Bartender, Give Me Your Strongest Low-Alcohol Cocktail
Low alcohol is hard to define, but it may be just what we need.
A mindful drinker walks into a bar––this isn’t a joke, though it well could be made into one––who has become newly aware of the need to moderate his drinking habits. He looks up at the bartender who is standing behind the bar polishing a glass with a damp towel, peering just above her glasses with the look of someone who has been asked every question before with the exception of the one this drinker is about to ask.
“What low-alcohol cocktails do you have?”
“What do you mean, low?” the bartender answers.
It’s a good question. Low is such an ambiguous word. You can be low-key, low-profile, and get the low-down. When they go high, you can always choose to go low, which for some is preferred. Being a low-life is not preferred but, really, how low can you go?
If we’re honest with ourselves, in any one of those contexts, the definition of low is vague at best. And, how much more vague, when low is in reference to something that probably should be measured precisely like low-alcohol cocktails? As, ultimately, any alcohol––even with low-alcohol cocktails––has a deleterious effect, and, should you go too far, the excuse of, “Officer, I was drinking low-alcohol cocktails” will likely be poorly received.
Sorites Paradox
The Greek philosopher Eubulides from the 4th century BCE, a contemporary of Aristotle, seemingly saw this day coming. As such, he invented a puzzle to explain the problem with vague predicates called the “Sorites Paradox,” or the problem of the heap.
The problem is as follows: if we have a heap of sand and there are 1,000 grains, and you take away one grain, is it still a heap? How about if you take away one hundred grains? Five hundred? At some point, you’ll have to say, “When.” But even then the point is still somewhat equivocal: why not one more?
Lower-ish
I watched a video posted on Instagram with Lynnette Marrero and celebrity, Jennifer Lopez, promoting their new ready-to-drink cocktail collaboration, Delola. Beneath the video, Marrero captioned it, “Delola cocktails are lower in proof ranging from 10.5% to 11.5% [alcohol by volume, or ABV].”
For a reminder, alcohol by volume or ABV is the amount of a liquid that is alcohol. It is usually represented as a percentage. When the word “proof” is used, it means double the ABV.
In the video, Lopez refers to Marrero as “the best bartender in the world,” and that, at least, is not very vague. In 2021, the World’s 50 Best Bars gave Marrero the “Alto’s Bartenders’ Bartender” award, amongst all the bartenders in the world. If anyone can answer the question, it would be her. But is the word “lower” any more precise than low? Lower than what? Therefore, I reached out to Marrero for clarification:
“Low-alcohol cocktails are sessionable drinks that fall below 15%-ish alcohol [by volume],” she added, “Basically at or lower than a glass of wine.”
That helps but there is that “ish” and wines can range from 7% to 24% ABV, the latter ABV is when wines are fortified with additional alcohol. It was a good approximation, and the equivalent of removing a few grains of sand, but there are a lot of grains to sort through to reach the final definition of low-alcohol cocktails.
When Spirits Are Low
Recently, I learned of low-alcohol spirits, which might seem oxymoronic. The very point of distillation for some is to increase the alcohol content. However, spirits like BODY Vodka and Sommarøy Spirits are changing that perception and producing classic spirits with less alcohol than their predecessors. Perhaps they have the answer.
For instance, BODY Vodka is 30% ABV, which is 25% less alcohol than most standard vodkas. BODY Vodka’s head of growth, Jazmin Gac, argues, “...[that] means being able to stay out longer with your friends and enjoy more of your favorite cocktails.” At least 25% longer, of course.
Sommarøy Spirits, who created both a low-alcohol vodka and low-alcohol gin, came very close to the same answer as BODY. Co-founder Jimmy Cosma says, “The obvious answer is anything lower than traditional 80 proof or higher (40% ABV),” but he doesn’t stop there, “However, I believe it should be anything greater than 20% less than the standard proof/ABV, in order for it to have a meaningful impact (or lack thereof).”
Twenty or twenty-five percent seem like shots in the dark (no pun intended) but certainly constitutes low alcohol when mixed in cocktails. A Moscow Mule with vodka comes in at 8.9% ABV with a standard vodka, 6.7% ABV for BODY Vodka, and 6.1% ABV for Sommarøy Vodka, according to this ABV calculator I created with Maggie Hoffman for Epicurious.
