Buying lists
Best Non-Alcoholic Spirits & Aperitifs
Most of these were built as spirit alternatives. A few had alcohol removed from a spirit. The score is the glass. The method is a separate fact.
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The ranking
Our top 9
Highest score first, from 9 tasted non-alcoholic spirits. Tied scores list the more recent tasting first.
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Rank 1
85/100
Standout
Caramel, vanilla, carpenter’s-shop oak — soft and oak-driven; short vanilla finish with wood-tea tannin. Cocktail pour.
Rank 2
84/100
Toffee and toasted oak, then cocoa — round and oaked without burn, medium dessert-like finish with real length left.
Rank 3
82/100
Real cane weight for a nonalcoholic rum — raisin and tropical fruit into caramel and light oak, with a peppery warm-spice close. Built for mixing, not a neat sip that pretends toward high-proof burn.
Rank 4
82/100
Blood orange, ruby grapefruit, and candied cherry with pith — a sweet-bitter mixer, not a sipping amaro.
Rank 5
82/100
Cooked agave, oak, and vanilla — reposado signature present; smooth exit with the agave trailing gently.
Rank 6
Rank 7
80/100
Bittersweet aperitivo — bitter orange and botanicals, softer than Campari, clean and pleasantly bitter at the close.
Rank 8
78/100
Bitter-orange peel and gentian over ice — the Spritz bitter, refreshingly bitter through the close.
Rank 9
78/100
Agave sweetness, lime lift, and faint jalapeño warmth — clean finish, useful 1:1 in a margarita, not a sipping spirit.
Keep exploring the cellar
Browse all 9 tasted bottlesWays to shop this list Pick by preference
The highest-scoring tasted bottle that meets each preference.
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0.0%
Sober Spirits W 0.0% Whisky
84/100
0.0% ABV
Toffee and toasted oak, then cocoa — round and oaked without burn, medium dessert-like finish with real length left.
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Dealcoholized
Spiritless Kentucky 74
85/100
0.5% ABV
Caramel, vanilla, carpenter’s-shop oak — soft and oak-driven; short vanilla finish with wood-tea tannin. Cocktail pour.
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Bitter aperitif
Lyre's Italian Orange
82/100
<0.5% ABV
Blood orange, ruby grapefruit, and candied cherry with pith — a sweet-bitter mixer, not a sipping amaro.
How these lists are chosen
What was evaluated
Ranked from 9 tasted spirits, highest score first. Research-only products are excluded. Updated September 2026.
Who qualifies
The same score follows the more recent tasting. A shortcut uses that order for one narrower question.
What the score is rewarding
A recognizable spirit shape you would sip or mix. The method stays a separate line from the score.
What tends to go wrong
Vanilla and oak standing in for whiskey. A price that is only the bottle.