Virgin Drinks, Mocktails, and other Non-Alcoholic Options
Contributed by on Dec 04, 2015
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Not all guest will be wanting to drink alcohol at the party. There is no reason that they can't have fun drinks as well.
Let's talk about some basic common virgin drinks:
Shirley Temple is one of the most popular childhood drinks with a mix of orange juice and 7-up over ice. You drizzle a bit of grenadine over the top and let it drip to the bottom where you give it a stir and have it layer like a tequila sunrise. With a slight variation you can shake the orange juice and grenadine first creating a frothy smooth texture where in you add the 7up after. This will cause the Shirley Temple to become more smooth and look more like a fancy martini.
A little too fancy, then why not try an Arnold Palmer? A mix of equal part of lemonade and iced tea. To make this better you can make the lemonade yourself by mixing freshly squeezed lemons and simple syrup(equal sugar to water ratio) to create the lemonade. You can change the flavor of the ice tea by changing the tea itself, a good fruity tea mixes really well with the lemonade.
We can make many cocktails without the alcohol too, which would be called a virgin drink. For example, you can make a virgin Caesar by taking out the alcohol, whether it would be the vodka, tequila, rum or whatever you prefer, take it out. Just use the Caesar salt rim, clamato juice, Worcestershire sauce and tabasco.
The second thing you can do to make an alcoholic drink a mocktail is to substitute the alcohol for something non alcoholic. For example, let's work with a Pink Agave. A pink Agave is made with: a lime and sugar rim, 2oz cranberry juice, 1oz orange juice, drizzle of simple syrup, a few mint leaves and 1.5oz tequila. So to make it a virgin: you can substitute the tequila for tonic water, 7-up or ginger ale (my personal preference). Just make sure you don't add the pop till after you shake and strain.
While fancy and complex drinks are fun and get people attention, sometimes some of the simplest things are the best and what people are looking for. Try a Coke with some grenadine in it, or some ginger ale with cinnamon and a twist of lemon.
All these are simple ideas as to how to make some non-alcoholic drinks fun and just as entertaining.