OBSESSIONS
20 JANUARY 2021
TAKE A LOOK at your liquor collection. Chances are,
each bottle earned its spot by dint of craftsmanship
and flavor. Now, consider your choices when it comes to
premade mixers: cranberry juice, margarita mix, ginger
ale—they’re typically packed with juice concentrates or
artificial flavoring. Combining them is like investing in
one of those fancy electric toothbrushes your dentist is
proud of you for using, only to brush with corn syrup
instead of toothpaste.
Tired of seeing beautiful spirits sullied with mass-
market counterparts, Columbia Business School class-
mates Denetrias “Dee” Charlemagne and Alex Doman
recently launched Avec to rethink the premade cocktail
mixer category “along modern values,” using high-end
ingredients and minimal additives and sugars. Char-
lemagne comes from an advertising background, while
Doman worked as a consultant for food and beverage
companies across the United Kingdom; by merging
their backgrounds, they ensure that their mixers are
made with the same amount of care as a bottle of high-
end gin or vodka.
Avec isn’t alone. Better-made mixers like Swoon and
Root have been slowly trickling into homes, but to
develop their five flavors, the cofounders specifically
tinkered with common mixer and spirit pairings and
set out to devise healthier, more complex carbonated
versions of each for American consumers. Hibiscus
and pomegranate, for example, is intended to entice
cranberry-vodka devotees. Grapefruit and pomelo is
for lovers of the paloma; ginger mimics ginger beer in
a mule. Jalapeño and blood orange shines in margaritas,
and yuzu and lime was designed to accompany vodka.
By relying on ingredients like allspice, Ceylon cinna-
mon, pomelo, and lemongrass extracts, Charlemagne
and Doman are aiming to simplify the making of pre-
mium cocktails (which might otherwise require lots
of specialty ingredients) at home. While Avec was cre-
ated with alcohol in mind, they also elevate alcohol-free
drinks. “A lot of customers use us in mocktails, and we
definitely also see ourselves as part of that movement,”
says Doman.
Shop the sampler pack for three of each flavor of
Avec, including our favorite, grapefruit and pomelo.
($45, avecdrinks.com)
Mixer Makeover
It’s time to pay attention
to what’s in that cocktail
glass, besides booze.
By Oset Babür
EDITORS’ PICKS
photography by VICTOR PROTASIO
FOOD S
TYLING: MAR
GARET
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OE DICKE
Y; PR
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STYLING:
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