What is a Mocktail and What is a Virgin Drink?
A mocktail is a non-alcoholic cocktail. Juices, soft drinks, infused waters, and other non-alcoholic ingredients are combined in ideal proportions and shaken or stirred to provide maximum taste.
Modern mocktails use of a range of fruits and spices for their taste. These flavours are used instead of the traditional cocktail ingredients of bourbon, gin, vermouth, bitters, and other bartender staples.
The right drink complements a good meal, whether it’s alcoholic or not. Non-alcoholic beverages, such as water, juice, soda, and tea, can all be used as good accompaniments to a meal. Non-alcoholic drinks such as the mocktail are sometimes neglected, however.
A virgin drink is simply a non-alcoholic version of an alcoholic drink and it includes mocktails.
When making mocktails and virgin beverages, many people add a flavored mixer like ginger ale, ginger beer, or tonic water. This gives you a similar taste to the original without requiring you to use any alcohol.
How Do You Make a Mocktail?
It’s simple to combine ingredients together, but it frequently has the flavor of fruit juice. Instead, here are some methods for adding complexity to the taste of your own mocktails:
- Carbonated water, fruit juice, and even ginger beer are wonderful for adding lift to your mocktails with carbonated bubbles. When in doubt, add bubbles!
- Consider a ‘mock’ alcoholic beverage to enhance the complexity of your cocktail. A teaspoon or two of caper juice or pickle juice can mimic alcohol! It sounds strange, but it actually works. Our Virgin Margarita recipe includes a trace of pickle juice, which gives the drink an odd tequila finish.
- Make your own flavor combinations. Instead of being one-note, mocktail recipes can be layered to appear more fascinating. Try a homemade syrup, like Mint Simple Syrup Ginger Simple Syrup Rosemary Simple Syrup Lavender Simple Syrup.
The Use of Bitters in Mocktails
Non-purist mocktail mixologists frequently add a dash or two of bitters to their drinks as a nod to classicism. While bitters have alcohol, it is present in such low amounts that it is undetectable and comparable to adding vanilla or another extract to a recipe.
Bitters, such as Angostura, tantalize the tongue and elevate the mocktail to a mixed beverage beyond the sum of its components for aficionados.
Famous Mocktails
The most well-known and long-lived mocktails, all of which are named for celebrities from the early and middle decades of the century, include:
A Shirley Temple:
A ginger ale, lemon-lime soda, lemonade, or other non-alcoholic drink combined with grenadine syrup and garnished with a maraschino cherry. It is named after the legendary child actress.
Mr. Marvin:
A cola base blended with grenadine syrup and garnished with a maraschino cherry, it is named after the famous Western film actor and entertainer.
The Arnold Palmer:
A combination of iced tea and lemonade. The ratio and type of tea, whether sweet or unsweetened are open to interpretation and preference. This drink was created by golf legend Arnold Palmer who was known to prepare this drink at home and order it at country clubs after completing a round of golf.
These three drinks are simple to make and extremely sweet. These were designed to provide a more sophisticated drinking experience to individuals who do not wish to consume alcohol, offering them comparable service and presentation. Why not give them a try today and let us know what you think?