Mr. Wiseman started tinkering with a boozeless Negroni recipe in his Hudson Valley kitchen and, in 2017, he founded Curious Elixirs. “I wanted something that made me slow down and appreciate it, not something I would chug.” The pause that a bitter beverage forces you to take? It didn’t fit the food, didn’t fit the ambience, and I wondered how, when we can cater to everybody’s varying allergies, you cannot get a decent, grown-up, nonalcoholic option?” In August 2019, the British liquor beverage conglomerate Diageo acquired a majority stake in the company. Aecorn, a line of nonalcoholic aperitifs from the makers of Seedlip, has been available in Britain since 2019, and is set to be sold in America in 2021. The first of their three flavors, which include Aromatic and Dry, to come to the United States is Bitter, made with grapes, grapefruit, bay leaf, orange, oak and quassia, also known as bitterwood.

Source: New York Times August 14, 2020 19:52 UTC