0% ABV Non-Alcoholic Drink Tasting & Review

Matt and Friends go alcohol free! Matt is joined by Chris, Jen, and Siobhan on a bit of a different cosmic voyage into the unexplored regions of alcohol free and alcohol removed drinks. There are many reasons why one may opt for an alcohol free option. We're here for you, searching for alternative Stellar Sips! We sample several different 0% sprit, cocktail, wine, and beer options to find out which can truly be a great replacement when you need it!

Transcript

Chris 1:17

Welcome to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe!

Matt 1:24

Welcome back everyone to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. Once again, I have some great friends drinking the universe with me, along with my wife. So we're gonna go around the table and everybody introduce yourself. We'll start that way.

Jen 1:37

Starting with me? Yeah.

Matt 1:39

Hello from the little wife.

Chris 1:41

This is Chris. I'm back again. Hooray.

Siobhan 1:44

Hi, it's Siobhan. I'm here to drank.

Chris 1:48

This is like a uh a double date going on right now.

Siobhan 1:51

Oh yeah, that's fun. Brings me back. Too bad there's no real alcohol in this one. Spoiler alert, friends.

Chris 1:56

Well, I mean, Siobhan's been pre-gaming with the NA drinks and she's already wasted, so watch out. Should I insert some more Italian restaurant music when I go back in? No, definitely not.

Matt 2:05

Oh, I think I'm gonna have to.

Chris 2:07

The Godfather uh theme playing.

Matt 2:10

That'd be great. So, as Chris said, this is the alcohol-free episode of Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. And no, it's not because of budgetary concerns. We just wanted to do something a little different today. So we have a wide variety of different alcohols. Non-alcohols, things without alcohol. We have a wide variety of things without alcohol that we're going to try throughout this episode. And I will let Siobhan intro the first one because they are of the ingredients that she brought.

Siobhan 2:37

Great. Yes, thank you. So our first non-alcoholic spirit drink that we are trying today is from a company called Monday. I believe they make more than just this mezcal that we're going to have, which for all of you that don't know mezcal is basically tequila, but not made with blue agave.

Matt 2:55

If you recall the very first episode of the season, it's what everybody tried at the end, thanks to me. And then one killed me for. Yeah. Dude, I actually liked it.

Siobhan 3:04

I know. Yeah, you need, I don't know. That's a great question. They don't make a Tuesday that I know of, but you know, here if you're listening Monday, it's time for branding changes. So this is a mezcal. Um, we have decided to make a paloma instead of a margarita, which is fine. Palomas are traditionally grapefruit and lime instead of the lime and lemon or lime and sort of a bit of orange that you would normally have with a margarita. So yeah, we're gonna try it out. Mezcals also, just for everyone, mezcals that are have alcohol in them because I've never had a non-alcoholic mezcal before, um, traditionally are very smoky.

Chris 3:40

Which this definitely on the nose, I haven't tried it yet, but when we open the bottle and I took a whiff, it is very, very smoky.

Siobhan 3:48

There is a smoky whiff. It's for sure.

Jen 3:51

There's a whiff of something.

Siobhan 3:53

I don't know what it is. Jen's already whiffing again. So grapefruit soda essentially is what's in this. Sometimes you can do grapefruit juice. This is grapefruit soda with a lime, and then just this delicious mezcal. So we're gonna try it out.

Chris 4:12

Let's give it cheers. All right, cheers, cheers. Cheers, bottoms up, bottoms up, yeah.

Siobhan 4:16

Clink clink. Yeah. Oh god. Oh no. Mine's good.

Chris 4:22

Mine's good too. It is very smoky. Oh, peppery out for sure. That's right. Yeah, peppery is right. Oh, there it is. It's like that's what hits your your throat. Like normally it'd be the alcoholic burn, but this is like a peppery feel. Felt like it's an alcoholic punch to the face.

Jen 4:39

And your mom puts pepper on your tongue. Oh god.

Siobhan 4:42

Oh, maybe.

Matt 4:43

That happened to you a lot when you were younger. Apparently.

Chris 4:46

Apparently, yeah. I was just gonna say, for her to have a core memory.

Siobhan 4:49

You can have the rest of mine. I'm done. You know, it's funny to me because tequila and mezcal usually kind of stick around a little, like alcoholic versions. No. This is like sticking around, but it's that pepper flavor. It's not like the burn.

Chris 5:06

It is.

Siobhan 5:06

And I wonder if they were like, well.

Chris 5:08

You know what's interesting is that the carbonation from the grapefruits uh whatever it was, seltzer, uh, I think is enhancing that pepperyness.

Jen 5:18

Maybe a little bit, yeah.

Chris 5:19

So it's like really burny in your throat.

Jen 5:21

Yes. I think it's burning my pancreas. My duadom. Oh, my duodenomia.

Siobhan 5:28

You were gonna do that. Okay, sorry. Was not a fan of that one. No, I mean, listen, you know what? I bet if you if you mixed it a little bit differently, you might be okay.

Matt 5:37

A little more grapefruit juice, maybe. Mine, mine was a little heavier on the grapefruit juice, and it's not then again. I I in my brain was still computing mezcal with what happened in the first episode.

Chris 5:49

I was I yeah, I was prepared to hate this, and I don't hate it. No.

Siobhan 5:52

Well, and Jen was spared from that.

Chris 5:54

She was.

Siobhan 5:55

Oh, yeah. And I didn't hate it.

Matt 5:57

The world's how you know alcohol, so and there's a variety of reasons why you might want to have these drinks as well, which is part of the reason we're doing this particular episode. So hopefully this will be a lot of fun.

Siobhan 6:13

Yeah, I feel like, you know, and I love this because part of why we're doing it right is that not just because, oh, it's trendy, or I found these because I was definitely served these as Instagram ads. But the idea that there's this mindset shift kind of in the ether of call it Gen Z, whatever you might want to call it. As an elder millennial, I can call it whatever I want, I suppose. But um, that the idea is that there's still these flavors out there that we can try and recreate, but we don't necessarily need to have alcohol as part of it. So like I'm excited, you know. I think I want to mess with this a little more.

Chris 6:45

I'm gonna say something that mezcal with it uh sound like I'm older than I am because I'm not that old. But I I've started to get to the point, I think I've turned the corner recently, where too much alcohol sucks the next morning. And so the thought if I can get a drink that tastes like what I want it to taste like, but remove that terrible, terrible feeling the next day is really it's very enticing to me.

Siobhan 7:13

I think I'm gonna addend him onto your thing because what you actually mean is not too much alcohol, it's like one to two alcoholic drinks. Someone could hear too much alcohol and be like, oh Chris, well, if you do six shots tomorrow morning, you're gonna feel real crappy, right? But like, no, he means like he's had a beer, well, like an 8% beer, and then feels like trash in the morning.

Matt 7:35

You feel a little, yeah. Yeah, no, I totally understand that because it it's definitely it is a progressive thing, right? You're in your early 20s, you can put them down, and it's not real big deal. Yes, you get to your late 20s, that hangover gets really real for most of the next day.

Chris 7:49

And the funny thing also is there's days where, like after the bourbon podcast episode that we did, which I drank quite a bit that night, I had TD over here drive me home.

Siobhan 8:01

I was mad.

Chris 8:02

Uh I was fine the next morning. So there's I still I I'm still fine sometimes.

