Mocktail Club's non-alcoholic cocktails are complex, weird and incredibly interesting

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Mocktails occupy a weird space in the non-alcoholic realm. Some try to emulate the boozy influence of the mixed drink they’re copying, to unsatisfying effect. Others don’t, risking becoming just a fancy, expensive soda in the process. Few walk the fine line between “tasty” and “actually approaching a cocktail” like you’d hope.

Thus, I had few expectations when a sampler from Mocktail Club arrived at my door. The four-pack of craft, non-alcoholic cocktails promised big fancy flavors you’d typically find at the kind of bar where hirsute servers wear vests and an occasional trilby. Shrubs, cardamon, lemongrass, ginger, all the carefully composed elements of an $18 mixed drink were there.

OK, well, expectations raised. Let’s see if this is just fancy nonsense or a mocktail worth drinking.