Godai
This zero-proof version of an Old Fashioned took some trial and error. It starts with Lyre’s non-alcoholic whiskey, but Altamarea Group bar programs director Kelly Verardo said that, although she liked the product’s nose, “we wanted a little bit more flavor profile.”
So they infused it with corn tea and wheat tea to make it taste more like bourbon, along with some spices.
“We tried to use oak staves, but it didn’t work,” she said. “It worked better to just add some cinnamon and cloves.”
As with Fifty Three’s Old Fashioned, it’s sweetened with a molasses-heavy Okinawa sugar that has natural anise elements, as well as Fee Brothers zero-alcohol bitters, which that company has been making since Prohibition times. It’s served with a smoldering licorice root.
To avoid any confusion with the full-proof Old Fashioned, it’s served in a different glass, but with the same ice and garnish.
“We want the same love to go into both of them,” Verardo said.