Between the breakfast Bucks Fizz, afternoon Snowballs and Baileys nightcaps, Christmas can pass by in a boozy haze. Dry January offers the opportunity to give your body a break from alcohol — and hone your mocktail making skills, too. Shakers and stirrers at the ready: here are our five favourite drinks that are alcohol free (but fancy).
- This luxurious White Russian is ideal if you’re not finished feeling festive yet. Combining cream, coffee and salted caramel sauce, it’s a sweet and seriously decadent treat. The recipe calls for pre-made sauce, but we recommend making your own to make it even more special; all you’ll need is a heavy bottomed pan and butter, cream, sugar and salt. Garnish with a glace cherry, or use a fine grater to create curls of 70% chocolate across the cocktail’s light, fluffy surface.
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Get excited for spring with this gorgeous peach and strawberry fizz from innovative food blog Use Your Noodles. It may take a little longer than the others on the list, due to the fact that you have to roast the ingredients on a baking tray to create the super sweet, caramelised notes, but it’s worth the wait for the striking appearance and fruity taste. Practice your knife skills by fashioning roses out of extra strawberries to pop on the top.
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Can’t wait until February to taste the satisfying bitterness of a negroni again? Not to worry; this alcohol-free version is a fabulous, nuanced substitute, packed with layers of herbaceous flavour. Grape juice emulates the subtle sweetness of Vermouth, while a syrup — created by combining grapefruit, orange, sugar, water and spices in a small saucepan — imitates the drink’s usual savoury Campari. Make like a mixologist and pick the shape of your ice cubes carefully; most bartenders recommend one large slab at the bottom of the glass for slow melting perfection.
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The sour — usually made by mixing the drinker’s alcohol of choice with lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white — has long been beloved for its delicious tanginess, sweet top note and air-light frothiness. This ‘New York’ version offers all the flavour with none of the hangover, using Assam tea, maple syrup and pomegranate juice to create interesting depth. The resulting drink will have a graduated appearance, with the ruby red juice fading into the pale gold combination of lemon and tea.
- No mocktail menu would be complete without a Shirley Temple, the iconic drink purportedly created for the child star herself by a bartender at former Hollywood hotspot Chasen’s. Everyone knows the drill — you mix ginger ale with grenadine and a healthy squeeze of lime — but you can up the ante by batch crafting grenadine from scratch. Top with a maraschino cherry for an instant nostalgia trip.
Have you decided to try Dry January this year? What are your favourite alcohol free drinks? Let us know in the comments, or tag us in pictures of your creations on Instagram — we’re on @CirculonUK.
