What do you want to drink? Alcohol-free drink recipes
Stopped drinking alcohol? Cutting down? Religion means it's a no-no? Maybe just don't fancy it right now? Good stuff. The thing is, you'll still need a go-to drink when you're out in restaurants, clubs and bars, or cosying up at home, or sitting out on verandas under the stars. Here are some of my favourite recipes for beautiful times.
Since this is likely to be the first in a series of articles, there's a fair bit of slightly-annoying blogger preamble. It's for your own good. The actual recipes are below this first one, so if you have no patience, skip down to the REAL RECIPES header.
Recipe 1: The Healthy Philosophy
Ingredients:
Any drink
Confidence
I've spoken before about how drinking alcohol has a certain arcane ritual and specialness to it, and how it's important to keep that specialness in your life, as you cut out the perception-altering part. But everything in its place: while alcohol-free living should be so much more than an apologetic diet coke, or a 'none for me, thanks' lemonade, that doesn't mean you need to go full-on with mocktails whenever you're out. Sometimes, all a venue has is alcohol, booze, more alcohol – and lemonade. What to do?
I try to take these moments as an opportunity to really experience something, in the here and now. It's all too easy to skip over so much of what we put into our bodies because we're not being mindful of the moment…
If you need reminding: you don't have to feel bad, or self-conscious, or weird for not drinking. You rock. Own it. Work it. Because confidence is something you do, not something you are, or have. So, simply put, do it.
Roll with whatever is available:
Enjoy being the one with the graceful pot of tea.
Order coffee and taste the layers of flavour. (Add cinnamon if you can! Ask for biscuits.)
Be you (or me) at 12: cherryade is incredible.
Notice how cola tastes different when you're actually thinking while drinking.
Be creative: lemonade is a good base for all kinds of additions. (Ask for a straw, cherries and garnishes if you can.)
Cordials, get down with their bad selves: blackcurrant, orange, lemon, lime. (Lime cordial is the bomb-dot-com in ice-cold seltzer water.)
Cut sweet flavours with tonic on ice.
I find alcohol-free beer can be a familiar, and complementary, taste companion when eating out. Becks Blue is often stocked by places these days, and works a treat alongside pizza and curry.
Literally anything can feel special if you let it. Including fizzy water (or as it's known by those in-the-know, fuzzy woo-wah – spelling debatable) with ice and a slice.
Take home point: when you don't drink, the world isn't set up to help you do you – so make an active choice to go with what's available, and find something wonderful within that experience.
REAL RECIPES
Philosophy aside, here are some simple mixes that make me smile big, for when I want to feel A Little Bit Premium. (Which is most of the time.)
Admittedly, some are more easily made at home – depending on the calibre of establishment you find yourself in – but that's what the list above was to help you with... Go back and read it now if you didn't. If you already did, give yourself a fist-bump. *Bump*
Notes on recipes:
Ingredients are scaleable: I'm not exact on amounts, which helps for scaling recipes to your receptacle. (It's easier to memorise them, too.) Being exact is for caking and baking, whereas this is about throwing rough quantities into a glass or jug to make something special and uniquely refreshing.
For any small amount of flavour-punch ingredients (vinegar – yes, there's vinegar in one – bitters, or syrup,) I advise that you add a little, then mix, sip, and add more if you need to. It's easy to balance flavours by adding more, but you can't subtract a dominant flavour once it's in the mix.
For long drinks, ice is nice: I prefer a handful, not a whole glass, because I don't want to be like 'Shlp...empty already!' Your mileage may vary. You do you, butterfly, and adjust the amounts by putting your ice in first, then making your drink around it.
Don't stress: life is about making it up as you go along (humming a half-remembered song) so have fun until the recipe is just right. Substitute diet versions of mixers as you see fit – I do. If you try something else that works, let me know.
Recipe 2: The Nojito
(Snappy name, no? Very pleased with self.)
I've seen riffs on an alcohol-free Mojito in various places around the net, and had a version of it in a restaurant. Here's mine.
Ingredients:
Ice
Apple juice: around 1/3 of your glass
Ginger beer/ale: around 2/3 of your glass
Lime juice: I go with half a lime per glass, cut into wedges
Sprigs of mint, a couple per cup.
Method:
1) Spank it: put a sprig in the palm of your hand, clap your hands around it, add the mint to your glass.
2) Muddle it: squeeze in your lime wedges, add them to the glass and muddle the mix (i.e. stir and bash it around) to bring out the flavours even more. You can do this with a straw, mixing stick, spoon, whatever – and it's a good idea whenever mint's in a drink recipe.
3) Mix it: add the ice, apple juice and ginger beer, garnish with some unspanked mint.
4) Tweak it: add more lime if you want it a bit more squiffy. I, personally, like it squiffy. Add sugar by the spoonful if that's what you're into, but you know you'll just get too excited mid-afternoon and need a nap.
Delicious!
Recipe 3: Wowee Maui
(Not a good name, but it's done now. Let’s move on.)
