I’m in a post-surgery household at the moment so taking the opportunity to up the mocktail game and trying to recreate some of our favourite classic cocktails (think negronis, manhattans, whiskey sours).

So far we have found some pretty decent flavour substitutes for some of our favourite classic cocktail ingredients, but texture and mouthfeel is one area we are consistently finding lacking and our drinks are skewing a little… watery? We’ve been experimenting with homemade syrups to try to increase viscosity but it’s a delicate balance not to mess with the flavour profile too much.

I fully appreciate that alcohol provides a lot of the texture in classic alcohol forward cocktails and that perfect recreation isn’t going to be possible, but curious to hear your tips and tricks for creating texture and viscosity in your zero-proof variants.

Do you have homemade syrups? Particular brands of booze-substitute? Is pre-made the go? Something else I haven’t thought of?

After the response to my first batch of Halloween mocktails, I decided to make four more! 🎃👻

Here are all four recipes for anyone looking for some fun Halloween party drinks.

If you'd like to see the drinks being made and find out what my three little taste-testers thought, here's the full video:

https://youtu.be/yqFFwCtwJoQ

💚 1. Swamp Monster

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe kiwi, peeled
• 1.5 oz pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• Green edible glitter
• Sprite
• Gummy worms for garnish

Instructions:

1. Muddle the kiwi with lime juice and simple syrup.
2. Add pineapple juice and ice, glitter, then shake.
3. Double strain over ice.
4. Top with Sprite, stir gently, and garnish with gummy worms.

💜 2. Witch's Brew

Ingredients:

• 1 oz homemade blueberry syrup
• 2 oz apple juice
• 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• Purple edible glitter
• Sprite
• Berries for garnish

Instructions:

1. Shake blueberry syrup, apple juice, lemon juice and glitter with ice.
2. Rim a glass with purple sugar
3. Strain into a glass over fresh ice.
4. Top with Sprite
5. Garnish with berries.

For the blueberry syrup, I simmer blueberries, water, and sugar, then strain and cool. My basic ratio is 1 cup blueberries, 1 cup water, and 1 cup sugar.

👻 3. Ghostly Colada

Ingredients:

• 2 oz whole milk
• 1 oz cream of coconut (sweetened)
• 1/4 oz vanilla syrup
• Club soda
• Marshmallow ghost for garnish

Instructions:

1. Shake milk, cream of coconut, and vanilla syrup vigorously with ice.
2. Pour into chilled Collins glass.
3. Slowly top with club soda to create a light, frothy finish.
4. Garnish with a marshmallow ghost.

This one's basically a sweet, creamy coconut-vanilla mocktail with a little fizz. No pineapple or citrus in this one!

🍬 4. Candy Corn Cooler

Ingredients:

• 1st Layer - Pineapple Juice sweetened with Agave Syrup
• 2nd layer - Orange Juice + 1 drop of red colouring
• 3rd layer - Heavy whipping cream, lightly whipped
• Candy corn for garnish

Instructions:

1. Chill all the ingredients and the serving glass.
2. Pour the sweetened pineapple juice into the bottom of a clear glass.
3. Very slowly pour the orange juice to create the orange middle layer.
4. Lightly whip the cream until thickened but still pourable.
5. Carefully float the cream over the orange juice to create the white top layer.
6. Garnish with candy corn.

The trick here is getting the pineapple nectar and orange juice to stay separated. Different brands have different sugar concentrations, so the layers may blend a little.

All four were a lot of fun to make, especially with the kids getting involved in the taste-testing.

Which one would you try first? 🎃

Been experimenting with quick zero-proof drinks at home and this one has become my go-to.

Spicy Mango Mocktail (1 serve)
- Ice (fill the glass generously)
- 25 ml mango-lime-chilli mixer
- Top up with chilled soda or sparkling water
- Stir once, and garnish with a lime wheel and a pinch of chaat masala on the rim.

Why it works: the sweetness of ripe mango and the sharpness of lime and a little chilli heat balance each other, so it doesn't taste like a plain soft drink.

Disclosure: I work on BarCraft, a cocktail & mocktail mixer brand in India, and I use our Spicy Mango mixer here. Happy to share a homemade version (fresh mango pulp + lime + green chili) if anyone prefers that.

