Non-Boozy Alternatives To Champagne On NYE

Perhaps more than any other occasion, celebrating New Year's Eve calls for popping bottles and pouring bubbles, most often in the form of Champagne. It's a given that NYE parties include a few bottles to help partiers blast off into the new year. But for those who choose to skip the cork-popping, forgo the booze, and opt for a spirit-free celebration instead, there's a world of clean cocktails and party potables that are sure to keep the good times flowing.

Maybe you're trying to get a head start on Dry January and need some nonalcoholic cocktails to indulge in. Or perhaps you've embraced the zero-proof movement, a sensation that's growing in popularity — even in the bar business. Even if you're throwing a family-friendly party with younger revelers who aren't old enough to imbibe, you can create a beautiful barscape without a drop of alcohol. These drinks may be dry, but they're full of fizz and fabulous flavor. Some are even crafted from botanicals and natural ingredients for mindful mocktails to close out the old year and ring in the new. Amateur mixologists of the non-boozy persuasion, rejoice; your zero-proof drink options are nigh!

Seedlip is a zero-proof beverage company offering nonalcoholic analogs of familiar spirits. Think of this trio of bottles as herbaceous- and botanical-flavored bases that can stand in for gin, whiskey, and rum for mixing into cocktails. They're liquor-like drinks that leave out the buzz while tossing in a sophisticated flavor profile anyone can enjoy. The English company creating these thoughtful concoctions is an early adopter of alcohol-free spirits. Its purpose is to create unique beverages that don't simply replace existing spirits, but instead offer a distinctive drink experience without the need for alcohol.

Seedlip's offerings include Spice 94, with a combination of warm cardamom, citrus, and allspice; Grove 42, with bright citrus, lemongrass and ginger; and Garden 108, with herbal spearmint, thyme, and rosemary mingling with hops and hay essences. You can experiment with cocktails proposed by Seedlip to make the best use of its creations or give your favorite mixtures a non-boozy makeover to spruce up your New Year's Eve reveling without dialing down the upscale glamour. Seedlip bottles also sip nicely on their own, or with a splash of soda to add an effervescent kick.

If sugary-sweet fun is an ingredient you can't do without, juice sodas are a must in your New Year's Eve drink rotation. These juicy bubblers exceed everyday bottled and canned beverages to bring a touch of fruity freshness while keeping the fizzy sizzle turned up to eleven. The simplest way to create your own juice sodas is to add a spoonful of fresh juice or frozen juice concentrate to a glass of bubbly water and top with fresh berries or a sprig of mint for garnish. Ambitious hosts can craft homemade syrups from recipes like those The Flavor Bender offers to add gourmet flair. Seltzer water is the best option for carbonations. Unlike tonic water and club soda which include additives that can compete with the flavor of your add-ins, seltzer contains only water and carbon dioxide for a refreshing sparkle that lets the fruit flavor shine through.

If cans are more your New Year's Eve speed, you can always pick up a few packs of Izze, with intriguing flavors like clementine and apple, or Olipop, a sparkling tonic in traditional options like cherry cola and cream soda, flavors it achieves through creative botanicals.

Herbal sodas are upscale takes on soft drinks using natural fermentation to attain their playful fizz. With a combination of yeast, botanicals, and herbs, plus a bit of citrus juice and organic sugar, you can craft your own homemade herbal sodas to serve your guests the freshest bubbly beverages possible. These drinks are a bit of a process and require a few days to become fully carbonated, so plan ahead to be sure they're ready for your party. If you're willing to give it a go, some kitchen science creativity is all it takes to give you natural, alcohol-free drinks to fascinate and satisfy your guests.

With pre-canned drinks in a variety of cocktail and spirit-inspired flavors, soft drink artisans Fresh Fizz Sodas offers its own ready-to-pour take on herbal sodas. These canned beverages are ready to party when you are, providing a blend of herbs and spices, juices, and carbonated water sweetened with honey. Tantalizing flavor combinations like jalapeño lemonade and hibiscus ginger ale turn these pre-made herbal sodas into sparkling drinks special enough to celebrate the coming of a new year with no fear of a hangover waiting on the other side.

