Alcohol-Free Drinks Have Gone Mainstream: 3 Grown-Up Aperitifs to Make at Home

The alcohol-free shelf used to hold one sweet lager and a bottle of elderflower cordial. It now carries alcohol-free gin, wine, beer and bitter aperitifs, and low and no alcohol drinking has moved from a January novelty to an ordinary choice at dinner parties, business lunches and weddings.

Health drives much of the change. Alcohol is classified as a cause of cancer, and the World Health Organization has stated that no level of drinking is safe for health. Even a couple of glasses in the evening disrupt your sleep: alcohol helps you drop off, then fragments the second half of the night and cuts the dream sleep that supports memory and mood. You feel the difference the next morning.

What the labels mean