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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.
Watch on TikTok
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]