The Monday company has staked its claim in the zero alcohol spirit game with a collection of nonalcoholic spirit stand-ins that elevate a New Year's Eve toast to even greater heights. With dry versions of gin, mezcal, and whiskey, Monday beverages let you concoct artisan adult creations with all the fun and flavor of familiar boozy drinks, minus the boozy part. From simple sips like gin and tonic or whiskey and water to more complex glasses like sloe gin fizz and mezcal margaritas, you can replace the alcoholic spirits with Monday spirits at a one-to-one ratio.

Monday offers helpful drink recipes to make the most of its liquorless liquors. But bartenders who create beverages from memory can simply stock their bars with a few bottles and work their magic without second-guessing. The Monday website also lets mixologists select aspects like flavor elements and level of difficulty. This will grant New Year's Eve drink-makers of all skill sets an easy time when mixing convincing zero-proof cocktails for the celebrating set. And for anyone looking to start their resolutions early, Monday also boasts zero calories, per its FAQs page ... which means the drinks can be enjoyed with zero guilt!

Adding Ritual's line of zero-proof liquors makes it easy to recreate your favorite cocktails for your New Year's Eve celebration. With tequila, rum, gin, and whisky in the collection, Ritual offers a full suite of distilled drinks without alcohol to muddy the muddle. The magic of these liquor replacements is the careful composition of flavor components to capture the true essences of the spirits each bottle is based on. The results allow you to modernize your bar cart with alcohol-free bases that blend nicely into the wide world of craft cocktails. Though reviewers at Spy have called out the noticeable difference in flavors when compared to actual spirits, if you're on the search for a suitable replacement that lets you get your traditional bartending on without booze, Ritual will give you what you're looking for.

You can tap into Ritual's handy mixology guide to ensure a successful mix of your guests' favorite cocktails, all made as zero-proof facsimiles. This makes reproducing traditional year-end treats like eggnog and spiked hot chocolate an easy task. Or head off the holiday path and choose recipes by spirit type to create festive tiki drinks, tequila specialties, gin favorites, and warming whisky options.

Few fizzy drinks offer the incredible health benefits of kombucha. This tart tea-like beverage has been around for centuries, finding trendy popularity in modern times as a healthful alternative to carbonated sodas and traditional teas. Modern beverage crafters began creating kombucha at home, utilizing a base called SCOBY (short for "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast") that takes several weeks to develop. The tea ferments over another few weeks, which may produce a higher-than-desired alcohol content in the resulting beverage, thanks to the fermentation process. If you're planning on making your own kombucha for your New Year's Eve celebration, be prepared to get an early start and follow a process that reduces the alcohol content as much as possible.

It's much easier to provide bottled or canned kombucha to whet the whistle of your happy revelers. There's still a hierarchy to pre-made kombuchas, something to be aware of when shopping for your New Year's Eve party. As with homemade versions, commercial kombuchas can contain small amounts of alcohol as a result of fermentation, which may determine the brand you go with. Be sure to read the label and choose your kombucha accordingly so you can party with non-boozy confidence.

A spritzer is nothing more than a bubbly drink, and though wine spritzers have become an increasingly popular order, nonalcoholic spritzers are simple substitutes that are easy to create. Recipes for spritzers read like cocktails minus liquor or wine, resulting in a crisp beverage with a clean, lightly sweet flavor profile. Juice spritzers can be made less sugary than fruit sodas, providing a more sophisticated drink for New Year's Eve party people to enjoy. These homemade sparklers let you control the flavors as well as the sweetness, so you can create a crisp drink experience that leans toward the drier side or a more sugary sip to hit the sweet spot.

If your celebration is functioning without a bartender in attendance, you can easily set up a spritzer station for guests to create their own. Include a selection of juices, a few bottles of club soda, and a liquid sweetener like agave that lets each drinker concoct their own take on a spritzer to satisfy their individual tastes. For added New Year's Eve opulence, you can include food-safe edible flowers as garnishes.

