This booze-free spritz is one of Max Allen’s top summer drinks

One of my favourite summer drinks has been a spritz made using the new Australian aperitivo, Etota. Modelled loosely on the classic Italian bittersweet aperitif (think Campari but more rustic), it’s a blend of fragrant, astringent, fruity and savoury ingredients such as rhubarb, gentian, grapefruit and rooibos. It’s delicious (and looks great) mixed with soda, over lots of ice with a slice of blood orange or ruby grapefruit. Oh, and it contains zero alcohol.

Now, coming from a booze writer, this enthusiasm might sound a bit surprising. But it’s worth acknowledging that the no-lo (no- and low-alcohol) drinks market is maturing: the best producers aren’t just jumping on the bandwagon and releasing alcohol-free versions of the “real thing”, they’re working hard to create new standalone products that taste great regardless of whether they contain alcohol.

When Byron Bay-based marketer Kate Forrester started developing Etota in 2021, she felt there was a gap in the market for a drink that had a good shelf life, that looked striking, and, importantly, didn’t taste watered down. “I worked with a food scientist and a couple of bartenders from Melbourne on the recipe,” she says. “We did research on what was happening overseas, and there was a lot of talk in mixology circles about mouthfeel in drinks. So, we worked hard on that.”

The team’s production method steeps each of the drink’s 15 botanicals in neutral cane spirit before the alcohol is removed. The resulting concentrated essences are blended, with a touch of grape juice for sweetness and an organic preservative derived from mushrooms for stability.

The result is a wonderfully “grown up” drink that doesn’t shy away from having a properly savoury, bitter flavour profile. “That was the whole focus,” says Forrester. “There are very few non-alc drinks out there that don’t taste like lolly water.”

When I ask which others she does rate, Forrester raves about T.I.N.A, a Melbourne-based brand of carbonated, tea-based drinks (it stands for This Is Not Alcohol). “I’m addicted to T.I.N.A,” she says. “I buy cases of the stuff at a time.”

“It’s true,” laughs Imogen Hayes, who co-founded T.I.N.A with her cousin, coffee roaster and tea importer Chrissie Trabucco, in 2021. “Kate is one of our biggest customers online.” Hayes, who has a background in the wine business, says she and Trabucco wanted to create something new, not replicate an existing alcoholic style.

“But we did approach it through a wine lens,” she says. “In the sense that we wanted to make something that had a good balance of acid and tannin, that had structure, and wasn’t too sweet. There were already plenty of sweet non-alc beverages out there.”