MINDFULNESS

THE WORLD ACCEPTS THAT LIFE AS WE KNOW IT HAS FOREVER BEEN CHANGED BY THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. IN SOUTH AFRICA, ONCE CONSUMERS HAD EXHAUSTED THEIR STOCKS OF BEER, WINE AND SPIRITS THE LOCKDOWN HAD PEOPLE LOOKING TO ALTERNATIVES. FIONA MCDONALD REPORTS.

First there was Movember. Then there was Ocsober and finally Dry January.

While Movember had men stashing their razors for a month and cultivating facial hair to highlight awareness of men’s health issues, Ocsober never really took off quite the way that Dry January did. The reason for January resonating with the great drinking public as a good idea to practice a period of alcohol abstinence was possibly a reaction to the excesses of the festive season.

Although it seems so long ago, there was a distinct trend – or at least a growing awareness of Dry January in 2020. Just how many South Africans will be as eager to voluntarily engage in 2021 remains to be seen but there’s no doubt that as a result of the ban on liquor sales during lockdown, people are far more aware of the non-alcoholic options available on the market.

According to statistics, the World Health Organisation has estimated South Africa’s consumption of liquor at 11 litres per capita – but that figure more than doubles to 27 litres per person once the under 18 portion of the population is stripped out. South Africa occupies the number 19 spot in the world’s largest liquor consuming nations.

The first ever Mindful Drinking festival held at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town in October 2019 was an early portent of how swiftly the alternative drinks market is changing. It appears that people are no longer content to simply suck on a Heineken 0.0%, alcohol-free Savanna cider or a Castle Free beer.

What the Mindful Drinking festival highlighted is that there are a host of options available, including dealcoholised wine and alcohol-free spirits and distilled botanical spirits.

As the festival website states: “part of a global movement, mindful drinking is for people wishing to moderate their alcohol consumption and find healthy alternatives to drinking alcohol. It does not advocate an “all-or nothing” approach to alcohol but rather encourages you to think about your attitude to alcohol and provide you with new and exciting options.”

South Africa has a deplorable history of non-conformity with drink driving legislation – and the shocking statistics about the role that alcohol plays in the majority of vehicle crashes is just awful. Yet that appears to be changing. With the advent of ride sharing and lift services such as Uber, people have become far more compliant. There is a willingness to be the designated driver

and a greater acceptance of people partying without drinking. “Declining alcohol, or bringing a non-alcoholic alternative,” the Mindful Drinking website states, “is more likely to arouse curiosity or even admiration – even if it is bucking the very powerful social norm to consume alcohol.”

South Africa was not the only country to ban booze sales during lockdown. Thailand, India, Greenland, Panama, the Bahamas and certain states within Mexico did the same – all in an attempt to discourage socialising and potential gender-based violence.

Countries which kept the liquor pipeline open reported a noticeable uptick in online sales and home delivery, with the United States showing a 25% increase in wine sales alone during lockdown. Online liquor retailing is one of those areas of e-commerce which experts predict will be a game changer with peoples’ purchasing habits changing.

Locally, sales of the non-alcoholic premixed gin and tonic The Duchess, shot up by a whopping 150%. “It was substantial,” Johannes Le Roux, founder of The Duchess, told Business Insider.

The same article notes that Signal Hill Products, makers of Devil’s Peak’s non-alcoholic beer saw a significant surge in sales, while acknowledging that much of the demand would have been from consumers who would not have previously considered alcoholfree products prior to lockdown.

Marketing GM Elizanne Rauch said they’d seen a 350% increase in monthon-month sales for March and April. “We have seen a significant increase in demand for both our Devil’s Peak non-alcoholic variants Hero and Hero Twist of Citrus.”

With the traditional route-to-market for these products being liquor stores, the producers did a quick pivot since the alcohol-free products are allowed to be stocked by normal retailers.

“At first we were a bit sceptical that we would see any huge increase, because liquor stores are traditionally our biggest clients,” said Le Roux in the Business Insider article. “But what we’ve also managed to do working very closely with the retailers, is to move our products from the liquor stores over into the grocery stores.”

And while de-alcoholised wine such as that made by Van Loveren, Robertson Winery, De Krans or Leopard’s Leap is an alternative to beer, there are a host of other options too.

Who would have thought five years ago that non-alcoholic spirits could be a thing too? But they are, and following on the growing popularity of Seedlip, the world’s first distilled nonalcoholic spirit, there are a variety of local products available.

