Uninhibited drinking without a hangover: no problem with these drinks
19.12.2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Oliver Fischer
The time of festivals and celebrations is here. In other words, the time for feasting and drinking. For the latter, this year I'm focussing mainly on new, creative and as yet unknown drinks - without alcohol.
Who hasn't seen the Galaxus Christmas advert in which this highly dysfunctional family is sitting at a festively laid table with an unappetising «VeGans» - a vegan Christmas goose. Now I'm anything but a meat lover or veganism basher, on the contrary, I actually find eating meat-free very interesting and delicious. But just well done.
This is not about meat-free family celebrations. It's about its little, possibly even more humourless brother: alcohol-free drinks - at Christmas parties and New Year's Eve.
But wait a minute. As if it's a humourless little brother. Celebrating alcohol-free is not left-wing, green-versified, woke do-gooderism, but a long-standing trend. Among the young people of our time, alcohol-free, together with social media-free, is the new cool. In the meantime, the Swiss are drinking so much less local wine that the winemaker-in-chief and his fellow campaigners in Bern have already felt compelled to support Swiss winegrowers with additional contributions in the tens of millions.
And it's not just winegrowers who are complaining that people are drinking less. Disillusionment is also spreading among beer brewers. The Swiss Brewers Association announced in November that beer consumption in Switzerland was down by 1.8 per cent overall in the financial year 24/25, while consumption of non-alcoholic beer increased for both domestic and imported beer.
Tea instead of schnapps - how to make mocktails
Giving up alcoholic drinks definitely doesn't mean giving up enjoyment or interesting drinks to accompany Christmas and New Year's Eve dinners. On the contrary. Because when demand for a product category decreases, it doesn't create nothing, but space for exciting alternatives. And I would now like to introduce you to some of them.
In fact, in the last few years that I've been building up my home bar - you can read about it here, here and here - also deals with non-alcoholic drinks. Firstly, because my daughter (10) likes to have her own drink at our family aperitifs, and secondly, because my wife and I rarely drink more than one or two alcoholic drinks in an evening, but may still fancy a digestif after dinner.
In addition to some of my own experiences and experiments, I got inspiration and information from an expert in the field of enjoyment: Peter Jauch, the author of the champagne book that I recently presented.
The expert for Gin and champagne has diversified its expertise and is developing non-alcoholic tea-based table drinks, for example.
He replaces the base spirit with a tea, which he brews as a cold brew and then combines with fruit juices, citrus juices, sugar syrup, a tonic or another filler, for example. «For me, the flavour is always at the beginning and at the centre of a drink», Jauch explains his approach to me, «I recently used a peppermint chamomile tea as a base for an event and combined it with cloudy apple juice. That worked extremely well, although we always associate camomile tea with illness. But the fresh mint and apple juice created a flavour combination that put the chamomile in a completely different context.»
I immediately wanted to try this drink myself and can say with a clear conscience: it works! (You can see it in the Header image at the top, btw)
Juice + Smoothies
Quantity discount
CHF4.45 per piece for 4 units CHF4.45/1l
Alnatura Aln.Milder Apfelsaft naturtrüb 1l Pck.
In fact, I can well imagine creating all kinds of drinks on this basis. When it comes to tea and infusions, there is a huge variety of flavours that you can experiment with. And the possible combinations with fruit juices, syrups, lemonades or fresh fruit and herbs are endless.
Alcohol-free substitute products
If you want to more or less specifically replace spirits with a similar, alcohol-free product, you can now find simple alternatives for the most common drink basics. Brands such as Lyre's or Rebels 0.0% offer alcohol-free alternatives to gin, whisky, rum, tequila or vodka.
CHF23.–
Lyre's American malt
Alcohol-free whisky, 1 x 70 cl
CHF24.90 CHF35.57/1l
Lyre's London Dry Spirit
1 x 70 cl
CHF24.90 CHF35.57/1l
Lyre's Dark Cane Spirit 0.7 l alkoholfrei
1 x 70 cl
CHF29.70 CHF59.40/1l
REBELS 0.0% Botanical Dry - alcohol-free
1 x 50 cl
CHF26.90
REBELS 0.0% Malt Blend non-alcoholic
Alcohol-free whisky, 1 x 50 cl
CHF29.70 CHF59.40/1l
REBELS 0.0% Dark Spice - alcohol-free
1 x 50 cl
I have tried Lyre's gin, light and dark rum and whisky. In my opinion, the whisky comes closest to the original. The «gin» is too one-sided with the juniper and the rums are primarily sweet. The smoky and slightly peaty flavour of some Scotches is best brought out by the whisky. What none of the products have is the slightly creamy texture that characterises the rum in particular.
Peter Jauch says he is not a big fan of the substitute products, but then names a few brands and products that he uses regularly. «I like the Amaretto and Rosso from Rebels 0.0%. And from Martini, I find the «Vibrante» and the «Florale» two very interesting products that I like to use for drinks.» In general, bitters and vermouth products are strong in the non-alcoholic segment.
Non-alcoholic drinks are now also a relevant factor in specialised cocktail bars, especially those that not only serve classics but also have their own creations on the menu. And there are also recipe books for non-alcoholic drinks for the passionate home bar mixer. Franz Brandl, for example, whose classic recipe book I recently recommended as a Christmas present, has a completely alcohol-free version. If you really want to develop your own drinks from scratch, «Der Geschmacksthesaurus» (of which there is now even a second volume), which I also recommend there as a source of inspiration for combinations that work,
Fizzy and frothy
Because I have come to know Peter Jauch as an author and expert on champagne, I naturally want to know from him what the situation is with non-alcoholic sparkling wine substitutes. After all, toasting is one of the festivities of the coming week, at the latest at the turn of the year. «First of all, only products containing alcohol can be labelled as champagne», explains Jauch. And as with spirits, he is not particularly enthusiastic about sparkling wine products that try to imitate an alcoholic original more or less one-to-one. «I find carbonated juices much more interesting than dealcoholised wines.» Although here, too, the exceptions prove the rule.
A more recent development in the field of sparkling drinks is sparkling teas, as Peter Jauch tells me. As the name suggests, these are frothy tea-based drinks. They tend to have a bitter to sour flavour and are therefore closer to a semi-dry or dry sparkling wine. Depending on the other ingredients, fruity or herbal notes can be added. Various ingredients are blended during production, some of which are also fermented.
Champagne + Prosecco
CHF16.90 CHF22.53/1l
Lily Charly - Non-alcoholic Premium Sparkling Tea / Wine Proxy
1 x 75 cl
The perfect accompaniment to any menu
What particularly interests me personally about all these products and ideas is the creative possibilities they offer in terms of food pairing. Something that Peter Jauch also regularly does together with restaurateurs and chefs: dinner events where he puts together a non-alcoholic beverage accompaniment to multi-course menus. I myself have already experienced several times in high-end gastronomy that drinks created by chefs and bartenders make extremely interesting and suitable accompaniments to individual courses - teas, kombuchas, mocktails, infusions. This opens up an enormously diverse playing field for ambitious amateur chefs and bartenders.
Non-alcoholic enjoyment is evolving from a trend to normal drinking behaviour. There have long been delicious drinks for every occasion: after-work beers, aperitifs, meals, digestifs and New Year's toasts. Only one thing is missing: the hangover the next morning.
Header image: Oliver Fischer
Oliver Fischer
Teamleader Editorial
Oliver.Fischer@digitecgalaxus.chGlobetrotter, hiker, wok world champion (not in the ice channel), word acrobat and photo enthusiast.
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