Holiday gift guide: Non-alcoholic drinks

Each year, I attempt to collect as many good and unique things for the holiday table or for your gourmand friends as gifts. This year, I’ve added non-alcoholic beverages that I think are first-rate. These products also lend themselves to being mixed with alcohol, but are terrific on their own.

Cha Yi Tea House

I first met Cha Yi owner Daniel Tremblay at his shop on Eddy St. in Old Hull in 2018. At the tail end of COVID, he made the hard decision to close his storefront. Like so many businesses, he struggled to find employees.

He and his life partner, Véronique Caron-Bossé, carried on and now operate the business as an online shop. Lucky us.

Having lived in Vancouver and Toronto, I’ve shopped at some proper tea stores but I don’t know that I’ve had tea as fine as what Tremblay offers. His Earl Grey is the best example I’ve had, and I won’t drink any other interpretation. They just don’t measure up.

He also offers four different takes on Chai and more than 100 teas from Quebec to Japan and ports in-between. 

Tremblay has travelled extensively throughout Asia and his knowledge is encyclopedic. You may therefore want to consider taking one or more of his 13 courses on tea. Bring some friends as a Christmas gift to yourself and others. You may even book private groups. Inquire ahead for a schedule and which are offered in French or English.

La Presserie

The low and no alcohol movement is in full swing and no longer just confined to Dry January. You now can’t run a restaurant without offering a selection of mocktails or zero alcohol wines and beers. That’s as it should be.

Why? People are no longer content with sodas as an option when dining. Besides, the more these products gain in popularity, the more they will come to market and the better they will be over time.

La Presserie Strawberry Daiquiri is a versatile mixer made from cold-pressed juice. It’s a clean-label product that can be used with rum as a Daiquiri or simply mixed with soda for a refreshing long drink. 

If you’re so inclined, don’t limit yourself and have it with sparkling wine as a fun way to start holiday entertaining.

La Presserie also makes a Paloma mixer, and they’ve just added a Mulled Cider for the winter weather. This is delicious stuff and available at LCBO stores.

3/4 oz. cocktail Syrups

Here the no alcohol cocktail takes a sharp turn into postprandial territory. Think of these 3/4 oz. syrups as digestive amaros. They have the same slight bitterness as their alcoholic counterparts and as such, they encourage slower sipping.

Of course they work well with spirits but I enjoyed these with just a little sparkling water. 

The Old Fashioned is a bitter orange base that is recommended for brown spirits and it was delicious with a modest blended whisky like Cutty Sark.

Vermillion is a cherry/pomegranate blend better suited to white spirits and with just a bit of bubbly water, I could imagine this becoming a regular post-dinner drink. This is a first-rate product but they may want to consider making larger bottles.

This, and other 3/4 oz. products are available at the LCBO.

Barbet

Barbet sodas from Toronto are doing two things simultaneously. The first is showing that you can make a delicious, characterful soda with just 6 grams of sugar. And two, that said soda also works, if you so choose, as a mixer with spirits. 

Three of their products — Wild Card, Love Bite, Light Wave — are readily available at the LCBO and are so unique that they invite you to play around with spirit pairings. But I like these sodas unadulterated. They’re super-clean with profiles a little mysterious, but uplifting.

Wild Card, for example, is a blend of blood orange, calamansi lime and jalapeno. No flavour dominates but the whole makes for a drink you never knew you wanted to taste. Now you want it again.