Meet the Former French Laundry Sommeliers Elevating the Nonalcoholic Bitters Industry

(Photos: All the Bitter)

Carly and Ian Blessing met while working as sommeliers at The French Laundry, the three-Michelin-starred Napa Valley eatery known the world over for biodynamic farming, white sturgeon caviar and $1,000 glasses of Domaine de Montille Premier Cru. It was an atmosphere of innovation and constant discovery. One that, for the Blessings, revolved around booze more often than not.

The couple’s passion for alcohol fizzled. They had kids and moved to Chico, California, gave up drinking and began searching for alternatives that lived up to the lofty expectations their well-honed taste buds demanded. The nonalcoholic beverage market – now a multi-billion-dollar giant – was still in its infancy. The variety just wasn’t there yet, especially when it came to fully rounded, restaurant-ready cocktails.

“We got into nonalcoholic alternatives as people who enjoy the flavor, the ritual and the story of a well-made beverage,” Ian Blessing told us. “We realized that, at the time, there were a ton of nonalcoholic spirits on the market but very, very few options for alcohol-free cocktail bitters, an incredibly important component of drinks.”

Over 100 test recipes later, All The Bitter was born. The brand set out to recreate the bittersweet backbone of drinks like the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan with nary a drop of alcohol in the formula. Everything is made in-house, and though the couple is quick to distance themselves from words like “scientist,” their fondness for aprons and frothing beakers tells a different story.

We sat down with the team to learn more, discovering the ins and outs of a product that has the unique potential to elevate an entire industry.

A Dash of Difference

Whether alcoholic or zero-proof, bitters can best be thought of as the spices of the mixology world. A splash of this for cloves and cinnamon; a dash of that for an undercurrent of chamomile. They are the culinary touch that distinguishes a mixed drink from a full-fledged cocktail. They are, in a sense, a taste of maturity. As Ian Blessing puts it: “Bitterness is an adult flavor. It slows down your drinking, and it reminds us that we’re not sipping on a kid’s mocktail.”

As nonalcoholic drinks began filling out the menus of top bars and restaurants, the lack of zero-proof bitters posed an existential dilemma. This was a category fighting hard for mainstream recognition, eager to prove itself at a time when the term “mocktail” was largely synonymous with Shirley Temples.

Many mixologists began using alcoholic bitters inside otherwise boozeless cocktails. But the math added up fast. Bear in mind that bitters are typically bottled around 60 proof, with some of the more popular options — namely Angostura — climbing up to nearly 90. That’s higher than a standard bottle of liquor, and consumed even in small quantities, a reminder of everything the movement is trying its best to leave behind.

“An Old Fashioned is a great example. Even with dilution, with ice, that drink is no more than four ounces of liquid,” Ian Blessing says. “Two dashes of Angostura brings that up to over 0.5% alcohol. Three dashes to 0.75%, four dashes to 1%, so on and so on. And the truth is, bitters certainly help the drink. Because NA spirits don’t carry the same weight.

“Plenty of people are comfortable with that. And plenty more aren’t. It’s not necessarily about intoxication; it’s about personal preference. People might not be drinking for religious reasons, health issues, pregnancy, recovery from alcohol abuse or medications that can’t be mixed.”

All The Bitter set out to remedy the blind spot. The brand’s core offerings mimic the holy trinity of bitters found at bars across the globe. Its “Aromatic,” a riff on Angostura, makes use of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and gentian root, while the Peychauds-adjacent “New Orleans” incorporates anise, cherry, hibiscus and rosehips. The “Orange” (explanation not necessary) is crafted from citrus peel, coriander and lemon balm.

Developing the recipes was a process of trial and error. Though the couple had years of experience at one of America’s preeminent drinks programs, neither was a chemist nor a food scientist. But they also weren’t starting from scratch. All the Bitter’s origins began inconspicuously enough, when Ian Blessing delved deep into herbalism as his early-COVID-era hobby of choice (“Everyone else was making sourdough – I was making teas, bottle-fermented sodas and trying to recreate traditional root beer recipes,” he says).