Siobhan 8:07

And he's always kind of had that fun genetic thing.

Matt 8:10

Yeah. I think a lot of it is in the ingredients too, and I've always believed that a lot of it is in the ingredients in what you're drinking. Because I'll be honest, if I have like a bud light or coors light, that after is gonna be about 30,000 times worse than it's gonna be.

Siobhan 8:23

Oh, I wonder why that is. Is it because everyone's shouting at you and making fun of you? Because that's what I would do. I'd be like, oh partially have fun with your bud light, Matt. That's what I would do the whole time. And you'd be like, oh man, bummer.

Chris 8:35

Sweet, what are we doing next?

Siobhan 8:37

Oh, yeah, let's do the next one.

Matt 8:38

Before we do that, Siobhan, do you want to try this straight? Oh.

Siobhan 8:43

Yeah. No, let's do it. Why not? I don't know where I'm gonna do that.

Chris 8:47

We're gonna let them do that. Yeah, Jen and I are abstaining from that.

Siobhan 8:50

We should just get the pepper out, and that's what's gonna take.

Chris 8:53

You're going for a legit.

Siobhan 8:55

I'm not gonna pour a lot, to be fair. No, I still have the aftertaste in my throat. I'll be honest, it's still sticking around. Yeah, oh yeah, it's still and again, that doesn't really happen with the alcohol. Like it's usually jalapeno or something. Did you see me burp it up before? Yeah, I was trying not to do that on the phone. My girl, I did. All right, we're not doing a lot, friends, but we're gonna see what this is like. So clink.

Jen 9:23

Oh no, I told you. Oh man, I warned you. I knew it.

Chris 9:27

That's why we need to start uh video recording these because the faces it's like put the alcohol back.

Siobhan 9:32

Oh my god. Do you know what's so funny? It's really oh my god, it's really like bright in the beginning, and then it just ruins your life.

Matt 9:40

To quote Ron.

Siobhan 9:43

Oh my god, it lit honestly, and my mouth is I feel like I'm on hot ones when like you do one of the leaps.

Chris 9:51

Sound effect. Oh, that was high.

Siobhan 9:56

I'm sweating. I have sweating. Guys, this doesn't have alcohol in it.

Jen 10:01

You should have just put pepper in your tongue. That probably would have been better.

Siobhan 10:04

I mean, well boy. One down. Okay. You know what though? Wait, should we like try and do a rating on this? I guess out of five.

Chris 10:13

Out of five? I guess two chili peppers out of five.

Jen 10:17

Okay. Is that what you're doing? I'm I'm giving it a negative.

Siobhan 10:21

Okay, yeah.

Matt 10:22

You can that's fine. You do whatever you want. I'm gonna give it one pepper shaker. That's it.

Siobhan 10:28

I y'all, where am I from?

Chris 10:30

The uh Paloma cocktail. Like I can drink this. Yes, right. I'm drinking it slowly, which is good too. Usually, like the alcohol itself would slow you down. So I feel like the pepperiness of this is slowing me down from from chugging it.

Jen 10:41

So I gave mine away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris 10:45

That's Jen's uh Jen's actual rating is gave it away.

Siobhan 10:49

Because I might be like a solid two and a half out of five? Yeah.

Chris 10:52

All right.

Siobhan 10:53

That doesn't bother me.

Chris 10:54

Yeah. I mean, definitely not doing it straight.

Siobhan 10:56

I definitely well, I did it straight and I'm still here, so fine. I also feel like if we mixed that into something that was a good, sweet balance, we'd be set.

Chris 11:09

Yeah, I think the drink needed to be a little either less fizzy because mine was pretty fizzy, or whatever, a little more sweet, and it would have been nice. Yeah.

Siobhan 11:17

I think the the interesting part too is a lot of our chat before this kind of setup was, oh, we think that this is just gonna be like this sort of light, like, oh, we're not gonna get a lot of flavor, we're gonna get like kind of whatever this like wisp of uh alcohol flavor. And now I'm like, oh, just kidding, everything's gonna taste like pepper for the rest of my life now.

Chris 11:38

Yeah, I just think possibility. That's something to really um distill out of the get it the good one. I know. Thanks for making it too obvious. All right. I no uh you said it, not me. NA stuff typically people think like it's gonna not taste the same. It's gonna be really like flavorless, yada yada. And this really is the opposite of that. They they achieved a lot of flavor in that.

Siobhan 12:04

I'm not sure if it's the flavor we like.

Matt 12:06

Quality of flavor, and just for the record, by Jen writing that giving drink away, it was more like aggressively thrust it at me across the table than giveaway. So, with that said, I will let Jen intro the first item that she brought.

Jen 12:20

And so we went this weekend to pick something out, and this is my pick. It is a sparkling brute. Yum. It's called free. I asked the woman if that means it is free at the store. She uh she didn't find it very funny. But me and Matt did. So I decided to try this. This is something new to me in particular. I've never had this brand before, but sometimes I do have sparkling wine and I pair it with orange juice as like a mimosa. Yeah since I can't drink anymore due to my medications, which I I brought up on a past episode. So I kind of create my own. So we're gonna we're gonna try this one, see if we like it.

Matt 13:09

I just before I pop the top, I want to read the little quote on the side because I think it's cool. It says, True happiness lies in the freedom to be yourself. Oh, you should put that as your quote at the end, not in the middle of the podcast.

Jen 13:19

But it's free with one A.

Chris 13:22

It pops like real champagne. If you could have all only seen Matt's face trying to open that. He did.

Jen 13:27

I need a new car. Please, not in the same cup as the pepper.

Matt 13:30

Yeah, can you reach a sponge? Some of that finest glassware that we have over there by the Solo Corporation. Thank you. Non-spun. Non-spun. Could be a spawn, solo.

Jen 13:42

Pour me a lot. I need to cover that. Is it even a solo cup?

Matt 13:45

It is.

Jen 13:46

It should be.

Siobhan 13:47

No? It doesn't say it. Sorry, solo. They're probably from the dollar side.

Chris 13:51

No, they're gonna sue us. Oh well. They're definitely solo cups. I have the bag out there.

Siobhan 13:55

Pretty sure they're not gonna sue us. Alright.

Jen 13:58

Once everybody gets it, passing it around. Let me take a sniff. You're very daring putting that in the same cup. Oh.

Chris 14:06

Well, I I emptied it out.

Siobhan 14:08

Oh, okay.

Chris 14:09

I'm not mixing.

Siobhan 14:10

Alright. Oh, this smells. Ooh, this smells nice and fruity. Not gonna lie. It smells very good. Yeah, it does smell good.

Chris 14:17

Alright, drink number two. Cheers.

Siobhan 14:19

Clinkers.

Chris 14:20

Clink, clink, clink. Very fizzy. Very fizzy.

Siobhan 14:25

Oh. Grapey. It has a nice. So grapey. Almost like a white grape. Yes.

Matt 14:32

It has a nice champagne taste to it, though.

Siobhan 14:34

Yeah, I don't hate this.

Matt 14:35

To me, it just tastes like the little bit of alcohol bite you get in the champagne was just pulled off the top and you get some of that flavor on the back end.

Jen 14:42

I'm still working through the pepper, everybody. I am too. I feel like it might have brought out some of the pepper at one point.

Siobhan 14:48

Ah, I mean, I think. I like it. It's mild. Are you not a fan?

