Three non-alcoholic cocktail recipes, from the New Bar, Optimist Fresh and Figlia

“Free Spirits’ the Spirit of Gin, a ginger-heavy drink that tries to use the spice to mimic the burn of alcohol, didn’t quite work for me. Even mixed with tonic water, it tasted more like a gingery dark & stormy than a gin. But a Los Angeles company, OPTIMIST Botanicals, offered a more appealing, herby gin replacement, flavored with cilantro, oregano and habanero, as well as juniper and lime. Optimist Fresh might not have the bite of actual gin, but once Gonzalez, the New Bar owner, mixed it into a spicy gimlet garnished with arugula, I could barely tell the difference.”—Lois Beckett, The Guardian.