Halfsies
The founders of a line of non-alcoholic spirits, Spiritless (who I used to work with), came up with an idea to make any drink lower alcohol, halfsies. Add half a non-alcoholic spirit––such as Spiritless’ Kentucky 74, a non-alcoholic distilled spirit that technically comes in at .5% alcohol––and half standard Bourbon at 40% ABV. That’s instantly half the alcohol.
It turns out half isn’t half bad. This appears to be one of the standards used by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. In this case, for beer and malt beverages, where the alcohol content cannot exceed 2.5% ABV if it’s labeled “low-alcohol.” Two and a half is the percentage of beer that constitutes half a standard drink, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Dinah Sanders, author of The Art of the Shim: Low Alcohol Cocktails to Keep You Level, comes to a similar conclusion in her book. She has dubbed low-alcohol cocktails, shims, and defines them as such:
A shim is a strong cocktail containing no more than half of an ounce of strong spirits––those of 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) or above.
She notes that this includes many of our favorite brunch or daytime beverages from the mimosa to a white wine spritzer.
Paradox of the Pour
But if you take half of a standard drink from 1.5 ounces to .75 ounces without dilution it’s still 40% ABV. Half of that half without dilution is also 40% ABV. However, pour a highball with 4 ounces of club soda and 1.5 ounces of alcohol, factoring in dilution, it’s 9.1% ABV.
That should rightfully be confusing. Let’s call it the paradox of the pour: you can have less alcohol by volume and still have a higher alcohol content percentage. Because volume is the critical component of the formula for ABV–– alcohol by volume. Volume is the amount of liquid. But it’s not just a mathematical equation at the end of the day, is it? What really matters is how alcohol affects us.
We generally have an instinctual understanding whether something may be a little or a lot. Despite our propensity to cross the boundary, we’re all aware that even one or two drinks can create a change within us, even when we’re not stumbling drunk.
Grab Your Calculators, It’s Time to Drink
In that way, low alcohol is a relative concept but only because the factors that affect its reception are somewhat unique to each person. But it’s still a reasonable marker because sipping low-alcohol drinks is bound to have a better outcome than pounding shots of overproof spirits, ounce for ounce. Depending, of course, on what you want that outcome to be.
Ultimately, I’m not sure I’ve done much more than the poor sap who removed grain after grain of sand at the behest of Eubulides (this didn’t literally happen, for the record). Low is still ambiguous, and we’re left a heap of vagueness. The bartender to which this question is posed has every right to respond, what do you mean?
Nevertheless, one begets the other, and knowing the ABV can help determine how much you intend to drink. While knowing you can help determine how much volume to drink.
And so we return to our erstwhile mindful drinker who, after the bartender’s query, pulls out his phone––selecting the calculator function––stares at the screen and, as quickly, puts it back in his pocket.
“Never mind, I’ll just have a beer.”
Learn more about how to make low-alcohol cocktails with my three-part course starting June 22nd with Atlas Obscura, Session Cocktails: Low Alcohol Mixology with Derek Brown.
Otherwise, try the two low-alcohol cocktails below from my book, “Mindful Mixology: A Comprehensive Guide to No- and Low-Alcohol Cocktails.”
Hemingway Lookalike 6% ABV
One Serving/ 5.5-7.5 ounce Coupe or Cocktail Glass
2 ounces Fresh Grapefruit Juice
½ ounce Fresh Lime Juice
½ ounce Maraschino Liqueur
1 dash Citrus Bitters
2 ounces Sparkling Wine
Grapefruit Peel for Garnish
Combine the juices, liqueur, and bitters in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain the liquid into a chilled glass, top with sparkling wine, and garnish with grapefruit peel.
Tinsy Ginsy 13% ABV
One Serving/ 5.5-7.5 ounce Coupe or Cocktail Glass
2 ¼ ounce Dry Vermouth
½ ounce London Dry Gin
1 dash Orange Bitters
Lemon Peel for Garnish
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain the liquid into a chilled glass and garnish with lemon peel.
Derek Brown is an author, NASM-certified wellness coach, and founder of Positive Damage, Inc.
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