What you need to know about low-ABV cocktails

Whether you’re in the depths of an existential black pit of hangover or are simply doing that sensible modern thing of not getting blotto, sometimes you’re after a low-alcohol drink: something only vaguely alcoholic to sip that won’t blow your socks off (or cause untold emotional trauma in the morning).

‘There are plenty of benefits to low-ABV cocktails,’ says Brian Calleja, bar manager at Dalloway Terrace in Bloomsbury, which has just launched a menu of low-ABV and low-sugar cocktails. ‘One being that people can drink more, for longer.’ Because once you’ve secured your precious alfresco drinking corner, you want a proper session rather than a three-Martini sprint. Plus, as Calleja points out, while ‘alcohol does tend to dehydrate you normally, drinking low-ABV cocktails reduces that risk. We have hosted many events with skincare and beauty brands, which love our low-ABV cocktails as they are kinder on the complexion.’ He recommends its gentler take on a G&T, the Elizabeth, a blend of Chase Elderflower Liqueur and the 0% spirit Seedlip Garden, with cucumber, dried peas and soda.

Dalloway Terrace also offers the I Love You (Richard Dalloway) cocktail, a low-ABV blend of the 0% spirit Seedlip Spice, pink grapefruit shrub, agave, egg white and Kamm & Sons, the London-distilled spirit that comes in at 33% ABV, rather than vodka/gin’s 37.5-45% standard. Alex Kammerling, inventor of the spirit, says Kamm & Sons was ‘designed to be a “healthier” version of gin by reducing the ABV’. Like gin, it’s distilled with botanicals: 45 of them, including ginseng, goji berries and grapefruit peel, which Kammerling points out makes for ‘a punchy-tasting cocktail, but without as much of the alcohol’. Even better, ‘ginseng helps to metabolise alcohol from the bloodstream’.

Kammerling’s favourite way to sip his more sober spirit is a Brit Spritz: 35ml Kamm & Sons, 15ml elderflower cordial, 50ml English sparkling wine and 50ml soda water, served over ice in a wine glass and garnished with a grapefruit wedge and slice of cucumber. Two or three of those on a terrace in Saturday afternoon sun is pretty much all you could want from a British summer. Kamm & Sons is also a big part of the Highs & Lows menu at Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch, which is drenched in lower-ABV aperitifs like Aperol and vermouth. Bar manager Tom Noller introduced the menu, which also includes the super-refreshing Ba’Barolo Americano — Cocchi Barolo Americano, Aperol, grapefruit and soda — as a counterbalance to its classic, strong offerings. ‘They are great at lunchtimes,’ he says, ‘something light to have with your lunch, leaving you refreshed, but not going to affect your afternoon work.’ Sold. Slide on your sunglasses and head over for some sensible(ish), summer afternoon sipping.