2019 Clean Choice Awards: Beverages
Inventive flavor combinations and purified ingredient lists made sipping something to savor.
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Reader’s Choice Winner
Bright & Bubbly
Brooklyn Crafted 7 oz. Extra Spicy Ginger Beer is a piquant and zingy sipper that was a handsdown favorite at our reader’s choice event. The fizzy bevvy makes a perfect pairing with salty snacks. $2, drinkbrooklyncrafted.com
Cashew Craving
With no gums or emulsifiers, Elmhurst Unsweetened Milked Cashews is the ideal alt to add to drinks or to sip on its own. The drink is chock-full of nuts, containing five times more than the average, and it also froths up fantastically. $6, elmhurst1925.com
Better Brew
Up your java game with Simply Organic Pre-Brew Spices in Cinnamon Spices. This warming blend contains Ceylon cinnamon and orange peel and has been mixed to complement light roasts. Add a teaspoon to ground coffee before brewing and enjoy. $9, simplyorganic.com
Rare Roast
Combining two styles of coffee beans, Mash-Up Coffee Sumatra + Peru delivers the best of each. Deep spice notes from Indonesian-grown coffee and chocolate notes imparted from the South American plant blend to form an intoxicating match. $7, mashupcoffee.com
Intense Imbibe
Tired of downing energy drinks full of sugars and additives, John Mittel, a med student, designed Clear/Cut Phocus, made instead with caffeine from green tea extract, infused with natural flavors and sparkling water to hydrate. $2, drinkphocus.com
Double Chocolate
An aromatic blend of 68% Bolivian chocolate and 74% Dominican chocolate make up the Cacao Premium Drinking Chocolate. For an intensely rich and decadent drink, simply heat cream and stir in. $25, cacaodrinkchocolate.com
Garden Fresh
Using copper still distillation to extract the essence of fresh herbs, Seedlip Garden 108 is a nonalcoholic and unsweetened spirit sure to please teetotalers and lushes alike. An herbal base of rosemary and spearmint and top notes of peas makes it a complex libation. $36, seedlipdrinks-us.com
A Better Buch
Crisp and refreshing, GT’s Kombucha Enlightened Synergy Pink Lady Basil contains both black and green tea and uses kiwi juice to sweeten. $4, gtslivingfoods.com
Simply Steeped
With no added flavors or sweeteners, Unsweetened Straight Up Tea is pure and simple – water and tea leaves. Our team was impressed by the drink’s satisfying and bright taste. $2, straightuptea.com