What mixer should I use with my alcohol-free spirit?

The world of alcohol-free spirits is growing fast, with new drinks appearing weekly, if not daily. Some of the new non-alcoholic drinks are very different from their alcoholic counterparts, so it may be difficult to know how best to serve them. We try to provide some help in this article, with expert help from Double Dutch, producers of premium mixers and tonics. Double Dutch was founded by twin sisters Joyce and Raissa de Haas (yes, they are Dutch too!) in London and has won many awards for the quality of their drinks. They are widely available in the UK, and also sold online in the EU and a few other countries.

Types of drink mixers

The four most commonly used types of mixers are tonic, ginger ale/ginger beer, cola, and lemonades. Tonic water, sometimes also called Indian tonic, gets its bitter taste from quinine. Quinine has been used as a medicine against the tropical disease malaria. You can buy unflavoured tonic, low calorie versions, and nowadays also many flavoured variations.

Ginger ale is a light, carbonated, clean drink made with ginger and water. Ginger beer is brewed and fermented, which makes it more spicy with more heat and ginger flavour than ginger ale. Mass produced cola drinks are amongst the most popular drinks on earth, but for a mixer for your alcohol-free spirit you may want to look for better quality brands. We are big fans of Square Root cola for example. And lemonades and other soft drinks come in an infinite variety.

Choosing a mixer for a non-alcoholic spirit

So how to go about choosing a mixer for your alcohol-free spirit? Sometimes just thinking about the alcoholic alternative may be helpful, especially for alcohol-free drinks that mimic a full strength one (for example rums, gins, and vodkas). There may be a classic mixer you can use for your alcohol-free spirit as well – gin with tonic is perhaps the example most of us would think of first.

A more difficult – and interesting – question is what to mix with a non-alcoholic drink that doesn’t resemble any existing alcoholic drink. And these types of drinks are becoming more common as producers experiment with new flavours and production methods. A good starting point is to consider the flavours and ingredients of your drink, and try to match your mixer to them. Feel free to experiment and try different combinations of drinks! And don’t forget that most drink producers have suggested serves on their websites, so it’s worth checking what they recommend too.

To help you get started, we have listed below the suggestions from Double Dutch for all the spirits for sale in our alcohol-free pop-up shop in London.

Pairing an alcohol-free spirit with a mixer

The table below lists, first in the left-hand column, in alphabetical order 64 alcohol-free spirits. The second column has the suggested Double Dutch mixer (or mixers, for some drinks we have more than one recommendation).

Pairing a mixer with an alcohol-free spirit

Our second table works the opposite the way: for each mixer type in the first column, we list the matching alcohol-free spirits in the second column.