Spirited Away: Zero Proof Drinks Worth Celebrating
Your Home & Lifestyle Magazine
Although wellness-oriented “mocktails” may seem like a modern-day invention—right up there with meditation apps and smart watches—they’ve been around for generations. Alcohol-free cocktails reportedly first appeared on menus in 1865 (when they were deemed temperance drinks); and by the year 1916, they’d been cheekily renamed mocktails, which gained a lot of societal steam during Prohibition.
These days, mocktails can be found on menus everywhere from Michelin-starred restaurants (such as Eleven Madison Park in New York City, where you can select nonalcoholic beverages to pair with each course, similar to a wine pairing) to chain restaurants like Red Lobster and TGI Fridays, where the Strawberry Passion Tea is a fan favorite.
Restaurateurs have many reasons to delight in the current renaissance of the mocktail: their guests can indulge in a fun drink that lacks the expensive ingredients of a traditional alcoholic version, but at a similarly high price tag. “It was so fun that I could get a cute cocktail along with my friend,” Megan Horton recently told The New York Times, about her $20 drink at a bar on the fiftieth floor of the Ritz Carlton hotel. “Plus, I’ll pay whatever to feel happy that I’m not hungover the next day,” she said.
Celebrities and boldface names have occasionally gravitated to these zero-proof drinks, too, and a few have even kick-started their own brands. Singer Katy Perry recently launched De Soi, a collection of botanical nonalcoholic apéritifs with adaptogenic ingredients like lion’s mane and reishi mushrooms that she created in tandem with distiller McLachlan. Actress and teetotaler Blake Lively designed a nonalcoholic counterpoint to her husband’s gin company when she launched Betty Buzz; bubbly drinks that range in flavor from ginger beer to Meyer Lemon club soda.
Indeed, whether you’re pregnant, a designated driver, in recovery, or simply prefer to skip the spirits, there are plenty of reasons to opt for a zero-proof tipple. Mocktails have become so coveted that some bars are even going entirely alcohol-free. At Sans Bar (only open Fridays in downtown Austin, Texas), guests throng around the exposed brick bar for clean drinks and conversation, no liquid courage needed. In Omaha, Nebraska, craft dry bar Dry Spokes has myriad whimsical options on the menu—including Peachy Keen (made with a whiskey alternative, aromatic bitters, and peach puree) and American Tiki (Free Spirits Bourbon, Aperitif, orgeat, lemon juice, and a cinnamon stick stirrer).
To make your own elevated mocktail, experts recommend using the same effort and care as you would a cocktail itself. The key is to make this quaff feel special. You could rim your glass—be it a martini glass or coupe—with sugar, salt, or a delectable combo of both; mingle a base like fresh-squeezed juice with your go-to tonic or tea; and mix in something sumptuous, such as berries, basil, or flavored simple syrups. A garnish of some kind—a sprig of mint, perhaps, or an edible flower—is also a must for a sophisticated effect. Just don’t forget to ask yourself, à la James Bond, whether you want that shaken or stirred.
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virgin cucumber gimlet.
If you’re looking for a refreshing mocktail on the hot and heady days of summer, you can’t do much better than a gimlet. Reportedly invented to help sailors at sea stave off scurvy in the nineteenth century, the citrusy tipple is lovely with or without gin thanks to its generous pour of lime juice. This nonalcoholic version provided by The Elms Hotel & Spa has cucumber in it, too, making it truly worthy of a “cheers, dears!”
Makes 1
- 4 to 5 slices cucumber, muddled
- 1 ounce simple syrup
- 1 ounce fresh lime juice
- Ice
- 1.5 ounces club soda
Add cucumber and simple syrup to a cocktail shaker or mason jar. Muddle the two ingredients together to mash the cucumber. Add lime juice to the shaker. Cover and shake vigorously, until frothy. Pour over ice and top with club soda.
Recipe adapted from The Elms Hotel & Spa
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YHL/ Written by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans
Photography by DenisMArt/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Liudmila Chernetska/iStock/Getty Images Plus.