Chris 14:53

I'm not a fan.

Siobhan 14:54

Okay. I think it's a mix with something.

Jen 14:56

Maybe, maybe as a mimosa. Yeah.

Chris 14:59

The aren't the uh yeah, the OJ may uh live.

Jen 15:01

Sweeten it a little bit.

Matt 15:03

Well, this is your go-to mimosa for holidays, right?

Jen 15:05

This is usually something I do, but sometimes I put a splash of like seven up or something like that in it just to give it a little bit more sweetness. So maybe this with orange juice and a little bit of seven up would be would be good. I would compare this with an Ostie. Yes. Yes.

Siobhan 15:25

Yeah.

Jen 15:26

That's a good comparison.

Siobhan 15:28

I think is that I like this. I would drink this.

Chris 15:32

It's way too carbonated for me.

Siobhan 15:34

Oh well, we already heard your last drink was too fizzy, Chris. And we already heard that you think you're older than you are. So Mr. Fizzy Pants over here is gonna have all the trouble with the fizzy drinks.

Matt 15:43

We're gonna get to whiskey in a few minutes here.

Siobhan 15:45

Okay.

Matt 15:46

Well, and we got some beer too.

Siobhan 15:48

Yeah. Strap in.

Matt 15:50

Free suspicion. Everyone.

Siobhan 15:51

Yeah, this is good. I'm not gonna lie. I I'm a fan.

Matt 15:55

Uh out of five, I'd uh say three. I'll go with three. I'm not overly wow, but I'm not deeply disappointed either. Same. I would give it about a three.

Siobhan 16:05

I'll probably three and a half it. I'm gonna half a lot of these, probably.

Chris 16:08

Yeah. I I'm going with the number two again.

Siobhan 16:10

I thought you were gonna say a four. I'm like, you're lying to everyone, Chris. No, no, no, no. Yeah.

Chris 16:14

Again, I and I've said this a few times. This is the type of drink that I would not choose this, but if it was the thing available to drink, I can drink it. I'm not gonna turn it away because it's awful or anything like that.

Siobhan 16:27

I feel like the other thing to point out too is that like this episode, or maybe just our approach to this, is not necessarily to say, like, oh, this is the same. You could fool me. It's like we all know, right, this isn't alcohol, but like, are we still kind of cool with the flavor? Are we as satisfied maybe as what we would normally from a bar?

Chris 16:50

That's how this is for me. If I was at a wedding or or some other event where they didn't want to actually serve alcohol, but they served these instead, I'd be all about it. Would not be sad.

Various 16:59

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Chris 17:00

Here we go.

Matt 17:00

I'm gonna put my psych degree through rare, rare work right now. So is everybody familiar with the placebo effect, how that typically works? One of the favorite experiments of the psych undergrad is to serve fake alcohol at a party and just see how people behave. It's been done like a hundred billion times, and it's hilarious every time. I feel like with the flavor of this particular champagne by free, you could pull off that experiment with this and fool people properly. They wouldn't necessarily go, that doesn't have alcohol agreed. Yeah.

Chris 17:31

It has the flavor that you could pass it off. I don't know if you would be able to I wouldn't call it champagne necessarily. Well, you can't because it's not made in the champagne ridges. It's Californian. Dumb and bougie. You know what I mean? Like, but I would call it more of a sparkling wine because sparkling wines and champagne taste different to me in the inner. They do.

Matt 17:54

Depending on the flavor and what grape they're made with, and sure.

Chris 17:57

Absolutely. So this is more on that sparkling wine train to me.

Siobhan 18:01

Yeah, and I think I'm like reading the label right now. But it's not as sweet. It's not no, it's really not, but um, it's alcohol-removed wine.

Chris 18:10

Oh, okay.

Siobhan 18:11

So it went, I assume, through a typical wine process and then had the alcohol removed. Plus, they add grape juice and a couple of other things. So that's cool.

Jen 18:25

It really does taste like white grape juice. Yeah. Yeah. Like Welch's, you know what I'm talking about?

Siobhan 18:31

Welches, white grape juice. It reminds me of that. But it's not like Martinelli's, right? Like where you buy like the like fake cider that's clearly never been through any kind of like wine process. You know what I mean? Boone's Farm is wine.

Chris 18:44

No, that's why I thought you were cooking. Made with highlighters. The really cheap, like no, like two bucks chuckle.

Siobhan 18:50

Yeah, two buck chocolate. It was true. It was free.

Matt 18:52

The martinelli for me, it's the you're slightly underage, and your parents are like, feel like you're one of us. And they're like, just give me Welches. It's insulting. Yeah.

Siobhan 19:02

Truly. And club soda or something are real. Oh, you could give this at church.

Matt 19:06

So should we move on? Should we move on to the whiskey and see what happens? Let's see. Yeah, let's do it. All right. So read us what's on that whiskey bottle you're holding, Siobhan.

Siobhan 19:15

Oh, yeah. Okay. So this is from the company Ritual. I like went on this crazy website that like has a ton of zero-proof spirits on it. There's a I can't remember the name of it, which is great. It's probably something like Zero Proof or something super obvious, but Ritual is a company that makes a couple zero-proof spirits, just kind of like Monday, but this is a whiskey alternative from them. It lists a ton of different notes and flavors on the bottle. Yeah, it's really cool. It's a liquor replacement. We're gonna see. We have some old fashions that we made with all essentially alcohol-free additives to this whiskey alternative. So we're gonna see what it's like.

Chris 19:51

Yeah, I just made uh standard old fashion with these. We did a little bit of orange peel in it and some muddled cherry with the ritual and some Angostar bitters and just a little splash of simple syrup.

Siobhan 20:04

Yeah.

Chris 20:05

So it's uh new old fashioned. Clinker up.

Siobhan 20:12

Oh. Again, I feel like I'm a horrible barometer.

Chris 20:16

For mine, there's too much simple syrup in it.

Siobhan 20:18

But oh, I was tasting more of the what is it? You want the bottle? Yeah. You just you know, swig. Take a swig.

Chris 20:24

Make sure you uh like give it a little swirly swirl.

Siobhan 20:28

Mine's actually quite good.

Chris 20:29

Awesome.

Siobhan 20:29

I will say.

Chris 20:30

I I don't I yeah, I'm not offended by I just can tell that it has too much simple syrup.

Matt 20:34

I I get the flavors of the old-fashioned though. Like I really like a good old-fashioned. We have a place near us where we live called the bookstore. It's an old-fashioned speakeasy. It's wonderful. They make, as far as I'm concerned, the best old-fashioned on the planet. This taste, it reminds me of that. It it has all the correct flavors, but again, it's just it's missing that bite on the side.

Jen 20:57

Is an old fashioned like a highball or is that different? It's different. Okay. But we used to my family used to make those growing up.

Siobhan 21:08

I think highballs smell just reminds me. It's very citrusy. Yeah. I will say I just poured myself a shot of this and it's so citrusy smelling. I like it. Are you drinking it straight now? I'm gonna try. Yeah.

Jen 21:24

Alright. I don't hate it. So that's good. I mean weak. It's very weak, but it's good though.

Chris 21:35

Okay, so so to call it whiskey is almost insulting.

Siobhan 21:39

Okay, to whiskey.

