Chicago-Based Ritual Zero Proof Enters The Non-Alcoholic Space
Originally published in Forbes.
Following the success of non-alcoholic distillate Seedlip, there’s a new American-made non-alcoholic spirit entering the sober fray.
Meet Ritual Zero Proof, which debuted in Chicago last fall and sold out of a projected six-month run in just over a month. Created by Marcus Sakey , GG Sakey and David Crooch, Ritual aims to be a one-to-one substitute for liquor and was designed with cocktails in mind. It’s available for sale online, and it’s about to launch on the East Coast in the next months.
Ritual launches with two iterations, a whisky and a gin substitute crafted with the flavors, mouthfeel and burn of traditional spirits. (A zero-proof tequila alternative is set to arrive later this spring, in time for summer events.)
“Ritual zero proof is the first American spirit alternative that echoes the taste, the smell and the burn of liquor without the alcohol or calories,” co-founder Marcus Sakey says. “Our whisky alternative is rich with vanilla and caramel. Our gin is bright and herbaceous. They both have the heat and the bite that you expect of alcohol. You need that to make a proper cocktail.”
The nascent brand has already picked up investment from Distill Ventures, Diageo’s investment arm. Distill Ventures was an early investor in British brand Seedlip, the first non-alcoholic distillate; Diageo took a majority stake in the brand last August, just four years after its launch.
As Dry January grows in popularity each year, there are signs that more people not only are seeking out sober alternatives, they are doing so beyond just one month a year. According to a 2019 report from the University of Sussex, people who took part in Dry January sustained healthier drinking patterns throughout the rest of the year. Drinking days fell from 4.3 to 3.3 per week, while 82% of respondents felt more about their relationship to drinking and alcohol.
Yet even as people seek to lessen their alcohol intake, they may not necessarily seek to stop socializing or want to give up cocktails altogether. Ritual began, in part, when Marcus Sakey began tinkering with non-alcoholic options for himself and his then- pregnant wife. “In 2018, I took a conscious break from liquor and I realized I didn’t miss the alcohol, I missed the ritual of the alcohol,” he says. “Making a really nice drink and settling in with a book and a cocktail.”
“Ritual Zero Proof is not whisky with the whisky taken out,” he explains. “It’s not a subtractive process. It’s an additive one. It’s like cooking. You take the best ingredients that reflect the taste of what you’re trying to create and then you combine them with precision and art.”
Ritual Zero Proof aims to slot into the place where people might want to drink but they are more mindful about how they do it, Sakey says. “It’s not about getting rid of alcohol,” he says. “We’re not anti-alcohol at all. We’re just another tool in the cocktail kit.”
“To us, Ritual is about more,” the novelist turned spirits entrepreneur adds. “It’s the third drink that lets you stay out a little longer. It’s the low-ABV cocktail when you mix it with actual spirits. It means you can have two instead of one.”
