The brand also walked away with a Gold medal for their Takamaka Dark Spiced rum. Both are bottled at 38% ABV. Three Gold medals were also awarded in this flight: “well‐balanced, rounded” Everleaf Marine, “sweet and bitter” Fluère Bitter, and “bright, light and minty” De Kuyper Zero 0% Mojito. Six Silver medals completed the flight. A hidden slice of old-school glamour in the heart of the West End (and Shoreditch), Nightjar boasts a prohibition-themed menu, as well as some signatures, sharers, and, of course, alcohol-free options. May we recommend the bittersweet Euphoric Life of Three Spirit Livener, Edi Endorphin, guanabana juice, Peruvian marigold syrup with mandarin, as well as the Virgin Mai Tai infusing pistachio and walnut orgeat, fresh lime and honey. Juice joint indeed…

Hoppy and citrusy” notes on the nose secured a Master medal for Aperitivø Classicø. Smith said: “There was a nice bittersweet interplay. Good intensity, and with soda it’s Americano‐esque.” Non-alcoholic apéritif brand Everleaf has launched its Summer of Spritz campaign to reinforce the brand’s positioning as ‘the alcohol-free spritz of choice’. Everleaf is the official non-alcoholic sponsor of Pub In The ParkNc’Nean Organic Single Malt is bottled at 46% ABV. We recently interviewed Nc’nean’s founder, Annabel Thomas to talk about her trailblazing whisky and the future of sustainability in whisky production. Said to be a good twist on the G&T, Everleaf’s Forest is loaded with sustainably sourced botanicals including saffron, citrus blossom and vanilla. This exclusive and rare bottling contained a liquid with “beautiful honey and cream around the palate” with red fruit notes and cigar smoke on the finish. Bottled at cask strength, the Single Barrel whiskies from Uncle Nearest have all been aged for a minimum for 11 years. Pernod Ricard collected two Silver medals in this flight for Beefeater Pink Light and Beefeater Light. “This is an interesting category as there is still a decent amount of ABV,” noted Chambers at the end of the flight. “This helps to drive the flavours and aromas – some decent products on show.” The competition ran from 1 March to 30 April, and received 43 entries. It was Rebecca Bird from The Pig on the Beach in Dorset who created the winning drink, A Little Vitamin Sea, which earned her the title of Everleaf Spritz Master, and a trip to Iceland for two.

The brand was also awarded a Master medal for its Uncle Nearest Master Blend Edition, and Gold medals for the Uncle Nearest 1884 Premium Small Batch Whiskey and Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey. The brand named Mangrove UK as its distribution partner in January this year. The three natural areas act as inspiration for the individual flavour profiles, as well as sources for the key botanicals used in their creation. Reflecting on the standard of entries, Moss said: “The message I took from today is that this is clearly still an evolving category. Some were quite successful with a little complexity – but there is still room to create some convincing ‘switch‐outs’ for major spirit categories. One area that requires work is capturing the aromatic complexity of a product, which is clearly very hard. But it’s all moving in the right direction – I’m looking forward to seeing what future developments we’ll see from this relatively new part of the spirits world.” Seedlip Spice also found favour with the judges, winning a Gold medal. Tasting notes included: “Clove oil, cinnamon, and warming Christmas spices.” Ten Silver medals completed the flight, including medals for Glory Mornin’ Super Vivid, Lyre’s Agave Blanco Spirit, and Siegfried Wonderleaf.

Wondering what a non-alcoholic spirit actually is? The term essentially covers both distilled botanicals filtered not once, but twice, to remove the alcohol through evaporation, and macerated and extracted botanicals made without the introduction of alcohol. Other types use no alcohol whatsoever, using more inventive techniques like steam distillation. In keeping with the names, each are inspired by places, and mountain is labelled as vibrant and aromatic, forest as complex and bittersweet, while marine is said to be crisp and refreshing. We also found handy mixing instructions on the reverse, outlining measurement ratios with tonic, fruit slices and ice. Our tester thought this was a particularly nice touch. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ It was a Gold medal presented to this non-chill-filtered single malt whisky from the west coast of Scotland.

To launch the Summer of Spritz campaign, the brand invited bartenders from across the UK to create a low-and-no Everleaf Spritz serve that captured the feeling of entering one of the three Everleaf biomes: Forest, Mountain or Marine. Highclere Castle Gin is bottled at 43.3% ABV, and the owners recently launched a multi-million-dollar crowdfunding campaign to boost their namesake gin globally.

Everleaf has also been named as the official non-alcoholic sponsor of The Pig Hotel Group’s Smoked and Uncut festivals, as well as all nine of chef Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park festivals, where attendees will be able to enjoy a range of the brand’s Spritzes at its two-story bar.