Chris 21:41

It is. No, that's fair. It's nothing like whiskey, it's its own completely different thing, which is a good thing, but it's just not whiskey, you know? So it makes a decent old-fashioned because you're getting kind of the fruity tones, the little sweetness, uh sweet and bitter, but you don't get any bite at all. And that's why I I thought there was too much simple syrup. It's not that there's too much simple, there's no bite to this.

Jen 22:05

It's put the alcohol back in. I'm still.

Matt 22:08

So to me, this is are all of you familiar with the movie The Princess Bride?

Siobhan 22:12

Of course.

Matt 22:13

We just watched it. Listeners, if you've never seen that movie, pause the podcast, go watch it, come back, and then unpause the podcast. So this to me tastes like somebody took a whiskey bottle, hooked it up to the machine that they sucked the life out of uh Wesley with, cranked it up to 90 or 100 or wherever he went, yeah, and was mostly dead. And then we're like, here, we have an alcohol-free spirit, try this. That is what it tastes like to me.

Chris 22:35

Yeah, it's it's someone just killed the life out of the whiskey.

Siobhan 22:40

I don't know though, because like, I mean, okay. Like obviously all feelings are valid here. Okay, everybody. But what would we have added other than literal whiskey? This is probably pretty close.

Chris 22:54

That's why I said, yeah. Right? It just doesn't have the burn that an old fashioned kind of has.

Jen 22:59

Which I'm okay. With right. I don't like the burn.

Matt 23:02

Let's be fair though. The last thing that we had had that burn. Yeah. Really? And it was not pleasant. You know what it's like.

Chris 23:08

This is this tastes like the old fashions that they tried to scam us with on the boat where they poured soda water on the top of it.

Siobhan 23:17

Oh, well, don't get in fights with people because some people put soda water in their old fashioned. Okay. To me, it's a little sweet.

Chris 23:25

It is.

Siobhan 23:26

And like some whiskey has like a sweet that's a thing too, right? So, like, what kind of whiskey are we trying to capture in this? Because there's like a million kinds of whiskey. Like, this is clearly not trying to be single malt scotch.

Chris 23:39

I'm just wondering if there's something that we could do, like add to this to get more of that bite back in. Liquor.

Siobhan 23:45

Ethyl, alcohol, alcohol, Chris. Put the alcohol back in. I know. I don't know, you guys.

Matt 23:51

I it's just too sweet to me. I thought it mixed well in the old fashioned, though. I thought it made a drink that if I was suddenly unable to drink whiskey, and I had that was my choice for old fashioned, that would I would say it does taste similar. No, no, I would prefer that to water, and that's my litmus test for all of this. I would go for this before I went for water. I don't know about that.

Chris 24:14

I do love space. This is the first one where I may pass on it.

Matt 24:18

Okay.

Chris 24:19

Fair. Yeah.

Various 24:21

Wow.

Chris 24:21

Like if I was at a party and I had had this before and they're like, hey, have this, I'd be like, no, that's all right. I just but that's because I'm Chris wants the real deal. I'm a whiskey person. He is. He is. That's fair. Yeah. I'm almost like, yeah, if I can't have the real thing, I don't want it at all.

Siobhan 24:36

Then you're never getting invited again. Yeah, all right. Which he's also fine with for everyone that doesn't know him.

Matt 24:42

All right. So we're bouncing all around the periodic table of alcohol-free liquor here. Next up, we have some Moscato.

Siobhan 24:49

Moscato is alcohol free that we're gonna try. So let's like quick do the ratings on our ritual whiskey alternative, because I feel like, you know, we all weighed in. Let's how are we feeling about this?

Chris 25:02

Yeah. This is the first one we were just saying this. I would pass on this.

Siobhan 25:06

This is so are you abstaining or are you just gonna are you gonna give it?

Chris 25:10

No, I'm gonna give it a zero.

Siobhan 25:11

Okay.

Matt 25:12

I was wondering if it was a roll call vote or he was gonna vote not a. Right. All right.

Siobhan 25:17

Oh, I'm three and a half in it. I liked it. I'll be honest. If people around me were like, if I was at a party, I'll be this is very fair. I don't want to do shots of Jack Daniels. And if they were like, you either do Jack Daniels or this, I'd probably pick this. And that's a lot. Sure. Because I would rather drink this.

Jen 25:38

I actually didn't mind it. I think I'd give it a four. Ooh. Because well, one I'm not even a whiskey drinker. I did like that it was sweeter and it didn't burn. So for me, who someone who doesn't drink alcohol anymore, but knows what the real one tastes like, I didn't I didn't mind it. I thought it was way better than the pepper.

Siobhan 26:01

Oh my god.

Jen 26:02

Yeah. So messing our lungs. I actually liked it better than the sparkling brute. Oh for sure. Look at this. We're opening minds and doors.

Chris 26:11

Again, I think that just speaks to you know how different it is from actual whiskey.

Siobhan 26:17

Um we all know that you like whiskey, Chris. It's okay. Get off your platform.

Matt 26:21

It's fine, but it's the way it is.

Siobhan 26:24

Of course it's okay.

Matt 26:26

So I will say that mixed in the old fashioned, for me, that was a solid three. By itself, that drops down to a one. It just doesn't have the allure by itself. It could even have a little more like an oaky flavor to it or smoky flavor to it. Yeah. I mean if I feel like if whatever they did to make that spent a little time in a barrel, it would be that much better. Hey, to each their own.

Siobhan 26:51

Yeah. Absolutely.

Chris 26:52

All right. Now, now I think we can move on.

Jen 26:55

Okay. Let's go for this mascara. All right. So I brought with me. I live here, so I didn't bring it with me. She brought it into this room. I brought it into this room. Actually, Matt did.

Matt 27:06

All the way down the hallway.

Jen 27:08

So many lies. Already we're lying. And again, it is by the brand free. Don't confuse it. Distro, not free. It's not like when you're at uh what's that restaurant or your family? Oh garden. Yeah. So anyway.

Matt 27:25

It's not the free wine sampler at the beginning, right?

Jen 27:27

So this is Alcohol Removed Wine by Free. It's a Moscato from California Vineyards. And it says it's a sophisticated alternative. So we're going to check this out. I'm going to open it up. I'm just going to read a little bit on the back. It says that there's some aromas of rose petals, peaches, sweet, creamy flavors. So we're going to see if we agree with that. So let me open it up here. If I apparently I'm a weak one. It's a twist off. Do you want me to do it? No, I got. You know what? I don't break anything in here. Twist. Too much expensive equipment.

Matt 28:05

Righty tidy, lefty Lucy. We believe in you.

Jen 28:08

Oh, you got it. I got it.

Matt 28:09

That's why Chris is making fun of me before. I'm opening that champagne bottle apprehensively to take out something worth the minute.

Chris 28:15

She didn't have a crazy face on. You had a crazy face on.

Matt 28:18

Crazy face. All right. Okay, so the other I'm I'm scarred. I've had several champagne incidents. I hit myself on the head with a champagne cork once. The first time I ever met Jimmy. I was just gonna say that. I was trying to talk to her, and then we were all there very early.

Chris 28:33

You walked in and went what's up, everybody.

Jen 28:38

The other time we when he was dressed as a gangster when you first met my best friend. You were trying to open it and you took out almost my eye, but you took out my mom's um dishwasher and left a dent on it.

Matt 28:52

I did. Oh my god. The light panel and let him do this.