Your easiest option for a non-boozy New Year's Eve beverage is sparkling cider. Bottles like the ones produced by Martinelli's offer bubbles like champagne in a pour that includes nothing more than fruit juice and carbonation. The bottle top even pops to recreate the champagne experience! You can find an array of flavors, including apple, apple-cranberry, and grape. Welch's offers sparkling juices that emulate wines like rosé and sangria for a juice blend that brings to mind a more complex beverage. It's not wrong to have a few fresh bottles on hand to break out for a special toast when midnight arrives.

If you prefer a homemade version of sparkling cider, you can create a copycat recipe using fruit juices and lemon-lime soda to capture the same sense of fun and frivolity as a bottle off the shelf. Beware of the sugar content in these beverages, whichever version you choose. Though they don't contain alcohol, sparkling ciders can contain more than 30 grams of sugar per serving. Ciders call for mindful indulgence as much as boozy beverages would, especially for anyone watching their sugar intake.

When you remove the alcohol, cocktails are really just a blend of mixers, juices, and other flavorings. This may be why the craft mocktail movement has gained momentum. Preparing drinks with the same careful artistry as an alcoholic cocktail but without the liquor is a culinary skill teetotaling mixologists and drinkers can get on board with, especially for momentous occasions like New Year's Eve. Holiday mocktails capture the extra-festive spirit of winter celebrations, while some mocktail recipes boast healthful properties that can start your new year off with a blast of nutrition. For anyone hoping to play bartender while leaving the spirits behind the bar, mocktails are a tempting compromise that plays up the excitement of bar craft for both the mixer and the drinker.

If you're not quite committed to concocting your own, there are canned mocktails like Fauxmosa on the market, which makes it easier to offer drinks without throwing on an apron and playing master mixologist. These prepared potables bring the same mocktail fun to the party but with none of the work and less than a fraction of the gourmet bartending elements you would need to create bespoke drinks for your friends and family.

For an icy twist on a non-boozy drink, try serving juice slushes for a fun New Year's Eve treat. Simply freeze fruit juices in your favorite combinations and slush the results in a blender or food processor. An apple cider slush can keep the holiday flavors on the tongue with a chilly blast that keeps revelers awake until the clock strikes midnight. If your crowd is mixed-age, you can concoct slushes for the kids with club soda and juice or drink mixes like Kool-Aid, plus enough sugar to properly sweeten the slush. 

It's a playful way to add something different to your lineup while entertaining your guests with a familiar favorite. A few slush selections among the other non-boozy offerings might even make your New Year's Eve party the talk of the neighborhood. To create a grown-up version of juice slushes that leaves out the alcohol, try using more exotic juice combinations like citrus and pineapple. And of course, margarita flavors lend deliciously to frozen treat-style drinks, even without the tequila or mezcal. There's no cooler, sweeter way to ring in the new year.  

Maybe the simplest way to add non-boozy fizz to your New Year's Eve party biz is to include a selection of sparkling waters and seltzers. Brands like LaCroix and Spindrift have become a staple in the gourmet drink market. These fizzy favorites are a healthier option than sugary sodas and provide lightly flavored refreshments that can be enhanced with a drop or two of fruit juice if necessary. If you go with LaCroix, choose your flavors wisely, as not all options lend themselves equally to enjoyment.

Since there is a difference between sparkling water and seltzer that connoisseurs and water snobs are sure to point out, having a few of each on hand will please aficionados in each camp. Unflavored sparkling water options like San Pellegrino and Topo Chico can be elevated with a twist of citrus served over ice for a clear, crisp drink experience that brings in the bubbles while omitting the booze. When poured into champagne flutes and served with a tasteful garnish, these carbonated quaffs can be every bit as opulent as their alcoholic counterparts.

Mulling is a beverage preparation technique in which wines and other fruit-based liquids are heated and infused with warm spices, creating a distinct flavor profile commonly found in holiday drinks. Mulled drinks have been enjoyed for centuries, and over time became associated with wintertime. The warm liquid and spices are a comfort in cold weather, which makes mulled drinks, and mulled wine in particular, an ideal option for end-of-year celebrations.