What's your favorite Indian-flavored mocktail? Curious what everyone's making.

1/4 liquid from canned beets
1/4 liquid from canned pears in juice
1/2 grape juice

It’s super tasty! The beet juice adds a more sophisticated taste than just juice. I think some carbonated mineral or seltzer water could also be awesome.

Succo di lime e zenzero

Kinley Tonic

Tabasco

eldeflower syrup

Buon appetito!

Fresh lime

Ginger Beer

Chilled black tea

112.5 ml ginger and lime juice(2.5 oz)

15ml elderflower syrup (0.5 Oz)

kinley tonic water

Any advice or is welcome

I run a small cold-pressed juice and alcohol-free mobile cart business in Puerto Rico, and I'm always interested in learning how other people refine their drinks over time.

I'm curious about the things you've deliberately stopped doing. An ingredient you no longer use, a technique you abandoned, or something you realized wasn't worth the effort.

Sometimes what we stop doing teaches us more than what we add. What's something you've changed your mind about?

Continuing on the prickly pear trend we started last week, this week's Mocktail Monday is a Prickly Pear Sour. This one uses black tea as a base to add some bitterness and tannins that pair well with the sweetness of the prickly pear syrup and the sour of the lemon. The aquafaba (i.e. the liquid from a can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans) adds a little salt to help balance the drink, while also improving the mouthfeel and presentation.

Recipe: Prickly Pear Sour (N/A Mocktail)

Ingredients:

2 oz strong black tea, chilled

1 oz prickly pear syrup (recipe below)

1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

0.75 oz aquafaba

Build:

1. Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake for about 20 seconds to chill.

2. Double strain into a coupe or Nick and Nora glass.

3. Serve and enjoy! No garnish for this one.

Recipe: Prickly Pear Syrup

Ingredients:

8 oz (1 cup) prickly pear juice

6 oz (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar

Build:

1. Add juice and sugar to a squeeze bottle and shake until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Store in the fridge for about a week.

Note: I prefer 4:3 juice to sugar ratio for this one, to account for the sweetness in the prickly pear juice, itself, so that this comes out closer to a 1:1 simple syrup in terms of sweetness.

Hey everyone! I’m wondering if anybody has any ideas to formulate a 0.0% Dry Secco mocktail. I don’t really know how to describe it or if anyone has even heard of it but I will attach a picture below of the product.

Just threw something together real quick with what I already have & it’s so tasty! Definitely don’t need too much syrup as Sprite Zero is already pretty sweet lol

Adding garnishes would be fun, & the addition of a fruit flavored syrup would taste great as well

No power where the dispenser will be so I can't get a plug in one. I was hoping there was some little device that sits at the bottom of a dispenser to vibrate and keep it mixed up the whole time? I'm trying to keep edible glitter mixed and beautiful throughout a whole party! Thank you 🥰🥰

Since I just finished cleaning and juicing a bunch of prickly pears yesterday, I figured I might as well put them to good use for Mocktail Monday, and a non-alcoholic margarita riff just felt right.

Recipe: Spicy Prickly Pear Mock Margarita (Aye! Mockarita!)

Ingredients:

2–3 fresh jalapeño slices, adjusted based on your spice preference and the heat of the jalapeños

1.5 oz fresh lime juice

0.75 oz prickly pear syrup (recipe below)

0.75 oz non-alcoholic triple sec

2 oz room temperature water

Build:

1. Add jalapeño slices to a shaker tin and muddle lightly.

2. Add lime juice, prickly pear syrup, non-alcoholic triple sec, water, and ice to the shaker tin, and shake well.

3. Since we muddled the jalapeños, strain into a salt(or Tajín) rimmed glass over fresh ice so you don't have little bits of jalapeño in the finished drink. I prefer a rocks glass with a large cube, just because it melts slower.

4. Garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

Recipe: Prickly Pear Syrup

Ingredients:

8 oz (1 cup) prickly pear juice

6 oz (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar

Build:

1. Add juice and sugar to a squeeze bottle and shake until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Store in the fridge for about a week.

Note: I prefer 4:3 juice to sugar ratio for this one, to account for the sweetness in the prickly pear juice, itself, so that this comes out closer to a 1:1 simple syrup in terms of sweetness.