Based on rose, lychee, pistachio, orange blossom, or even violet, these mocktails can impress your friends while they are as simple as pie, to hydrate you if you want a change of water.
Without wanting to tell you too much about my life, among my favorite flavors are flowers. I love drinking teas or eating violet, rose, jasmine, elderberry, or even orange blossom pastries.
When my friends give me an Ispahan (rose, raspberry and lychee cake, by Pierre Hermé) for my birthday, I’m always thrilled, for example. Recently, I came across a brand, Bacanha (I’m not sponsored, just a fan) who offer flower syrups. As I can’t resist pretty packaging, especially if it says “organic” and “artisanal”, being the good bobo pigeon that I am, I obviously raided lots of flavors. And since then, I regularly have fun testing mixtures, of which here are my favourites, which you can add more or less flavor to by adjusting the suggested quantities.
5 non-alcoholic cocktails to hydrate differently
Frozen Isfahan
- A handful of frozen raspberries
- Lychee syrup and/or canned lychees
- rose syrup
- Still or sparkling water
For a large 33 cl glass, all you need to do is add 1 to 3 tablespoons of rose syrup, about 5 canned lychees and/or 1 to 3 tablespoons of lychee syrup, and a handful of frozen raspberries. Then fill your glass with still or sparkling water, which the raspberries will then cool at the same time as they defrost. Stir with a fork and take the opportunity to roughly crush a few raspberries, so that they diffuse their aroma and their pretty color, and voila!
(For an alcoholic version, you can replace the water with Prosecco.)
Orange blossom lemonade
- 1 organic lemon and/or a lime
- 1 tablespoon orange blossom syrup or orange blossom water
- 1 handful of ice cubes or crushed ice
- Still or sparkling water, or chilled earl gray tea
For a 1 liter pitcher, squeeze the juice of a lemon and/or a lime, depending on how much you like lemon or not. If it comes from organic farming, take the opportunity to take some zest, as well as a slice or two, which will be used for decoration and taste. Pour the juice into your pitcher, add a tablespoon of orange blossom syrup or orange blossom water, as well as a handful of ice cubes, or better still crushed ice (ice cubes roughly beaten in a freezer bag with a rolling pin will do the trick), before topping up with still or sparkling water.
This drink works great with the addition of cooled earl gray tea (i.e. black tea with bergamot) if the name “ice tea” sells you more of a dream than “lemonade”.
(For an alcoholic version, you can swap some of the water or tea for gin.)
Jamaican Pony
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of ginger syrup
- 1 small piece of fresh ginger (optional)
- Juice of 1 lime and/or lemon
- Still or sparkling water, or ginger ale
- A few slices of cucumber
You know the Moscow Mule (cocktail made with vodka, ginger ale and lime juice, often served in a copper mug for extra folklore)? I prefer its variation with Caribbean accents that is the Jamaican Mule: rum, ginger ale, lime. Well, I find that it also works very well in the non-alcoholic version, which is not complicated, and which I nickname Jamaican Pony for the joke. Mule, pony, do you have it? OK, I’m leaving…
For a 1 liter pitcher, pour 1 to 2 tablespoons of ginger syrup, grate a small piece of fresh ginger if you really like it, as well as the juice of 1 lime and/or lemon. Add to this 20 to 50 cl of ginger ale (which is not alcoholic, it’s just the name of ginger ale, but it’s not beer), depending on the size of the bottle you will have found.
Otherwise, sparkling water is also fine, or even plain water if you don’t like the bubbles too much. Fill with ice cubes and a little water. For decoration, you can even cut a few slices of lemon and/or cucumber. The height of chic, with a glass pitcher, is long slices of cucumber using a mandolin or a peeler/vegetable peeler.
(For an alcoholic version, just add as much rum as you want to this excellent Jamaican mule base, or even a few drops of candied pepper as a bonus.)
Virgin pistachio mojito
- Juice of 1 lemon and/or 1 lime
- 1 bunch of mint leaves
- Still and/or sparkling water
- 1 to 5 tablespoons of pistachio syrup
Surely you know the mojito (cocktail made of rum, lime, and mint), nicknamed Virgin mojito in a non-alcoholic version? If I hate the expression “Virgin” to designate the non-alcoholic variations of drinks, at least it has the merit of being understandable by most people. That’s why I call this lemonade “Virgin pistachio mojito” here to be evocative, but I just call it “pistachio lemonade” in real life.
In short, for a 1 liter pitcher, all you have to do is squeeze the juice of a lime/and or yellow lemon (and why not take 1 or 2 slices for garnish), roughly chop a bunch of fresh mint, mix with 1 to 5 tablespoons of pistachio syrup, top up with still or sparkling water, and the mocktail is ready! You can swap the water for cooled mint tea if talking about iced tea house seems more fancy. The height of chic is to add a few grilled pistachios as decoration.
(For an alcoholic version, just add as much rum as you want.)
purple rain
- 1 to 5 tablespoons violet syrup
- 1 handful of frozen raspberries
- 1 handful of frozen blueberries
- Still or sparkling water
I have had a passion for violet syrup for years, a flavor that is far too underrated. And to try to convert those around me to this adored taste of my palate, I decided to serve it in a pitcher with lots of frozen blueberries (blue in color) and raspberries (red), and to call it purple rain, in reference to the cult song of Prince that I love. It’s more classy, while it takes 2 seconds to compose.
Since all you have to do is pour into a 1 liter pitcher, 1 to 5 tablespoons of violet syrup, 1 handful of frozen raspberries, 1 handful of frozen blueberries, and top up with still or sparkling water. Mix with a fork, coarsely crushing a few raspberries and blueberries so that they diffuse their flavors and colors, and voila! The height of chic is to decorate each glass with a few edible flowers.
(For an alcoholic version, this purple base works great with Prosecco or gin.)
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Front page photo credit: pexels-min-an-1441122