Jen 28:55

He also same day opened the refrigerator and the whole handle fell off. Thank God you're all nervous. I made him nervous, I guess. Oh my god. Not anymore. Yes. Oh, is this my pups? My hair. I'm gonna pour from my friends first. All right. Oh, how much homies? Pour one out for the homies.

Siobhan 29:20

Oh, I live with my homies here. That's what she meant. She's gonna pour one out for the homies. No, I was like, don't pour it on the ground.

Jen 29:29

Do you want more or less?

Matt 29:30

No, I'm good. I'm good. Are we just or just passing? We're passing.

Jen 29:33

We're big preaching. We're passing. Guys, we're really bad at this. What are you doing? Oh my god. I live with him, everyone. I don't know how to do this. Chris is gonna need this. I'm just gonna go on. Do we all have one?

Matt 29:47

No.

Jen 29:48

No, Matt. What are you doing?

Matt 29:51

You're making fun of me. You started with the glass the farthest from you.

Jen 29:55

I just did hand them to me.

Matt 29:57

Okay.

Jen 29:58

You're colorblind, making nothing for the record. I smell nothing. Let me smell. It's like a hint. It's a hint of like.

Chris 30:07

All right, here we go. Cheers.

Jen 30:09

Cheers. Plastic clink.

Chris 30:11

Plastic clink.

Siobhan 30:16

Um what do you think? That tastes like they took the sparkle out of the brute.

Chris 30:23

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like a viscous feeling to me.

Jen 30:27

I wonder if we could mix this Moscato with that brute.

Matt 30:30

I mean, you could. It would just be more grape juice. But it needs bubbly. This needs more bubbly. It's like Welch's white grape juice. Yes. It's it's it's got it's just a little less sugary and not much less sugar in the water. Well, it is fine.

Siobhan 30:41

It's wine. It's just it's not meant to be fizzy. No, it's just not what I expected. I just I want more from this. I like I have like you start drinking it and you're like, uh oh.

Chris 30:54

Because like it just isn't the aftertaste is there. But I feel like it has so little flavor.

Siobhan 31:02

It really does.

Chris 31:02

It has pretty viscous um consistency, like wine does.

Siobhan 31:09

Yes, the texture.

Jen 31:10

I don't taste the peach, do you?

Matt 31:12

Hint of peach. Is it supposed to have a hint of peach?

Jen 31:15

It's it says peach, but I'm I'm getting more of that makes me wish Andy was here because Andy would rose. And sweet creamy flavors. I'm just tasting sweet flow. I don't get any of the creamy flavors. I'm not getting creamy, I'm just getting sweet.

Matt 31:29

I get a little peach on the nose when you smell it.

Jen 31:31

I there is a little bit. I guess I'm not sure. I normally drink Moscato before I couldn't have alcohol, so that was like my number one favorite wine. So obviously it's a little disappointing because the alcohol's not in it, but well, I'll be honest, this is better than any Moscato I've ever had.

Siobhan 31:51

Because I really don't like Moscato.

Chris 31:55

Yeah. Yeah.

Jen 31:56

I mean, it's I I think out of I like this one better, definitely better than the Brute.

Chris 32:01

Better than the Brute. Oh wow, okay. Okay, all right.

Jen 32:03

And I normally like it with a little bubbly pep.

Chris 32:07

What uh what kind of ratings are we giving this?

Jen 32:09

Sorry, that was me.

Matt 32:14

I'll give it a three.

Siobhan 32:15

He's gonna give it a burp out. I'll give it a three.

Matt 32:18

I don't think I don't think it's awful. I mean, it hits the spot. It tastes like a grape juice. It's got that viscous kind of wine to it. Yeah, it's not an offensive flavor.

Jen 32:30

I it's just missing the little burn at the end of the alcohol.

Matt 32:34

Yeah, I mean, we're not gonna get that within anything that we drink tonight.

Jen 32:38

But it's it's good. I like it. It's sweet. I tend to gravitate more towards sweet things.

Matt 32:44

So I mean, when I used to go to the liquor store when you could drink alcohol, I'd end up every trip with and a bottle of Moscato for Jen. That was like how the brain process worked. And um and that other stuff.

Jen 32:55

Oh my gosh, what was that? It's like five dollars a bottle. It's so cheap.

Various 32:59

Oh, that really cheaper. We shouldn't even, I shouldn't even champagne stuff. Andrew strawberry, no, it's not Andre.

Jen 33:07

So you know what? Okay, speaking of Andre, we used to serve that at my old job, like around this is good, around Christmas time. And um, we we had some there and it was left over, and I was like, Oh, it's from last Christmas. Did that did it age? Maybe it tastes better, and I'll never forget the one girl's like, oh, no, this does not age. Oh no.

Chris 33:30

You cannot be fine, Andre. Ooh.

Siobhan 33:37

Yeah. Wait, what are you guys? I'm trying to figure it out then. Sutter home.

Matt 33:41

No, I can see, I can see the bottle. It's got a gold label, it's got like a gold plastic top on it. It has a strawberry on it. Oh my gosh, this is gonna be.

Jen 33:51

Is that local? No, because like we had it in the limo at her wedding.

Matt 33:57

It was not by choice.

Siobhan 33:58

I mean, no, it's from Arbor Mist.

Jen 34:01

It was an Arbor Mist. I'm not a big thing. Do you kind of miss Arbor Mist now? I don't really like the brand, but we get it. I don't remember what it was, but it's okay, not five dollars. It's like seven dollars. Okay, listen, that's basically five. But whatever.

Siobhan 34:14

I mean, for me, it was it was good enough. You like what you like, that's all that matters.

Matt 34:19

Verdi.

Jen 34:20

Verdi. Oh, but not the plain one. It was the strawberry flavored one. Those are screw top champagne.

Matt 34:30

Yep. Yes.

Jen 34:31

I loved it.

Matt 34:32

That's a thing. I I hung out at a bar in college when the party used to get going.

Various 34:36

They'd be like date.

Matt 34:37

Two dots get a bottle of champagne. It would be a bottle of Verde every time. Man, gross.

Chris 34:42

I forgot about it. At that age, you don't know better.

Matt 34:44

Oh, you know. True. I missed it. You were also, yeah, it's 1:30 in the morning. So it's fair.

Jen 34:49

Next one, we'll do that. Maybe a non-alcoholic cost.

Siobhan 34:51

Well, we should get a vodka alternative. We don't have one of those, but which is basically potato water.

Matt 34:56

We do have something close though. I feel like this next one.

Siobhan 35:00

Wait, we still have to give our ratings. Y'all, we have been drinking. Not alcohol. Wake up. He just wants to rip through it. I know he really does.

Chris 35:08

Well, no, Matt said three. I said three. I said three. All right. What do you got, Shavon?

Siobhan 35:14

I'm um, great question, Chris. I'm the one that called for the ratings, huh?

Jen 35:19

I can't remember what I rated the brute. Do we rate that? Yeah.

Chris 35:24

Yeah. Yeah.

Jen 35:25

I forget what my rating was. I might go with a three.

Chris 35:28

I'm going another zero on this. Okay. This is this is a not gonna drink.

Jen 35:31

I'm gonna go with a five just because. Whoa. All right. I liked it better than this last one. Well, yeah, it's your favorite so far. It's my favorite so far just because I'm used to having Moscato and I like it more of the sweet things. Fair enough.

Matt 35:49

I'm doing this just for you. Spousal privilege.

