It’s difficult to find unusual drinks – and this one is very different. For a start it’s non-alcoholic but leaves you a bit giddy, it’s a rich taste but only 38.2 calories and it changes every time you mix it. Developed in a fragrance-house just outside Amsterdam but now firmly in the English countryside this is a drink to really shake things up. The journey to ZEO began four years ago with a spend of £16 million, a great international team, backed by some serious Russian money and leads us to an adult drink beyond sweetness and stickiness, beyond the norm, beyond alcohol.
Lightly carbonated with a distinctive taste sensation and a taste profile of ‘distilled’ drinks but without any alcohol. The blend of pure and natural extracts and essences are chilling, warming and tingling. The 32 ingredients, a secret recipe known only to two people, contain extracts from trees, flowers, wild berries, fresh green herbs, grains and exotic spices. We picked up peppery capsicum, refreshing ginger, soothing elderflower, rosemary and mint. But it’s not any one of these flavours. The drink behaves differently with whatever you add to it. The Perfect Serve of the drink, on their branded mat, is with three pieces of fruit or herb so that you can create your own cocktail. That means you could make four drinks – pure ZEO being a tingling, palette-cleanser between your own creations. We found that the drink magically absorbs the flavour and smell of whatever you add to it. The taste combinations are endless.
ZEO really refreshing!
It’s the chameleon of drinks and Alan Greenhalgh, Gary Lutke and Charlotte Lamont from Shinesquad spent an afternoon mixing it up at Apartment 58 in Soho and left with a buzz but no hangover. We were treated to a cocktail making class and had a lot of fun with handsome Christian Ozzati – half Welsh and Italian, one of London’s leading mixologists having won numerous awards and who is the Executive Brand Ambassador for ZEO, Isaac Morrisson from Dash Concept and glider Neil Foster from Cubo PR.
This was our tray of ingredients and we went through each of them to see, smell and taste how the drink can be used.
ZEO Cocktail Ingredients – this is what we had to work with!
It’s also perfect as a match for food and we see it taking off with curries, Mediterranean and oriental dishes. We tried the ZEO Fusion – a bunch of fresh green rocket, a twist of ground black pepper, lemon juice, a teaspoon of agave syrup and iced ZEO and we were transported to the terraces of Tuscany. The gentle but spicy ZEO Wasabi Sherbet should be perfect with sushi. A sophisticated change comes for G&T drinkers with a G&Z of Hendrick’s gin, a long strip of cucumber and ZEO – it’s much more refreshing than with a sour-edged tonic. As drink and cocktail it is so versatile. You will be surprised by the different sensations. Drink with tequila late at night bringing out the subtle flavour’s of Mexico’s national spirit and you’ll be glad you are not slamming shots at a bar with your drunken mates.
Christian Ozzati – Executive Brand Ambassador for ZEO
Isaac Morrison with our favourite ZEO Spritz
ZEO – a refreshing sensation
It seems they’ve thought of everything, even the bottle has a ridge so that you can pour the drink at the required 45 degree angle and pull away without spilling a precious drop.
Available NOW from over 60 premium bars in London – such as Long Bar at The Sanderson, Mahiki and the London Cocktail Club at around £4-5. You can expect to see them at Nikki Beach and in Ibiza. There are lots of events planned for their roll-out, so follow them out on twitter @ZEOmixologist and on Facebook/SeekZEO.
Also online from www.TheDrinkShop.com for £1.75 275 ml bottle from mid August 2012.
Proving that drink doesn’t have to be alcoholic to be interesting.
November see the brand being advertised at Bond Street underground station
ZEO at Bond Street Tube Station November 2012
Absolutely undrinkable – don’t touch!
I got 6 free bottles of this stuff which tastes utterly foul. Judging by the taste it is obviously a random chemical cocoction which at best tastes like a very cheap mouthwash. The main ingedient is SUGAR so it is not low calorie, though may be lower than some other drinks. There is no mention of fruit or anything natural on the list of ingredients but steviol gycosides is listed. That is E960, a sweetener which cannot legally be described as ‘NATURAL’ under EU food labelling regulations.
first off.. i tried buying this stuff in london and almost nobody ist stocking it.. maybe 6 bars but not 60. secondly.. this drink is rubbish. tastes like crap and has artificial sweeteners in it.. which genius invented this bollox ??