Like John Ross, a honeybush inspired booze-free spirit from the makers of Barker and Quinn tonics. Or the product which baldly states what it is on its label: Sober. Ginifer Sober is produced by Angel Heart distillery in Johannesburg and they have two distinct expressions currently on the market: Ginifer Sober Dry, for fans of the London Dry style gin, and Ginifer Sober Hibiscus with its notable floral nuance which competes –guilt-free! – with the 43% alcohol by volume real gins. Abstinence Cape Spice is another non-alcoholic distilled spirit which boasts no fewer than eight botanicals in its make up.

All of this was made possible by the success of Seedlip. The Guardian newspaper reported that global drinks giant Diageo took a 20% stake in Seedlip as far back as 2016, believing the upstart could be a potential game changer. In 2019 it increased its stake to become a majority shareholder but was surprisingly coy about the amount of money it paid for the market leading venture.

Its founder, Ben Branson, is the heir to a 300-year-old pea farm in Lincolnshire, north of London and the 30-something admitted that farming is dead unsexy. His experience lay with design and innovation – so doing the proverbial “out the box” thinking came naturally to him.

Forbes.com reported that in 2013 he was looking for seeds to add to his vegetable patch – something other than basil, mint and rosemary. “I discovered this amazing world of botany and alchemy, and particularly a book called The Art of Distillation from 1651, that had kind of disappeared and with it many of these incredible recipes,” Branson said.

Taking his inspiration from it, he tinkered around with a small copper still, refining distillations of herbs and ended up creating Seedlip. Launched in November 2015, Seedlip is a sophisticated, alternative non-alcoholic drink made via the same processes as other spirits, often using some of the same ingredients. It boasts zero calories and is sugar-free, sweetenerfree and artificial flavour-free, making a Seedlip and tonic the credible adult drink for those not drinking.

Such was the hype about this new alternative drink that the first 1 000 bottle batch sold out in London’s Selfridges in three weeks, the second in three days and the third 1000 in just 30 minutes! It’s now stocked at 300 Michelin-star restaurants and the world’s top cocktail bars, hotels, restaurants and retailers across London, Barcelona, Stockholm, Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Stockholm, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sydney, Melbourne and now South Africa.

The range has grown from the initial two expressions – Seedlip Garden 108 which captures the essence of the English countryside with classy top notes of the

ABOVE: The label alone, with its artful depiction of peas and herbs, should be enough to entice curious drinkers to pick this distilled spirit off the shelf.

handpicked peas and hay from the founder’s family farm with a complex herbal base character of spearmint, rosemary, thyme and hops and Seedlip Spice 94 which is aromatic with strong spice (Jamaican all spice berries and cardamom) and citrus (lemon and grapefruit peel) top notes and a long bitter from the highest quality barks (oak and cascarilla) – to include a third expression. The newest addition is Seedlip Grove 42 with its bold citrus styling containing orange, blood orange, mandarin, lemon, ginger and lemongrass. All are best served with tonic or as the base for martini or sour style nonalcoholic cocktails.

ABOVE: The bitters dashed on top of lemonade and soda add a spicy interest to the ever refreshing Rock Shandy.

RIGHT: Cola tonic, bitters, soda water and ginger beer make the Steelworks almost a cocktail.

Tall Glass – Full of Ice 50ml Seedlip Garden

Add a snapped pea pod

Top with Fever Tree Indian Tonic

Tall Glass – Full of Ice 50ml Seedlip Spice

Top with Fever Tree Indian Tonic

Garnish with a Red Grapefruit Twist

Soda Water

Lemonade (or ginger ale) 5-10 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Lime wedge

1 Fill a highball glass with ice and equal parts soda water and lemonade/ ginger ale 2 Add 5-10 dashes of Angostura Bitters 3 Add a twist of lime and you’re done

20-26 dashes of Angostura Bitters 97ml lemon juice 70ml lime cordial 70ml sugar syrup

1 Add 20 - 26 dashes of Angostura aromatic bitters to a jug, then add ice 2 Pour in 97ml freshly squeezed lemon juice, 70ml lime cordial and 70ml sugar syrup* 3 Top up with lemonade, squeeze fresh lemon wedges into the drink before adding them to the jug as garnish * In a saucepan combine equal parts sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved.

Allow to cool.

97ml cola tonic

Ginger beer as required 13 dashes of Angostura Bitters soda water

1 Fill a jug three-quarters full with ice and add soda water to the level of the ice. To this add 97ml cola tonic and top up with ginger beer 2 Then add 13 dashes of Angostura aromatic bitters, stir, garnish with a lemon wheel and serve