CleanCo Clean G Non Alcoholic Gin Alternative, 70cl

Product Information

Flavour profile: Flavours come through strong with infused lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme, myrtle, orange and lemon peel.

Known sometimes as 'clean gin' alcohol free options are full of the flavours that you would find in regular, alcoholic spirits but many either have a very low alcohol content or none at all. IF you love the taste of alcohol but the thought of a hangover makes you shiver, then may we bring to your attention some of the best non-alcoholic gins for your consideration. Feragaia has a six-month shelf life once open, and uses potassium sorbate, a common, odourless salt to help with preservation, along with citric acid. Gordon’s 0% spirit recommends you store it in the fridge and use within two months of opening. Hailing from the UK, Clean Co has been making waves with their non-alcoholic spirit alternatives. One of the spirits I wanted to try was their Clean G, a non-alcoholic gin alternative. I’ve always been a fan of alcoholic spirits, and when I decided to swap my alcohol for non-alcoholic alternatives, I was glad to see companies like Clean Co popping up to serve people like me.

Aromatic botanical ingredients, including real juniper are carefully sourced, blended to our secret recipe and distilled. The resulting distillate is mixed with other ingredients to create the finished non-alcoholic spirit. I find myself being very unimpressed with CleanCo Clean G. It is definitely not the best alcohol-free gin I’ve tasted and reviewed, and I’m not sure why the judges at IWSC gave it such high scores ( which makes me wonder how bad the other gins were). Producing a decent shelf-life is not the only issue with these drinks. “Ensuring the right juniper character for Gordon’s 0.0% alcohol free spirit was particularly challenging as juniper’s insolubility with water created significant challenges,” says Charlotte Gibbon, the British head of marketing at Gordon’s. The drink is made in a similar way to Feregaia: distilling in water, rather than in alcohol. It, too, uses potassium sorbate and artificial sweeteners. These help keep the drink down to a mere 6 calories per 50cl, compared with 104 for a full-strength Gordon’s. But they do give the drink the faint odour of handwash. From London Dry to a few more progressive flavour combinations, we’ve hit the bars and bottleshops to source the very best alcohol-free gins to put on your drinks list. We’re going to run through the pros and cons, so strap in and simmer down. Here is a list of the best non-alcoholic gins in Australia.

Adding ice to Clean G helped to tone down the strong lemon notes, but it also washes out the juniper notes even more. I usually like adding ice to my non-alcoholic gins, but in this case, I prefer Clean G neat. Clean G is inspired by the London Dry Gin and made from botanical ingredients such as real juniper, and it has even won the Gold award at IWSC (International Wines and Spirits Competition) 2021. At the IWSC, the judges mentioned pine, wood, floral, citrus, and juniper aromas, a smooth mouthfeel of spice, and ginger as a spicy finish.

Lucy Holmes, director of research and policy at Alcohol Change, says the UK’s labelling confusion needs to be cleared up, and some 0.5% “alcohol-free” beers need to be more upfront about their very small alcoholic content. “If you have chosen to avoid alcohol because, say, you are pregnant and trying to avoid any alcohol whatsoever, or if you have religious reasons to avoid alcohol, you do want to know if there’s any alcohol in it or not,” she argues. But this confusion has not hindered the industry, allowing it to develop a whole raft of drinks just above 0% and to rechristen this sector as “no-lo”. My first impression is that Clean G gin tastes more like a shot of watery botanicals water than gin. The taste is citrus-forward with lots of dry lime. It starts off being slightly bitter from the lime before becoming more like a lime juice.