Non-Alcoholic Mixer Seedlip Debuts Cocktail Book

As Dry January gains in popularity each year, no-proof drinking is poised to move from a once-a-year ritual to a year-round balanced approach to alcohol. Around 10% of British drinkers planned to abstain this month, according to Alcohol Change UK, the non-profit behind Dry January.

At the head of the no-proof movement is Seedlip, the first and most well-known of the emerging non-alcoholic products. First launched in London in 2015, the brand was quickly embraced by the U.K. bar community. The brand arrived stateside in 2017, where it began appearing on cocktail menus across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Seedlip has just debuted its first cocktail book, featuring 100 recipes from bartenders around the world, including PDT’s Jim Meehan and The Dead Rabbit’s Jack McGarry.

“There's not a lot of words in the book,” Seedlip founder Ben Branson said at the Manhattan book launch party, held last week at the Orchard Room. “This isn’t a coffee table, where you have a little flip and then never look at it.

“This is a rip pages out, put Post-Its in it, write on it,” he adds. “Bend pages. Get your hands dirty, make drinks and use it.”

Drinks you can make at home include the “Pais de Canela” from Blacktail’s Aidan Bowie. This cocktail features a mix of Seedlip Spice 94, a celery root and cinnamon cordial, cider spice noir tea, and apple cider vinegar, served with a grapefruit garnish.

The Walker Inn’s Devon Tarby’s “Souverain” is decadent swirl of Seedlip Spice 94, verjus, fresh lemon juice, spiced peach cordial and ginger syrup. There’s also the “Winter Shandy,” created by Trick Dog’s Josh Harris, made with Seedlip Spice 94, a spiced apricot ceylon shrub, lemon juice, sugar syrup and non-alcoholic beer.

Seedlip’s cocktail book launches during the time of the year that a lot of people try to drink less, or stop entirely. But as Seedlip’s Ben Branson notes, Dry January can be just the start of a new approach to balanced drinking and socializing. “I really hope Dry January doesn’t exist in the future,” he says. “We shouldn’t need Dry January in all fairness. All we’re looking to do is offer choice.”

“It’s a really important month at the moment,” Branson says of Dry January, and of launching the book this month. But as more people get tuned into a moderate approach to drinking, Branson hopes that no-proof drinking becomes a part of, not a just a novelty, of the drinking landscape.

“I don’t think we need it in the future,” he says. “I don’t care if you’re drinking or not. It should not even be in the conversation.”