The Daily Pour is excited to announce the winners of the inaugural Zero Proof Choice Awards, a competition honoring the year’s best alcohol-free beverages. Medals were awarded across eight categories spanning spirit alternatives, wine, beer, mixers, functional beverages and ready-to-drink cocktails, with products submitted from producers around the world.
The Zero Proof Choice Awards were founded by The Daily Pour, the beverage media platform covering spirits, non-alcoholic and hemp drinks, as a dedicated evaluation system for a category that on the rise. The premise: Non-alcoholic beverages deserve judges who deeply understand the category and what consumers want.
Head Judge and Master of Ceremonies Derek Brown, founder of Drink Company and the Columbia Room, a longtime advocate for mindful drinking, led a jury of bartenders, sommeliers, retailers and beverage-industry veterans who work in NA on a daily basis. That panel included Abe Zarate, Alex Highsmith, Caleb Ganzer, Estelle Bossy, John deBary, Karl Williams, Laura Silverman of Zero Proof Nation, Lauren “LP” O’Brien and Rich Buchanan and Andrew Eisbrouch.
Judging was conducted blind and by category, with products served in coded glasses and no bottles visible to the panel. Each entry was tasted by at least three judges and scored before judges conferred to settle on a final medal.
Judging took place in August. Below are the full medal results by category.