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With sober curiosity on the rise and a hard no for hard liquor coming from more and more people all over the world, the need for tasty, creative mocktails (traditional cocktails sans the alcohol) only continues to grow.

There is a fine line between a simple soda and a mocktail, so bars and restaurants have to work hard to keep the teetotallers tempted. That’s where this new drinks trend steps in, fills the gap and gives the mocktail a much-needed boost.

They’re calling it ‘functional mocktails’ – which is just a fancy way of saying the drink is packed with ingredients to increase health benefits.

We all want a boost when we sip a fancy cocktail, but the nice thing about functional mocktails is that the boost is less about a momentary lapse in judgment and inhibitions and more a boost to keep you healthy and energised during and after consuming your drink.

Recipes are springing up all over the internet, intended to help you sleep, reduce inflammation, improve gut health, or give you an energy boost.

With their multiple bases, flavourings, and garnishes, functional mocktails are much more elaborate than a regular juice or tea, notes Better Homes & Gardens:

Some mocktail mixologists swear by green or white teas to create a complex cocktail base, while others will use soda water, juice, and syrup combinations for their concoctions. The most common health-centric ingredients used range from ginseng to chamomile or even ashwagandha. You can use these ingredients on their own or purchase them in herbal mixes.

They can also include elements you’ll get from an elegant cocktail, like smoked rosemary, citrus peel swirls, and salted or sugared rims.

Adding Fitch & Leedes sodas and ales into the mix is a smart idea as they are all made with quadruple filtered water for ultimate purity to meet the highest standards in terms of quality and taste – a la functional!

Browsing social media offers plenty of inspiration for recipes. The grapefruit white tea mocktail from TikToker @lizmoody, uses “quickly steeped but strong tea” as the base, which adds health benefits and delivers a flavour complexity similar to alcoholic drinks. It also features grapefruit zest in the honey salt rim, which is as functional as it is pretty.

@lizmoody i wanted to share one of my favorite functional mocktail tricks: using quickly steeped but strong tea as a base. in addition to having tons of noted benefits (it’s a chlorogenic acid powerhouse, which pod listeners know is SO good for longevity, brain health, heart health, and more!) it ALSO adds that nuance that’s normally hard to achieve without alcohol. ⁣ ⁣ i’m not unaware of the controversy i’ve caused on here recently and while i mostly don’t mind it, let’s set the record straight: that was a blended mocktail and NOT a smoothie (we’ll talk about my smoothie formula soon but please don’t drink something like that for breakfast, we can do SO much better!). ⁣ ⁣ and this is not juice—it has the body and texture and complexity that we want from a mocktail & the pops of grapefruit zest in the honey salt rim take it to the next level (& citrus zest, which is normally thrown away, has it’s own incredible benefits—it’s been shown in studies to help nourish your skin and even protect cell damage related to cancer). ⁣ ⁣ 👉 make sure you’re following @lizmoody for more functional mocktails & other small ways to change your life!!⁣ ⁣ 3/4 cup water⁣ 2 white tea bags⁣ 2 tbsp honey + more for rim ⁣ 1 grapefruit, ideally organic⁣ a palmful fine grain sea salt ⁣ 1/2 cup lime juice⁣ 1 can grapefruit soda ⁣ ⁣ boil the water and add the tea bags. steep for 1 minute, then remove and squeeze out bags. stir in honey & put in fridge.⁣ ⁣ zest 1/2 grapefruit. mix with a palmful of salt— really rub it together to distribute those zesty oils.⁣ ⁣ drizzle more honey on a plate and roll rim of a glass in it. use your finger to spread a thin layer down top half of outer glass. roll into the grapefruit salt mixture.⁣ ⁣ juice grapefruit. to a large jar, add 1 cup of grapefruit juice (if your grapefruit gave you a little more or a little less, it’s cool), lime juice, and your tea. add ice and shake. ⁣ ⁣ add ice to glasses. add tea/juice mixture. top with sparkling water. enjoy! makes 2-4 drinks depending on their size. #mocktails #sobercurious #healthyliving #lifechanging #healthyhabits #mocktailrecipe ♬ Cruel Summer – Taylor Swift

Well+Good has a few fabulous functional mocktail recipes to dabble in, including a Strawberry-Basil Lemonade, which “is packed with skin-loving ingredients like strawberries and basil, which are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds”. Try it out for yourself.

 

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Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp honey (optional)
• Fitch & Leedes club soda

1. In a blender, combine strawberries, basil, lemon juice, and honey (if using). Blend until smooth.
2. Pour mixture into a glass and top with Fitch & Leedes club soda.
3. Stir well.

Instead of wine, you can opt for the refreshing Blackberry Thyme Mimosa, which includes antioxidant-rich blackberries and thyme that can perk you right up.

 

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Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp grenadine syrup
• 12 ounces of Fitch & Leedes Ginger Ale
• Blackberries and thyme for garnish

1. Fill a champagne glass with cold Fitch & Leedes Ginger Ale, then slowly pour grenadine over the top. Do not mix. Grenadine will slowly sink to the bottom.
2. Top with blackberry and thyme for garnish.

There you go. Creating mocktails with flavour complexity, aesthetics, and functionality can actually be enjoyable and rather simple.

[source:betterhomes&gardens]