Summer Sips: Specialty Mocktails for the Season
Make fun drinks a family affair with easy and delicious recipes for refreshing nonalcoholic beverages. Compared to buying drinks from a restaurant, these will taste better, cost less and are easily made at home.
A frequent favorite, make a Margarita everyone in the family can sip on. Mix together lime juice, orange-flavored syrup and simple syrup before straining into a glass. Finish off with club soda and a lime wedge. Plus, margaritas offer tons of different flavors you can experiment with as a family, or turn your drink into a frozen treat. Find instructions at proofsyrup.com.
Enjoy a delicious frozen treat with a Brazilian Freeze. Using chilled limeade and condensed milk, this is a refreshing and delicious dessert-type drink. Garnish with fresh limes for even more flavor. Find instructions at coca-cola.com. Yum! This recipe only requires two ingredients, making it super simple, and it tastes like key lime pie in a glass.
Sip on delicious citrus with a Bright Citrus Spritz. Made with orange syrup, citrus sour syrup and sparkling water, this drink is zesty and aromatic. Top the final concoction with rosemary and orange slices. Find instructions at proofsyrup.com.
Impress your friends at your next beach trip with the Tropical Mocktail. It combines mango, pineapple and coconut for a tangy blend. Find instructions at mindfulmocktail.com.
A classic for a reason! Perhaps the most famous, and potentially even the first, the Shirley Temple is named after the famous child actress. Legend says a bartender made her a special nonalcoholic beverage, so she could drink with her Hollywood collaborators. Made from lemon-lime soda, grenadine syrup, ice and maraschino cherries, you can also add vanilla ice cream for a frozen treat. Find instructions at 7up.com. I watched Shirley Temple movies with my grandparents, and I remember being intrigued enough by her story to make a Shirley Temple mocktail as a kid. It’s just as delicious as an adult, and I like the cherry flavor.
Use fresh peaches for a Peach Bellini for a vibrant and delicious summer mocktail. First, you’ll make a peach puree for fresh flavor before combining with lemon juice, simple syrup and sparkling water. Garnish with thin peach wedges for even more fruity flavor. Find instructions at drinkdesoi.com.
Blueberries get a delicious upgrade with Blueberry Mojito Mocktails in this recipe from NeighborFood. First, you’ll make a blueberry simple syrup before adding mint leaves, lime and lemon-lime sparkling water to a cup of ice for an incredible sip. Find instructions at neighborfoodblog.com. Making the blueberry simple syrup is a genius idea, and muddling the syrup and mint leaves together adds hands-on fun. I left the blueberries from the syrup in the drink, and I added blueberries to an ice cube mold before freezing for even more fruity flavor.
As pretty as it is tasty, a Blue Lagoon Mocktail combines citrus fruits with sweetness using blue curaçao syrup, lemonade and lemon-lime soda. Serve over ice, and you can garnish with lemon slices, maraschino cherries or mint. Find instructions at drinkdesoi.com.
A spin on sangria, enjoy a summertime Sangria Punch. With cranberry juice, orange juice, lime juice, club soda and lemonade flavor drink mix, this punch is a cool and refreshing drink. Adding orange and lime slices make it even more fun and flavorful. Find instructions at kraftheinz.com. With the different ingredients, this drink is a delicious mix of sweet and sour. I could taste all the different flavors!
Fresh mint, fresh lemons and lemon soda for a Mint Julep make for a perfect drink for porch sitting. Alex Guarnaschelli’s “Cook with Me” includes matcha, latte and boba tea recipes to try as well and dinner and lunch recipes to pair with drinks.
Mix It Up
- Try a cookbook. Purchase America’s Test Kitchen’s “The Complete Guide to Healthy Drinks” or “The Mindful Mocktail” by Natalie Battaglia, and make it your mission to try every recipe in the book!
- Experiment. If a recipe’s a hit with your children, get in the kitchen to try other variations together. Change out the soda or juice, or let your kids come up with their own creations.
- Buy cute glassware. Serve your concoctions in beautiful cups. If you’re worried about little hands, you can purchase durable and shatterproof drinkware online.
- Have fun accessories. Serve drinks with patterned straws or tiny umbrellas. Use metal cookie cutters to cut fruits into cute shapes, or add skewers with colorful fruits to your drink.
- Make your ice fancy. Create ice cubes with fruit pieces or juice, or buy ice molds and trays in different shapes, such as flowers, bows or sea creatures.
