The Non-Alcoholic Campari & Soda
August 30, 2011
I may still be figuring out the best techniques to use to dehydrate Campari and other liqueurs, but I have enough successful powder around now to start using.
My first drink was the Campari & Soda, using dehydrated Campari powder. It should be essentially non-alcoholic as the alcohol burns off long before the water before it becomes solid.
After a few tries to get the ratios right, here's what works.:
Take a 3-4 ounce glass of soda water,
add a tablespoonfull of dehydrated Campari powder,
and 1/2 teaspoon of 2:1 simple syrup. I found that 1:1 added the sweetness necesary that made it taste like Campari again, but it missed the syrupyness that makes Campari Campari.
It also lacks the brightness of Campari, and an expressed orange peel fixed that right up, so don't forget that even though it's not in the picture.
(Campari & Soda (left) and the non-alcoholic version (right))
The Solid Liquids Project index is at this link.
How much of the liqueur's aromatics vacated along with the alcohol and water?
Posted by: Frederic | August 30, 2011 at 09:18 AM
all of the orange-ness goes away, which is why I needed to add orange peel to the drink.
Posted by: Camper English | August 30, 2011 at 09:52 AM
Thanks for posting. Have you tested if any alcohol remains in the finished drink? I'm unsure if all the alcohol evaporates... Do you know definitively?
Posted by: Tony | December 18, 2015 at 05:40 AM
Hello - I'm not able to measure it, but in the time since this story came out I found a few articles about liquor used in cooking, and they said that there is some alcohol remaining in foods cooked with alcohol. So I'd say there is a chance it's not completely non-alcoholic.
Posted by: Camper English | December 18, 2015 at 11:47 AM
Foods cooked with alcohol have a lot more moisture in them than Campari powder does, though. If you successfully remove all the water, it's unlikely you have any alcohol left either.
Posted by: Luke Ruppersburg | December 18, 2016 at 07:32 PM