How Else to Taste

Bruce Blosil: “It seems this conversation has been co-opted by drinkers and former drinkers”

Bruce Blosil blew my mind when he first shared with me what you’re about to read, and I’m embarrassed to admit that. It’s not embarrassing for anything having to do with Blosil, who is full of great ideas; it’s because this shouldn’t have felt provocative to me. I should have considered this before—but I didn't.  

A little context: A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Blosil is a lifelong abstainer. He grew up in the Bay Area, where he was exposed to great restaurants and local agriculture by his food-loving family, and he says he "started to desire that everything that I consumed, food or beverage, be of really good quality." 

Fast forward to 2014, Blosil founded Delmosa, my favorite resource for terroir-driven nonalcoholic drinks. “There was a smattering of interesting nonalcoholic beverages out there, but they were so difficult to find,” he tells me. His mission was to make it easier. All of Delmosa’s producers are “ground to bottle”: They grow their own fruits, which are usually native to their areas, controlling the process from beginning to end. “I like being connected deeply to a place,” says Blosil. 

Now, I’ll let him take it away… 

Most nonalcoholic beverage stories are published around Dry January, Sober October, or other mindful drinking events. There's just gobs of coverage now—this last January, there was more than I've ever seen—and I welcome it. I'm a champion of sobriety and wellness and removing the stigma from addiction, which is so long overdue, but while mindful drinking is an important part of the conversation, it's not the entire conversation.

Thirty-five percent of the American adult population doesn't drink. These people have no point of reference for terms like "long finish" or "gin-like." They're not looking for that "burn." 

I understand much of this terminology myself, but that's because I've been in the food and beverage industry and because I'm also fascinated by the techniques used to make alcoholic beverages despite being a non-drinker. I know how tequila is made, for example, because it's interesting to me, the way it's a reflection of Mexican culture and craft. You can't assume this of most non-drinkers, though.

So, I'm a bit irritated that the coverage of nonalcoholic beverages seems to focus on those looking for spirit substitutes or those looking for something similar to what they used to drink. It's a narrow view, that the benchmark for whether or not a nonalcoholic beverage is good or high-quality is whether or not it impresses the palates of drinkers, and it leaves out a good portion of the population.

Essentially, it seems this conversation has been co-opted by drinkers and former drinkers and they're the ones who are the taste-makers. And while I'm all in favor of some gin alternative having great success and people who want that gin alternative having their motivation met, I don't have any particular interest in drinking nonalcoholic gin and there are millions of others like me. We shouldn't assume that these people, who have never had a drink, are any less sophisticated because they're not interested in a sensory experience that's close to one you might get from alcohol. 

We shouldn’t assume they’re content with Diet Coke, either. Our whole food and beverage culture has been radically improved and elevated over the past few decades, and there are a lot of non-drinkers who, having been exposed to fine dining and superior ingredients, now have a taste for quality. What about evaluating nonalcoholic beverages on their own terms? What about thinking of them in a culinary context?

Also, some of the people writing these stories, their timelines only go back to the launch of Seedlip. A lot of delicious nonalcoholic beverages that go well with a meal have been around for a while. In the case of Jörg Geiger, he has been making nonalcoholic beverages that reflect the character and complexity of the apples and pears that grow near his home in Schlat, Germany, for 17 years. In other words, his beverages, which he called Priseccos, are terroir-driven; they are combinations of fruits, herbs, spices, and even the pressings of leaves and branches found in Schlat's unique ecosystem. 

So, I’d like to see the coverage expand and be more inclusive of people who don't drink at all. In fact, I'd like to see non-drinkers on these tasting panels. How many would be repulsed by these spirit alternatives? Convinced they haven’t been missing anything? Intrigued? Thrilled by the sensory experience and the new world of drinking pleasure open to them? These novel points of view would be enlightening and would contribute to our appreciation of what makes a great drink without relying on the vocabulary of alcohol. 

And I would love to see more product reviews in July.

Thank you, Bruce Blosil, for sharing this.

Readers, I hope you enjoyed this as well as Maggie Hoffman’s tasting notes yesterday. Tomorrow, we’ll learn how Wirecutter’s Anna Perling put together this list. (And please read my recent piece in The Washington Post if you haven’t already!)