The mulling process is traditionally applied to wine, but you can blend your own mulling spices for alcohol-free mulled juices that make New Year's Eve a soothing occasion filled with flavor. Welch's grape juice is an obvious replacement for wine in a non-boozy mulling beverage. Boiling the juice with a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel will create an all-ages mulled juice that captures the sweet, spicy spirit of the season for everyone to partake in. Have a warm glass on hand when the ball drops.

Not to be confused with alcoholic ciders, a non-boozy cider is simply a combination of juice and spices. The most familiar cider is apple cider, which utilizes unfiltered apple juice and cinnamon, as well as other spices. Though cider is generally made from apple or pear juice, citrus ciders can introduce orange and lemon flavors for a more complex profile. Unlike mulled juices, a similarly prepared beverage, ciders can be enjoyed either warm or cold. If you opt for warm cider, you can make a batch in a Crock Pot or Instant Pot and allow guests to dip in with a ladle whenever they need a refill.

The fun side of cider is that it can be dressed up like a dessert drink to make the party even more festive! A spoonful of caramel sauce, a few slices of fresh fruit, or a crown of whipped cream can add a gourmet touch that turns a simple cider pot into a drink station where partygoers can create their own take on a sweet year-end treat.

The continually expanding interest in non-alcoholic beverages has sparked the growth of the non-alcoholic wine category. Keep in mind that these wines are different from wine alternatives. Non-alcoholic wines are regular wines with the alcohol removed; wine alternatives are made entirely differently, but the result is somewhat similar. According to Wine Business and 2022 NielsenIQ data, although non-alcoholized beer is by far the winner in market share size, the non-alcoholic wine industry now takes up 13% of the sector (compared to beer's 85% and spirits' 1%). The publication also noted that more traditional wineries are dipping their toes into the non-alcoholic space, resulting in an improvement in the overall quality of these beverages.

This means there are plenty of options if you prefer a glass of chardonnay or merlot over the holiday season but don't want to deal with any alcohol-associated side effects the next morning. Non-alcoholic wines are available in a range of grape varieties, with something for every taste — and yes, you can even get non-alcoholic sparkling wine that tastes just like the real thing, minus the booze. Having trouble picking among all the options? The Noughty brand is growing in popularity and offers several sparkling and still non-alcoholic options perfect for NYE.

You don't have to spring for a non-alcoholic bottle of bubbly to get a kick of effervescence and flavor (especially if you don't like the thought of paying almost the same price for a non-alcoholic wine as what you'd pay for the real deal, which is often the case). Mock champagne is the solution and you can make it at home.

While there are myriad recipes for mock champagne, they all contain the same base ingredients: ginger ale and white grape juice or white grape juice concentrate. Some recipes tell you to combine the juice and ale in equal parts; however, if you're using the concentrate, ease up and use a ratio of one-to-three or one-to-two of concentrate to ginger ale. 

Once you chill the mixture it's ready to serve, but don't just serve it plain — get a little fancy (it is NYE, after all). Garnish your drinks with frozen berries or edible flowers. Don't care for the flavor of grape juice? You can also make this recipe with apple juice or add splashes of other juices to reach your preferred flavor. Pineapple or orange juice are great alternatives, and if you add cranberry juice, you'll give your "champagne" a fun, pink hue.

Looking for a bubbly beer alternative that not only tastes great but also makes you feel great? Enter the New Year with a head start on your health goals, with Hop Wtr, a brand that takes the hops base you likely associate with beer, and gives it a healthy spin by keeping the alcohol out and adding adaptogens and nootropics. Just like an IPA, the flavors are hoppy and citrusy, and just like water, it contains no calories and no carbs. Unlike with other non-alcoholic beverages, the adaptogens and nootropics in these drinks mean that you may just feel something a little buzzworthy after imbibing.

If you're unfamiliar with adaptogens and nootropics, the brand's FAQs page explains that these ingredients include a mix of herbs, minerals, and supplements that enhance your body's performance. Adaptogens help reduce stress (Hop Wtr uses ashwagandha) and nootropics increase brain function (Hop Wtr includes L-Theanine). The brand further notes that everyone reacts to these ingredients differently, but overall you can expect a positive experience.