It’s January, all the conversation is about being ‘dry’ and ‘I’m not touching the booze’. Alcohol tipples have come along way over the last few years. Beers have definitely elevated themselves to the mainstream with the likes of Day’s and Lucky Saint (both nice people running ethical businesses) now firmly on the scene. Cocktails, yeah, they can be brilliant, but sometimes they are just fruity, punchy juice mixes jazzed up and called mocktails.
So! We thought we spend a bit of time getting an alcohol-free cocktail list that suits all taste buds. Why not have an aromatic, sour or bitter cocktail to suit your own palate. So, here’s a few of our own twists. We’ve kept it coastal, but we also wanted to make it simple with ingredients that you can find.
We’ve started with five of our favourites but watch out, we’ll be adding more the the list over time. We’ve got plenty of sampling and taste testing to do, minus the morning headache (normally considered part of the process).
Serves: 1
Make in: 5 minutes
Difficulty: MEDIUM
Ingredients
1 Egg white
15ml wild British honey
25ml lemon juice
2x dash angostura bitters
Process
Add all ingredients to Boston shaker with ice, then give it a really strong shake to chill the liquid right down, you’ll literally feel the shaker getting cold on your hands the more you shake, this will also give the honey a bit of a beating to breakdown into the liquid.
Single strain liquid into the other half of the shaker or a side glass, then throw the ice in a sink, put the liquid back into Boston shaker and then dry shake vigorously to foam.
Strain straight into pre-chilled Nicanor glass letting all foam pour out through the strainer last.
Serves: 1
Make in: 3 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
Process
First up you need to create the sugar kelp syrup, this isn’t available to buy off the shelf in any shops, we use Sugar Kelp from Câr-y-Môr alongside white granular sugar and water, here’s how:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, add cup of sugar and same quantity of water, stir until completely dissolved.
Bring it to the boil then simmer for a few minutes to reduce the water content down, remove from the heat. Add a tablespoon of dried sugar kelp and leave to steep. Taste every 15 minutes until the desired flavour is reached as it gets intense over time, this is personal preference, but the sugar kelp should give you a mineral flavour with a touch of salt (Unami flavour). Fine strain into a swing top glass bottle and keep in the fridge. The solid residue can also be dehydrated and used as garnish.
Now it’s time to build the cocktail. Take a mixing glass add the sugar kelp and bitters stir, then fill the mixing glass with ice. Next add the malt spirit and orange juice, stir until it’s fully chilled. Strain into a rocks glass that is filled with large ice cubes. Squeeze the oil of an orange twist over the glass, then drop into the glass to garnish.
Serves: 1
Make in: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
Process
This is a classic take on a mojito, refreshing and sharp.
Gently muddle the basil, mint and chopped limes with sugar syrup in a Boston shaker, enough to make sure the basil and mint flavour is released and juices from the two limes are extracted from the limes.
Next add ice to the Boston shaker so it is three quarters full, then shake until your hand is well and truly worn out and feels the cold through the metal.
Double-strain into high ball glass over fresh ice. Top up the glass with the club soda. Garnish with a basil & wedge of lime.
Serves: 1
Make in: 5 minutes
Difficulty: MEDIUM
Ingredients
35ml Pentire Adrift alcohol free spirit
35ml brewed green tea
25ml sugar kelp syrup
25ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed
35ml ginger ale
Lemon peel & basil garnish
Process
Add Pentire Adrift, lemon juice, green tea, and celery syrup to a shaking tin filled with ice cubes.
Shake for 20 seconds to mix ingredients together and to chill your beverage.
Strain into highball glass over a large ice cube. Top with ginger ale and stir gently with a barspoon.
Garnish with fresh basil and a lemon rind.
You’ll need to create the sugar kelp syrup, this isn’t available to buy off the shelf in any shops, we use Sugar Kelp from Câr-y-Môr alongside white granular sugar and water, here’s how:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, add cup of sugar and same quantity of water, stir until completely dissolved.
Bring it to the boil then simmer for a few minutes to reduce the water content down, remove from the heat. Add a tablespoon of dried sugar kelp and leave to steep. Make sure you taste every 15 minutes until the desired flavour is reached as it gets intense over time, this is personal preference, but the sugar kelp should give you a mineral flavour with a touch of salt (Unami flavour). Fine strain into a swing top glass bottle and keep in the fridge.
Serves: 1
Make in: 3 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
35ml lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 dried fig
1 pinch Maldon fine sea salt
1 pinch ground cumin
120ml ginger beer
mint sprig
Process
Start by adding the lime juice, chopped fig, salt and cumin to a shaker. Let sit for around 5 minutes, then muddle until the date is well and truly broken down. Add ice cubes and shake until well-chilled, then pour the liquid unstrained straight into a large wine glass.
Top with ginger beer and stir gently with a cocktail spoon well to combine. Finally garnish with a mint sprig.
Serves: 4
Make in: 30 minutes
Difficulty: MEDIUM
Ingredients
4 medium beetroots
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
75ml apple cyder vinegar
50ml cup wild British honey
1 teaspoon Maldon Sea salt
Process
Shrub cocktails have been around for over a hundred years but with health and discovery ever increasing in people’s minds they are making it back onto cocktail list, not least as they can be produced so easily with full flavour and zero (or trace) alcohol. They combine sweet and sour flavours for a wonderful, balanced, complex taste.
Peel the beetroots and cut each into quarter wedges and add to a large jar along with the sliced ginger, mustard seeds, and bay leaf.
In the meantime, in a saucepan, combine the vinegar, honey and salt with 1 cup of water. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Pour enough liquid into the prepared jar to cover the beets and let cool to room temperature.
Chill in a fridge for at least 12 hours and up to 2 weeks maximum, shaking the jar every few days to mix the ingredients & the flavours.
Serve with the beetroot chunks still in the liquid as garnish. Best served in a high ball glass all poured over ice and garnished with bay leaf and a paper straw.