The Blessings conducted the first year of research and development in their home kitchen, tinkering with batches of ginger, ashwaganda and skullcap that would eventually find their way into the final product.

“It took over 100 iterations between the three flavors. We probably created about 40 or 50 single-ingredient extracts, and that’s where we started. Because we’re not using alcohol, we’re using a base of glycerin, water and vinegar. And herbs extract differently in glycerin than they do in water, or alcohol or any other solvent.”

The brand settled on a formula that requires its ingredients to steep together for up to three months. Much like conventional bitters, the flavors are allowed to marinate in a heady stew of herbs, spices and roots, crackling with aromas strong enough to leave the entire town of Chico, California, in a constant state of botanical bliss.

In its first year, All the Bitter shipped 30,000 bottles from its shared commercial kitchen and the Blessing’s bedroom. Thanks to continuing demand, the operation has since expanded. The brand’s current facility comprises a dedicated production space, two warehouses, a tasting room and a nonalcoholic bottle shop. It’s a treasure trove of options for anyone hoping to explore NA beverages. Incidentally, the space has also afforded the couple unprecedented insight into the comings and goings of consumer preferences.

Over the past few years, the conversation surrounding zero-proof drinks has primarily focused on younger consumers. Reports suggest that Gen Z is drinking less than generations before them, and though it’s widely debated whether THC legalization, trade tensions, screen time or some combination of the above is to blame, there’s a quiet understanding that NA brands target the 20-something cohort, more often than not through pastel-colored branding and influencer-backed marketing campaigns.

Ian Blessing has a different perspective. All the Bitter’s home base of Chico is a medium-sized college town with a population over 100,000 — by all means, the perfect testing grounds for the NA drinks economy. We imagined a demographic cobbled together by market trends of the day. The health-conscious student trading White Claw for dealcoholized wine; one too many shots of Fireball paving the way to an interest in digestive botanicals. Ian Blessing, however, suggests that’s not exactly the case.

“Kids who aren’t drinking don’t have any reference point. They don’t drink Old Fashioneds, they don’t know what a Negroni is, they’re not enjoying wine. They have very little interest in nonalcoholic alternatives across the board,” he said. “The people we see coming into our store are people who drank alcohol, or currently drink alcohol. It’s people who’ve enjoyed cocktails for years. Or maybe it’s just a Tuesday night, and they want something that’s not going to leave them hungover the next day.”

Thanks in part to brands like All The Bitter, the nonalcoholic space has already reached a point of true maturity. The only hurdle left? Convincing consumers of the finer details.

Ian Blessing ended our conversation with an aside that might seem self-evident at first glance: “A nonalcoholic cocktail is a cocktail made with a nonalcoholic spirit, just as an alcoholic cocktail is made with an alcoholic spirit.”

The distinction is of the utmost importance for those hoping to legitimize the category. As the popularity of nonalcoholic alternatives climbs year after year, so too do accusations of inauthenticity and price gouging. The idea that a zero-proof beverage should always cost less than its alcoholic counterpart, that the efforts of an experienced bartender are lessened by the absence of booze in their signature cocktail.

“The root cause of it, I’m concerned, is the word ‘mocktail.’ Mocktails used to be Shirley Temples: pineapple juice, grenadine, Sprite, syrups, sodas and juices. When we think of mocktails, that’s what we think of. We’re never going to win changing that word,” Ian Blessing says.

“So, even if you’re making proper cocktails with nonalcoholic spirits and calling them zero-proof cocktails, and they cost just as much to make, and they taste identical to a margarita, and they contain less juice, less sugar and, I guarantee you, less calories, people are still going to see a nonalcoholic cocktail and question why it costs $15.”

Education is key, as is tangibility. For Ian and Carly, the time-intensive, hands-on process behind each bottle of bitters is a living testament to a category that demands a place at the bar.

Find the All The Bitter tasting room and bottle shop at 144 Meyers St. in Chico, California. For more information about the brand, find its website here.