Recipes

How to Make a Mocktail That Actually Tastes Good

Plus, a recipe so damn tasty you won’t believe it’s alcohol-free.
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This article is part of Dry January, Straight Up, your no-BS guide to cutting out alcohol for 31 days—or longer. SELF will be publishing new articles for this series throughout January. Read more here.

Not that you should expect kegs and red solo cups to disappear any time soon, but between Dry January (or the damp version) and the sober-curious boom, lots of folks are reconsidering their relationship to alcohol—and a whole new market has sprung up to cater to these drinking-culture defectors.

“Five years ago, if you were offering non-alcoholic drinks, you were on the cusp of the trend,” Brian Warrener, an associate professor at Johnson & Wales University and the director of the university’s Center for Beverage Education & Innovation, tells SELF. “Now, they’ve become a standard offering for responsible bars.”

These mocktails, non-alcoholic beers, and alcohol-free wines claim to mimic the experience of sipping a boozy drink. But “claim” is the key word: Not all non-alcoholic alternatives succeed at tasting like the real thing (or even tasting good, period). Some are too bitter or earthy, while others are basically indistinguishable from fruit juices or sodas. In fact, that’s the biggest mocktail-making challenge by far, Julie Reiner, author of The Craft Cocktail Party and co-owner of The Clover Club in Brooklyn and Milady’s in Manhattan, tells SELF: “Creating something that’s not just a juice-y juice or something that’s just full of sugar.”

If you’re in the market for a non-alcoholic drink but don’t want to risk shelling out $15 on a bar order you hate, you can try a pre-packaged option—we tested dozens to determine the very best—but you can also whip up one that’s exactly to your liking at home. Here’s 10 expert-backed tips for making a mocktail that actually tastes, well, like a mocktail—not a juice, soda, seltzer, flavored sparkling water, or anything else.

1. First, think big—and outside the box.

We’re living in the golden age of mocktails—or, as Reiner prefers to call them, “zero-proof cocktails.” Meaning: You’re no longer limited to combining club soda, cranberry juice, and a lime wedge and calling it a day. Modern mixologists “are working really hard to go beyond” that longtime standard, Warrener says. “If I’m going to come in and spend money on a mocktail, I want the mocktail to taste like more than just some fruit juice,” he adds.

And thanks to an influx of exciting new offerings, particularly within the last five years, doing that is easier than ever before, according to Reiner. Brands and products like Seedlip, Lyre’s, and the hemp-based spirit Pathfinder are expanding the mocktail possibilities and redefining the boundaries of the market. “You have all of these different things to work with [now],” Reiner says. So get fancy, flex your creative muscles, and try new things if you want.

2. Choose your non-alcoholic spirit carefully.

You’ll want to put some thought (and maybe some taste tests) into the type of non-alcoholic spirit you select, since not all of them are equally well-suited to mocktail-making. “The more neutral a spirit is in its original alcoholic form, the more difficult I think it’s going to be to mimic in a non-alcoholic form,” Warrener says. With that info in mind, try to select those that have more distinct and complex flavor profiles. Otherwise, you risk ending up with a drink that tastes like a mixer.

Which is why Warrener, drawing on his previous tasting experiences, recommends a gin-based one. Thanks to its botanical content, even “a non-alcoholic gin will taste like gin because the flavor components come more from additives than from the base spirit,” he says. Tequila and mezcal are also solid options.

As for Reiner? Besides the Pathfinder we already mentioned, she recommends Damrak virgin 0.0 gin (remember that name), Lyre’s Italian spritz, Wilfred’s bitter orange and rosemary aperitif, and Curious Elixirs’s sparkling products, along with the brands Everleaf and Aplós more broadly. Used correctly, “they’re going to help you create a beverage that emulates an actual alcoholic beverage.”

3. Take the season into account.

While no one’s going to stop you from drinking a strawberry daiquiri in January or a hot toddy in July, seasonality is an important consideration—for mocktails as well as cocktails, according to Reiner. For example, citrus and fruit are big in the summer, spices like clove and cinnamon predominate in the fall, and cranberry and mace take center stage in the winter, Warrener says. Do your best to work the appropriate flavors into your mocktail so the result doesn’t feel out of step with the time of year. Besides, it’ll hit better that way—offering something refreshing amid the heat and something warming amid the cold.

4. Follow an established recipe…

Fun as it can be to experiment with flavors and textures, don’t necessarily feel as though you have to craft your mocktail completely from scratch, according to Warrener. Concocting a tasty drink out of the huge array of ingredients out there “is its own skill set,” he says—one that aspiring professionals take literal years to master—so an established recipe will take much of the guesswork out of the process.

