I haven’t been avoiding spirit alternatives, but I haven’t gone out of my way to try them either. First of all, they’re not cheap. The cost will run you in the ballpark of a bottle of booze - so when given the choice, I tend to go for the real deal. Today we taste five NA versions to see which stands up!
Tasting 5 Popular NA Whiskies
Spoiler alert, this one is my favorite.
Fruity on the nose.
Subtly sweet with a tiny bit of peat to it.
In a cocktail it held up as close to the real thing as possible.
Doesn’t really look like whiskey in the glass by itself.
Smells like apple cider vinegar.
Kind of tastes like apple juice with black pepper.
As part of a cocktail it gets better but not something I would mistake for a whiskey drink.
Has a whiskey appearance.
Has a scent similar to tea.
On the palette you get some charred wood and a bit of vanilla.
The charred wood comes through decently in the cocktail but is a bit one dimensional.
Sweeter smell than the others.
Spiciness comes through and has some creaminess to it.
Burns a bit in the back of the throat like a whiskey would.
When mixed in a cocktail it tastes more of corn, if that’s what you are going for then that’s a win but not really for me.
The lightest of these 5 in appearance.
Floral on the nose
Smokey and floral when sipped by itself.
In the drink it was potentially my least favorite, a bit fruity + creamy but not really whiskey adjacent enough for me to go for it as a whiskey alternative.
This page contains affiliate links to our online spirit retail partner: Curada.com & Amazon.com which Bitter Bear Studios LLC earns commission from. These commissions help us continue to produce cocktail-focused content from recipes to guides like this one. Cheers!