Sound Effect 35:54

Stellar set.

Chris 35:58

Hey, if it hit if it hits the spot that you're looking for, who cares what it is, right? Like we've said that too much. Absolutely. It's what you're looking for. After a long day of work.

Jen 36:08

Some free Moscato. That's right. Give it up.

Matt 36:12

So I'm gonna cool my jets down here. It's all the sugar and all this got me all hyped. Yeah, probably. So uh next up, I feel like this one has a high bar to clear for Siobhan and I because we are both huge fans of this particular spirit. And that is gin. And we're gonna do this in a gin and tonic. Indeed. And hopefully not be sad afterwards. So let's see how this goes. Yeah. So, Siobhan, what do you got?

Siobhan 36:40

So, friends, this might be our Christa Rema round for Matt and I.

Chris 36:46

Yeah, yeah.

Siobhan 36:47

Because we're big gin fans, like you said. So this is ritual again, same as the whiskey alternative. This is a gin alternative. It's smells a little like pine salt. Um, we've already decided that. I didn't know. Sorry to color everyone's time with that.

Matt 37:02

Came out of the bottle eerily similar to bathroom cleaner.

Siobhan 37:06

But it does, yeah, it does say um a million other things like Siberian pine, coriander berries, sweet basil, English cucumber, all those types of things. Um, which are very gin adjacent slash gin references. So yeah, um, we'll see. We've mixed it with some tonic. Um, Matt did uh really real classy lemon juice in his, and I did some squeezes of lime in ours.

Matt 37:33

I know a lot of people like lime with the gin and tonic. You have a lot of it.

Siobhan 37:36

This is the classy lemon juice. Get ready. I don't think it's gonna make it any better or worse anyway, so you'll be fine.

Matt 37:43

That's honestly, it's how my dad introduced me to them. So when I went to a bar and they were like, here's a slice of lime, I was like, Why'd you make this wrong? And then I learned that the rest of the planet actually drank it with lime.

Siobhan 37:55

So well, I mean, it's again, to each their own, like as usual.

Chris 37:58

It smells really nice.

Siobhan 38:00

Oh, good. Get on it.

Chris 38:01

All right, here we go. Clinkies.

Siobhan 38:03

Clinkies. Matt and I are sad already. Hooray. Oh, too much lime. There's no lime in it. No?

Matt 38:11

What is it?

Siobhan 38:13

Whatever it is.

Matt 38:14

Too much. It's not the lemon. There's not that much in it.

Jen 38:19

It has a nice mine's very citrusy.

Siobhan 38:23

Yeah. It has a nice nothing, is the is the answer to that. Very, very tardy. Yeah. Spruce tips, if you will. It's not even though. It's much even.

Jen 38:35

Does that one have any kind of peppery finish?

Matt 38:39

I taste like I have gone to a Christmas tree farm and licked up the side of a pine tree. I don't taste that. I don't think it's a little bit more.

Siobhan 38:46

That's so funny. I definitely get that too. I mean, it's not dramatically. Let me mix it more. It's botanical.

Chris 38:53

Yeah, the but can botanical medicinal flavors, but it's not like slapping you in the face. It's it's really muted to me. No.

Jen 39:03

I've I don't taste the pine.

Siobhan 39:09

Yeah, that's why I get a I get a fair amount of the pine.

Chris 39:17

Like this is not spruce.

Siobhan 39:19

No. Gin is juniper. Juniper. Juniper. Yeah.

Jen 39:21

And I usually don't like gin.

Siobhan 39:23

Yeah. Are you gonna try it straight? Yeah.

Matt 39:26

Are you sure?

Siobhan 39:27

But yeah. They don't have alcohol in them, for God's sake.

Matt 39:31

Well, that's true.

Siobhan 39:31

I'm just um I mean, again, I'm not I am not adventurous in a lot of ways.

Jen 39:38

Very adventurous.

Siobhan 39:39

But beverage-wise, adventurous. Because I'm like, what? It's just it all texture-wise is the same. Might as well just try it, right? So I'm not adventurous.

Matt 39:49

So to dial back to episode one, perhaps if we put some of this underwater, I would have a panic attack still, probably.

Siobhan 39:58

Alright, let's see. It's worse.

Chris 40:04

Yeah, I I can't see any of these being good by themselves, so I'm letting it marinate. I feel like this is a really um like a really lame limeade.

Siobhan 40:20

Okay.

Chris 40:22

Like all I get is the lime, and then I get this like weird botanical finish that is is like not it's so muted it's nothing to me.

Jen 40:31

You had the lime. I had the lemon, but I'll it it tasted very citrus.

Siobhan 40:35

Do you know what's funny too because I don't actually even really like super botanical gin. Because this is the other thing. Like whiskey, the gin profiles are extremely varied.

Chris 40:49

Yeah, you've got a lot of different types. Yes.

Siobhan 40:50

So you've kind of got like really botanical gin. You've got really clean gin, like bee feeder gin from London, blue coat, which is what I'm also drinking today because I can't just only have this kind of gin. Right. Um clean, not really juniper. Then you've got like Bombay Sapphire, you've got like um tank array.

Matt 41:15

What's the one that turns collars?

Siobhan 41:17

That's the Empress. Yes. Yeah, the that's got the pea blossom in it. Yeah, that's delicious. That's a great gin. But all of those are really different, and this is almost like trying to be their weird cousin.

Chris 41:30

Okay, yeah. I and that's how I felt like the whiskey was too. Yeah.

Matt 41:33

I'm gonna branch out on my sound effects for this one and use one I don't normally use, but it's a bummer. Because that's just how this one makes me feel inside.

Siobhan 41:43

Yeah. Are you gonna do the what's the bad one?

Matt 41:46

Oh, you want I was afraid if I did that one, someone was gonna have to chug something, but cosmic chug, eminent.

Chris 41:55

Yeah, no, this is the opposite of that.

Siobhan 41:58

It's not the opposite, because the opposite is a stellar sip.

Chris 42:01

But no, ca cosmic chug is like for I I guess. That's typically broken rule or like trying to force it.

Siobhan 42:08

Well, they broke the rule because this isn't gin. That's really what it is. Yeah, I I I don't hate this. This is the other thing.

Chris 42:14

These, you know, it's the funniest part about these, and it's not like we didn't think this would happen, but you don't go for the NA version of the spirit you love a lot. Right. Right? Like, I'm not drinking an NA whiskey. The funny part about it in an NA gin. Like, it's just not But I would.

Siobhan 42:32

That would be the whole thing.

Chris 42:33

No, my point, my point, but that's my point is like it's not gonna happen. I don't think it's gonna happen. You're not gonna find a replacement that is gonna satisfy what you want out of that spirit.

Jen 42:44

Yeah, and considering how we were rating it, like I don't drink gin, I don't like gin, but I don't mind this. I don't like whiskey. Chris loved the wit, you know, so it was a disappointment for him. It was good for me.

Matt 42:55

So I think we have two things going on here. We have the my like personal subjective preference, but we also have the would I would I drink this because this is my favorite spirit. Like, would I actually consume this if I needed to, or could it be a replacement? And going back to the whiskey, it wasn't my favorite, but it made a passable old-fashioned the Moscato wine and and the brute can be those things if you need them to be those things. Totally. I don't feel that way about the particular gin. I think the the smell was off and the flavor profile was was just off for me personally.

