Removing the alcohol removes the bite, and a zero-proof gin has to find that bite somewhere else. NONA Drinks solves it with black pepper and basil rather than with sugar, which is why June reads as a spirit and not as a soft drink. Nine botanicals, juniper among them, and nothing added to imitate warmth artificially.

Citrus leads and it has to, since fresh fruit gives the top the immediacy that alcohol would otherwise supply. It is bright and clean across the opening, with none of the cordial quality that sinks most alcohol-free bottles. Black pepper follows across the middle and carries the important work: its heat is aromatic rather than burning, and it lands on the tongue in roughly the place where a spirit's warmth would be, which is what keeps the drink from tasting flat. Basil sits alongside it, green and slightly aniseed, and its freshness stops the pepper from becoming the only thing you notice. Juniper holds the centre, pine-clean, and it is present enough that the bottle earns its category rather than borrowing it. The finish is short, which is honest: without alcohol nothing carries as far, and the recipe does not pretend otherwise.

The producer's own drink is the June & Tonic, and it is the right build. Fill the glass with ice before anything else, since a chilled base matters more here than in a spirit, use a plain tonic, and pour a full measure since there is no strength here to dilute. A basil leaf clapped once and dropped in follows the recipe; a lemon wheel sharpens the citrus. It also works neat over ice. The category is full of bottles that taste like weak cordial, and the difference here is structural rather than a question of flavouring. It ends citric, peppery and fresh.