5. …but don’t be afraid to improvise, either.

While a set recipe makes a good jumping-off point, you don’t need to follow it to the letter, either, according to Warrener. “That’s the whole beauty of being an at-home mixologist, is that you have an opportunity to take a standard recipe and just tweak it a little bit to make it your own,” Warrener says. “So follow the recommendation, and then, with a little bit of tinkering, figure out what works best for you.” You can play around with the ratios, add or subtract ingredients, and experiment away.

6. Pick flavors that complement each other.

When you’re making a mocktail, you’re working with three primary flavors: bitter, sour, and sweet, according to Warrener. The objective: To achieve a balance of all three, which will provide “layers of flavor,” Reiner says.

Finding your fave combo might take a bit of trial and error, according to Warrener, but there’s a couple rules of thumb you’ll want to keep in mind: “Typically, sweet will provide a balance for sour and bitter, and sour, on the flip side, will provide balance for sweet and bitter, and then bitter can provide balance for, say, sweet and salty,” he says. Ingredients that add sweetness include simple syrup and some fruit juices, like pineapple and pomegranate. Other fruit juices are more sour and acidic (like lemon) or bitter and astringent (like grapefruit). And milk and some coffee varieties pack a fair amount of acidity themselves.

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If you’re not sure where to start (not all of us are professional mixologists, after all), Reiner has some surprising advice: Consult a pastry cookbook (or, failing that, a recipe site on the internet). Making pastries often involves pairing complementary flavors, so a book on the topic could be a trove of helpful tips.

7. But seriously, don’t forget the bitter.

Yep, even if you think you don’t like the taste. Most cocktails have a touch of bitterness to them, according to Reiner—and, as a result, a convincing mocktail should too. Shrub—a vinegar-based syrup also known as drinking vinegar—is a handy little ingredient in this respect. It “kind of tricks the mind into thinking that it’s an actual alcoholic drink,” Reiner says. Savory ingredients like muddled basil and pickle brine can also help.

8. Create texture.

Giving your mocktail some body plays the all-important role of helping distinguish it from fruit juices, sodas, and seltzers, so it’s not a step you want to skip. For this purpose, Reiner recommends egg whites (you can find the pasteurized stuff in stores) or the vegan alternative aquafaba—the thick, viscous liquid left over from canned legumes like chickpeas. (Similarly, sugar will also have a thickening effect, but, as we discussed above, adding a ton to your mocktail can tank the overall flavor.)

And if you’re feeling some fizz? Try adding a splash of tonic water or a sparkling non-alcoholic spirit—or even actual soda and actual seltzer, according to Reiner.

9. Don’t feel like you need to shake forever.

That vigorous shake before serving a cocktail isn’t just for show—there’s a very specific reason behind it, according to Warrener: It encourages the ice to melt a bit. Not only does this lower the temp for the perfect chill, it also helps “get some water into the drink to soften the booziness”—a.k.a the strong heat associated with alcohol, Warrener says. With mocktails, of course, that booziness isn’t really an issue, so dilution is less important—meaning you don’t have to shake nearly as long. Believe us, your wrists will be relieved.

10. Put some thought into your garnish.

Take it from Reiner: “You drink with your eyes first,” she says, “so we want to make the drinks look beautiful so that they feel special.” Sounds easy—but it’s not necessarily as simple as popping a lemon wedge on the rim, floating a sprig of basil on the surface, or dropping a couple berries in.

Think of garnishes a little like clothing accessories: They’re meant to accentuate the overall outfit, not…just randomly show up. Similarly, a garnish should tell a story about the drink and enhance the overall dining experience, according to Reiner. For example, she says, you wouldn’t add a strawberry to a drink that has nothing to do with strawberries. Consider the flavor profile of your drink and choose a garnish that will complement it—pairing a classic margarita mocktail with a lime wheel, say.

Now, here’s an example of how to put all these tips together:

Zero-Proof Clover Club Cocktail by the Clover Club

Ingredients:

How to do it:

  1. Pour Damrak virgin 0.0 gin into a cocktail shaker
  2. Add Lyre’s non-alcoholic Italian spritz, raspberry syrup or muddled raspberries, lemon juice, egg whites, and seasn’s light non-alcoholic cocktail bitters. The egg white creates that “frothy, creamy mouthfeel,” the raspberry syrup contributes some fruity notes, and the spritz adds “some depth of flavor as well as texture and viscosity,” Reiner says.
  3. Dry shake (shake without ice).
  4. Add some ice and shake again. Pour the drink into a coupe—a drinking glass that has a moderately thick stem and shallow bowl.
  5. Garnish with a mint leaf or raspberry on a pick.
  6. Serve.

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