Have you ever wanted to relax and have a cocktail (or a few), but not deal with the next day’s impending hangover? Well, a new Chicago beverage startup making zero-proof spirits wants to be your first choice of spirit when mixing non-alcoholic drinks.
Ritual, founded last year, makes non-alcoholic gin and whiskey spirits. They are made with all-natural, individually-distilled botanicals that simulate the taste, smell and burning sensation of liquor.
Ritual’s gin features English cucumber and juniper berry notes, along with mint and basil. The company’s whiskey has notes of oak, sugar floss and vanilla.
“Replicating the burn was the hardest part. Five hundred iterations later, the recipes for Ritual gin and whiskey were finished,” said Ritual co-founder Marcus Sakey, a self-proclaimed “passionate chef” that used his culinary skills to develop the recipes for Ritual’s spirits. Sakey began working on the recipes for Ritual in 2018 after he decided to cut back on drinking.
“I decided to take a conscious break from liquor and step back for a little while, and what I found was that what I missed wasn’t the alcohol,” Sakey said. “It was frankly the ritual of the thing—the craft of making a really complicated cocktail.”
Some of Sakey’s favorite cocktails to make with Ritual’s spirits include gin and tonics, gimlets and Manhattan’s.
Ritual, manufactured in Louisville, can be purchased on Ritual’s website, Amazon, Binny’s, Second City, and at select local wine and liquor stores. Sakey said within the next year, he plans to sell Ritual in retailers nationwide.
Ritual joins a growing group of beverage startups in Chicago that are focused on healthier alternatives for popular drinks. Poppilu, founded by Melanie Kahn, is an antioxidant lemonade with no preservatives or artificial flavors, and has less sugar than other lemonade brands. Additionally, Tempo launched a couple of years ago in Chicago and makes a low-caffeine sparkling tea beverage.
Ritual hits the market as a sober movement, particularly among millennials, has begun to gain momentum. Whether individuals are cutting alcohol out of their lives completely, or are just “sober curious," the demand for low-calorie alcohol alternatives is growing.
“People want to know what they’re putting in their body. They want to be thoughtful about it,” Sakey said. “Whether you’re training for a marathon, making a baby, at an office party or it’s just Tuesday night and you have things to do tomorrow, Ritual is an opportunity to still have a sophisticated, adult beverage but without the alcohol and without the calories.”
