the formula is too heavy on gentian root, and they likened the flavor to cough syrup.This article was edited by Gabriella Gershenson, Marilyn Ong, and Marguerite Preston.
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