Siobhan 43:31

Um Yeah, I mean, I'll say the more I'm drinking it, because I'm drinking it as we sit here, it's growing on me a little. It's not growing on me tasting more like gin, but the drink itself is growing on me.

Matt 43:45

Yeah. Okay.

Siobhan 43:46

So if someone gave me this on like a hot summer day and I was like, you know what? I've already had a real gin and tonic. It's hot. I want to hang out, but I want something like adjacent, yeah, and not like just a lime aid, I might grab this.

Matt 44:04

I'm gonna go ahead with the ranking. I'm gonna give you that a solid goose egg.

Siobhan 44:08

Dang, I don't know if I'm gonna give any of these a goose egg. I might do a one and a half. This is almost a two for me.

Chris 44:15

Yeah, this is a one for me because I would drink it, but yeah, it definitely wouldn't be something I I'd go for.

Jen 44:24

I'm trying to think. Um I think I actually like this one second. Good. Yeah, that's great. I like the wine. I I think I even liked it better than the sparkling brute as well. So I would give it like great, you know?

Chris 44:42

Yeah, this one this had like an interesting like um palette. Yeah, yeah. Like uh layer. It's really easy to drink and it's refreshing, and it's really like on a nice summer day, like this would be nice. To drink. I you know, it just is it it it there isn't much there other than that.

Siobhan 45:05

I think you just gotta change your mindset, you know. You gotta do one of those like listen. This isn't a gin and I'm not trying to make a gin and tonic.

Chris 45:12

Exactly.

Siobhan 45:13

I'm trying to make something that's gonna be kind of there.

Chris 45:16

Yeah.

Siobhan 45:17

Sure. But not all the way. Yeah. Just the tip. No. If you will. Okay, sorry. Rob's not here. I thought I would just try and infuse his spirit into this. Right.

Matt 45:29

He's listening and laughing. So we've tried spirits, we've tried wine. It is now time for beer. First up, non-alcoholic Samuel Adams called Just the Haze. Hazy, juicy, and refreshing. IPA style.

Various 45:47

No alcohol. So we're saved you though. Because you wanted to pick O'Dules. And I said.

Chris 45:57

Yeah, but it's like drinking Milwaukee beast. You know, it's terrible.

Jen 46:02

Yeah, but also like nice. I actually really liked Sam Adams' beer, so I'm I'm anxious to try to get it. There's a trend. Chris is having an athletic brewing company. Um, I don't want to mix my cup. So can I have a new cup, please? I got y'all.

Siobhan 46:21

Again, I was gonna say, like, there's a trend now. The more you go to wherever you buy beer, the more non-alcoholic flavors there are. Truly.

Matt 46:32

For sure.

Siobhan 46:33

Just the haze. All right. Smells good.

Matt 46:35

Just the haze. Let's uh it smells like an IPA. It definitely smells like a beer.

Chris 46:40

The smell is correct. This smells even more than the athletic.

Siobhan 46:45

This smells more than some IPAs I've had, to be fair.

Chris 46:49

Oh, I like that. Yeah. I don't love it, but I like it.

Matt 46:53

Yes, this would be great on a hot summer day. This is definitely a spring-summer beer.

Chris 46:58

Yeah. Yeah, this is the type of beer that I might start going towards more. Are you doing a backyard barbecue where you're gonna be drinking all day? Go for something like this so that you're not hungover the next day because it still tastes like beer.

Siobhan 47:13

Okay.

Chris 47:15

Like a an actual IPA beer, not a sad Milwaukee beast.

Matt 47:20

Sam Adams. I I'm just gonna go ahead and and Stellar Set.

Chris 47:29

The other funny thing is, Sam Adams has disappointed me recently, too. They've been going for like other random things trying to be cool, and I don't like them, but this works.

Matt 47:41

Yeah. This you could definitely pull off that placebo effect experiment with. You could definitely pull it off with this one.

Jen 47:47

Oh, for sure. I actually really like this.

Matt 47:49

Yeah?

Jen 47:50

I I think we should get some of this for me. Well, guess what?

Matt 47:52

There's five more cans down on the floor just for you.

Jen 47:55

I really like it. It almost I was I wanted to look at it because I I get like a lemon, but yeah, I'll be honest.

Chris 48:02

Or or orange under the colour.

Siobhan 48:04

Maybe a little it's a little weedy.

Chris 48:07

It is for me. Yeah. But you know what?

Siobhan 48:09

It I like it a lot. I'm just saying, like, I really like it. Are we splitting hairs? We're splitting hairs here, right? It does make me think of a good IPA.

Matt 48:19

Yeah.

Siobhan 48:19

I've probably had some worse alcoholic beers than this.

Matt 48:22

True. Oh, absolutely.

Siobhan 48:23

I mean, I know you have because you did the gross one.

Jen 48:27

Exactly. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of the smell, but it tastes really good.

Chris 48:31

Smells like beer, tastes like beer. The smell of it is just as important as the taste of it. Yeah. And so it can be really off-putting to be, you know, having something in the nose of a beer that is awful.

Jen 48:45

And it's only 98 calories for one. Yeah.

Siobhan 48:49

Just funny because normally the 100-calorie beer.

Chris 48:54

3.56.

Jen 48:55

You can have one of these babies in a hundred calorie pack, a snack.

Siobhan 48:59

Oh, that is really good.

Chris 49:00

3.56 over 5,000 check-ins, so that's not nothing. No.

Matt 49:05

Oh wow. That's respectable.

Siobhan 49:08

And it's I would definitely drink this.

Matt 49:10

I'm going, I'm, I'll give it a five. Out of everything we've tasted today, I will give that a five.

Chris 49:15

This is the best thing we've had so far.

Matt 49:16

Yeah.

Jen 49:17

It is high in carbs, but it's a calories. Well, it is and it isn't, right?

Matt 49:22

I reversed my trend of tanking us at the end, although we still have one more thing to try. So far, we're looking good. I'm checking this out.

Siobhan 49:29

I think this is my favorite overall. Oh, good call. I should check it in too.

Chris 49:34

Pretty darn. I didn't use the word darn. Good for N. Nice beer.

Matt 49:43

Matt and Friends Drink the Universe does have an untapped account. Recently opened.

Jen 49:47

Ooh, look at that. Check out. You're going professional.

Matt 49:51

I am.

Jen 49:52

This is good.

Matt 49:54

Yeah. It must be. You're both over there writing a good chair table.

Siobhan 49:58

Waiting a review as you're drinking it. We are. We're checking in on untapped.

Matt 50:02

So that's the next level. Would you check it in on Untapped immediately, apparently? This this one is in the city.

Chris 50:07

I'll check everything. Yeah, any beer. Well, I didn't do the the German or whatever we had uh during the beer bracket. Yeah. But every other beer I checked.

Matt 50:18

Last episode of the season is the budget beer bracket.

Chris 50:21

Oh, prepare yourselves, everyone. It's a doozy.

Matt 50:26

So the last one today I'm firmly on the fence about. We're gonna see. Same. We're gonna see. So Guinness has recently introduced a zero non-alcoholic beer. Okay, I was like good one. Yeah, I'm just kind of reading the can and thinking. So they've introduced a zero non-alcoholic beer. Beverage. Yeah, yep, beverage here. It looks like your traditional Guinness can. If you shake it, it's clearly got the little thing on the inside of it for the uh nitro pressure is a little bit. Cool. Yep, it does it has a widget. The only difference is that the can is blue. Um, there's blue rings on the can, but uh and has a big zero in the front for zero alcohol.