Probably my favourite drink of the last year. The proper version has coriander, but for the quick 'n' dirty bar version just ask for a tall glass containing the rest. It's a good going out drink, because most establishments with a bar stock those shit little bottles of both tonic and juice, and can rustle up a lime wedge or two. I like mine more tonic than pineapple, but can go 50/50 when out (because it's easier), and get them to top up the glass with seltzer water if need be.
Ingredients:
Ice
2/3 Tonic Water
1/3 Pineapple juice
Lime juice: I go with half a lime per glass, cut into wedges
Fresh coriander for muddling, and as a garnish
Add a little umbrella to feel all Club Tropicana
Method:
1) Spank it: squeeze lime wedges into a shaker with coriander leaves (chopped if you can be bothered). Shake hard, for a while. Strain into your glass.
2) Mix it: add ice, pineapple juice and tonic. Mix and garnish.
Club Tropicana drinks are freeeeeeeeeeeeeee, fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone. All that's missing is the seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea...
Recipe 4: Pink Fizz
This has strong flavours for people who like their drinks as bitter as they are. Or rather, as bitter I am. Tastes divine.
Ingredients:
1-2 tsp rosemary syrup
1/3 pink grapefruit juice
2/3 sparkling water (or lemonade if you like it sweeter)
Rosemary sprig to garnish
Ice
Let me level with you: you can dispense with all the faffy rosemary bits of this, fizzy grapefruit alone is fantastic when out and about. Non-pink is fine too. But the effort for the rosemary syrup is so, so worth it.
Recipe for rosemary syrup:
I make this in batches. Take 200ml water, and mix with 200ml sugar. Add to a small saucepan. Spank several sprigs of rosemary, strip the leaves add to the pan. Bring to the boil, stirring, and then simmer for a minute. Turn off the heat and let it sit for about half an hour. Strain it into a jar. Fridge it. The syrup keeps for a good few days, fridged, in an airtight jar. (Longer if you're less fussy and ate dirt when you were a kid like me. It's on you to judge it: only you know how clean your kitchen is, and how strong your immune system.)
Method:
Bosh all the ingredients into a tall glass. Mix. Garnish. Enjoy. Amazing.
Recipe 4: Alcohol-Free Pimms a.k.a. Whims
What does Pimms even taste of? Pimms. That's what. It's impossible to copy, but this is in the neighbourhood. It's weird, and wonderful, and oh-so-quaffable.
This is the least exact of all the recipes because it's really about feeling out your levels: for me it's 1/3 tonic to 2/3 lemonade, whereas others like 1/4 tonic and 3/4 lemonade.
The star ingredient here is balsamic vinegar, and to make up a jugful of this (with a litre or more of lemonade/tonic mix) you only need about a tablespoon of the stuff. Go drop-by-drop when making up by the glass.
Ingredients:
Ice
Tonic water (1/3 tonic to 2/3 lemonade for me, 1/4 tonic to 3/4 lemonade for others)
Lemonade
Balsamic vinegar (Danger! Danger! High VOLTage!)
Garnishes/infusions: strawberries, raspberries, orange, lemon, cucumber, mint, blueberries, etc
Method:
Mix up everything except the ice – I caution again to add the vinegar slowly, drop-by-drop, and taste the mix as you go. Let it sit for an hour. Add the ice, and enjoy. If you can't wait that long, muddle it hard, add the ice, and enjoy!
Weird, right? But good weird.
Recipe 5: The Bitter End(s)
Ingredients:
Lemonade
A big dash of bitters (there are dozens of types available)
I recently discovered that bitters are a thing. I never really used them when I was drinking, except where indicated in a recipe, but now I use them all the time.
(Full disclosure: bitters are made with alcohol, because they're basically a suspension of flavours in preserving liquid, i.e. alcohol. But you'll use such a small amount per glass, it's really negligible in terms of alcohol content. Still, one to watch for chums avoiding alcohol for religious reasons, and for whom I'd recommend trying out posh squash instead.)
Angostura bitters are widely available, and carried by most bars for cocktail making. A fat dash of these bitters in lemonade makes a drink that tastes like gummy cola sweets – not like cola itself, but like the sweets and the aftertaste of eating too many. It's brilliant.
It doesn't start and end with Angostura bitters though: you can get a range of types online if you look. Having no idea where to start, I purchased a Traveller's Set from The Bitter Truth and am loving it.
A dash of one of these bitters in lemonade creates a complex, weird, altogether unexpected flavour that's refreshing and moreish all in one fell swoop. The best part is that they each have a very distinct flavour profile. I use them like urbane squash - and I'm finding it hard to choose which one I like best at the moment, to be honest...
Okay, maybe not.
And there you have it. I hope you try out some of the recipes – you never know, you might even fall in love with your own new special drink from amongst them. If all else fails, there's always The Healthy Philosophy, which is the mix it's the most important to master anyway, right?
Love always,
Fay
xXx