Siobhan 51:12

Well, that was like less satisfying, but it was still pretty good.

Chris 51:15

So the thing about Guinness, I was saying earlier off mic, Guinness isn't super alcoholic to begin with, right? You don't drink a Guinness and get a lot of alcohol out of it.

Matt 51:26

Like 4.5%. Right? It's not really hard.

Chris 51:29

And so what are you removing out of this?

Jen 51:32

I'm taking a sip of yours.

Chris 51:34

Oh, sure.

Jen 51:35

I don't want my own. Here's another cup. I can just take a sip of Matt's. That's fine. Oh no, I don't share drinks. What am I thinking? That's a face. Only my cat is sure drinks.

Siobhan 51:43

No, yeah. Oh, I don't know what we already heard. We heard the other episode. We don't want floaties. Very true. So there's floaties.

Chris 51:50

It smells like Guinness.

Various 51:52

It does, it does smell like Guinness. Smells like too. Oh, it smells really caramel. Pour is the right color, too. So everybody. It has a coffee smell to me, too.

Siobhan 52:01

Yeah, it's pretty roasty.

Matt 52:03

Guinness has a very distinctive color when it's poured. So if anybody's ever had a Guinness or seen it come out of a tap and know exactly what the color is. This has that color. Chris is going in. I'm right behind him. Oh, I forgot to clink.

Chris 52:16

Sorry.

Various 52:17

Clink. Bad luck.

Chris 52:19

It's almost there. It is almost there.

Matt 52:25

Nah. It there's oh, it's hard to nail the flavor that's missing. It's it's not creamy enough.

Siobhan 52:33

It's so smooth though. I mean, guys, I don't drink Guinness. I don't drink Guinness either. I betray my Irish heritage every time I'm not sure.

Matt 52:41

It's the creamy, but it it also doesn't dip down to that bitter that Guinness typically does. Like that is.

Jen 52:54

To me, it has a like a coffee taste to it. For sure.

Chris 52:58

That's what Guinness gets you. Like it's not coffee flavored, but it has that roast.

Jen 53:02

And it's not as thick. So I think I actually prefer that better.

Chris 53:06

It's a little thinner. And that's something that the big joke always is like, oh, you know, you don't need to have breakfast, you can just have a Guinness instead. Right. I disagree with that statement. Like, Guinness isn't heavy to me. I can drink three or four Guinness and and not Guinness Seuss's Guinness Guinness I Guinnai. Uh and not feel like I'm gonna die.

Various 53:27

Yeah.

Siobhan 53:28

I mean no one's also mucks are gonna die.

Chris 53:32

But when you're when you're tail is saying that like one replaces breakfast, I don't think that's true at all.

Siobhan 53:37

Maybe that's why I don't like Guinness. I don't eat breakfast. Maybe that might be a I'm not a big breakfast person either. See, look at us.

Matt 53:43

I'm a huge Guinness fan of the biggest. No green eggs and hey, I'm over here. I enjoy that particularly particular shot with the Baileys and the whiskey that gets dropped into the Guinness. Yep. I really like that one quite a bit. You could totally do that with the biggest. No, you can't.

Siobhan 53:57

He's trying to be PC, Chris.

Chris 53:59

Oh, I was trying to be a little bit lucky shot. Car pow. There we go.

Siobhan 54:04

Oh what? It's a car diddly diddly. That's what it is. It's a car diddly dedly.

Chris 54:11

All right, there we go. I'm sorry. It happened. I don't know what else. What happened? Things hist history happened. Can I ask more than a thing? History did happen. Thank you.

Matt 54:22

Colloquially. We all know history happened. I said it.

Jen 54:28

Thank you for trying to be kind.

Matt 54:29

I did. I did.

Jen 54:31

What do you rate it?

Matt 54:32

What do I rate? It's a good that's a good question. I give it a four.

Chris 54:37

I give it a f I give it a three and a half. I I would definitely not at all say you could replace Guinness with this, but in the absence of the availability of regular Guinness, I could drink this on St. Patrick's Day and not be super angry.

Matt 54:56

Yeah. Again, you could do that placebo effect uh experiment with this and get somebody to completely believe it's beer. And I think that's a high barred clear for something that's not beer.

Chris 55:06

For sure. Yeah, to believe it's beer. I don't think you could blind taste test this and mistake it for Guinness. You will be able to taste the difference between the two. That's if you told somebody was sitting in the tap line for a little bit, you might be able to get away with that. That's what I mean. Oh, yeah. Or if somebody doesn't really drink instead of it.

Siobhan 55:28

That's what I mean. I feel like that's what you could do. That's what I was gonna say.

Chris 55:31

Like the first two, you get your palate used to the regular thing, and then the third one, you hit them with the NA version and they don't notice the difference. Oh, yeah.

Siobhan 55:39

Well, and the beauty, I mean, the beauty of that still joked about you got some hydration a little bit still.

Chris 55:45

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, it's not sucking out the moisture from your body.

Siobhan 55:48

Right. What were you joking about?

Chris 55:51

It we were joking with the uh what what were those uh vodka cocktail in the cake? Oh, the kickstand. The kicker from kickstand brewing, yeah. Yeah, that we could like uh exchange those and really prank people, you know, after you're drunk a little bit, you wouldn't notice that we would put the that's just me.

Siobhan 56:08

Oh, yeah, you're at least we're trying to help people out by putting this one in and being like, don't have a hangover, have this zero percent.

Matt 56:14

Yeah, kickstand cocktails, by the way. Not kickstand brewing, sorry, kickstand. Thank you everybody for tuning in and listening. We hope you we gave you some ideas for things that you can go out and find and try.

Siobhan 56:25

And check it out on your own. Honestly, don't just listen to us, you know. Like we've got thoughts, but you know, you go check it out. I mean, I'll be honest, like the price point on some of these, I purchased a few of them. Not terrible. If you're used to like middle shelf liquor, you'd be in a good place.

Chris 56:41

Overall, I think it's a good thing to explore because you might surprise yourself with some stuff you might not normally try or something that you think might not be good, but actually turns out good.

Matt 56:53

So let's go around the table one time. Favorite thing that we've drank during this episode. We'll go, we started this way, we'll go with Siobhan first.

Siobhan 57:02

Okay. Um I might go with the IPA. Yes. I'm sorry, I'm gonna steal it because I I mean uh the whiskey's a close second for me. Nice, but I really that IPA is honestly.

Chris 57:16

I'm on the the Sam Adams hazy.

Jen 57:20

Are we going to me? Oh, or me now. Um, I'm actually gonna say the Sam Adams, even though I would normally go to something sweet like a wine, the Moscato, but I really like this. I think we need to get some of this for me.

Matt 57:34

All right. We can do that. It's a winner. I'm also going with the Sam Adams there, so one more time.

Sound Effect 57:41

Stellar Sam.

Matt 57:51

Thanks again for listening to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. Today's boozy quote comes from Dorothy Parker, who said I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. Please push all the buttons for us on social media. It's Matt Friends DTU on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. That's Matt and Friends DTU. For more information, including all the places you can listen to the podcast and where to find our merch store, visit Mattfriends DTU.com.