By Abi Adeboyejo Email: abi.adeboyejo@yahoo.com
I am an advocate of staying in and having fun. And if you want to wow your friends and family with exotic drinks without spending a fortune, you should try at least one of the mocktail recipes below.
For those of you more familiar with cocktails but not mocktails, a mocktail is a non-alcoholic drink consisting of a mixture of fruit juices or other soft drinks.
The basic items needed for making mocktails are:
- A blender/food processor/cocktail shaker: to mix the juices thoroughly.
- Ice cubes/ crushed Ice: to instantly cool the mocktails.
- Serving glasses/cups
- Bendy straws/little straws
- Grenadine (optional): This is strong red syrup made from red currants and pomegranates. It is a useful ingredient in many cocktails and mocktails used as both a colouring and sweetener. Instead, just use any red juice e.g. cranberry juice or blackcurrant.
The following Mocktail recipes are for four servings. You may increase or reduce the ingredients depending on the number of people you want to serve.
Acapulco Gold: Shake together 24 shots (Note: a shot is 25ml) of pineapple juice, 4 shots of grapefruit juice, eight tablespoons of coconut cream, eight tablespoons of fresh cream and two cups of crushed ice. Serve unstrained.
Banana Smoothie: Put four bananas, ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, four cups of milk and eight cups of crushed ice in a blender and whip into a thick smoothie. Serve immediately.#
Berry Surprise: Blend four cups of strawberries, four cups of pineapple chunks, two cups of raspberries and a teaspoon of lime juice together and serve over ice.
Strawberry Lemonade: Put four shots of lemon juice, ½ a teaspoon of sugar, 40 strawberries and four cups of water into a blender and mix until smooth. Pour into four glasses and serve.
Cinderella: Mix six shots of pineapple juice, 6 shots of orange juice and 6 shots of lemon juice in a shaker or blender, add ice, soda water and a dash of grenadine to give it a lovely berry colour. Garnish with a slice of pineapple or a cherry and serve.
Fruitburst: Machine blend four apples, 12 carrots and four mangoes (just the mango flesh) until smooth, then add 28 shots of freshly squeezed oranges and 24 strawberries and blend on a low speed. Sieve and serve over ice.
California Smoothie: Place 28 large strawberries in a container and freeze for an hour. Put four cups of lemon yogurt, two cups of orange juice and the frozen strawberries in a blender and mix until smooth. Add ice and chopped strawberries to garnish, serve immediately.
Rainbow Punch: Put 12 tablespoons of orange juice, 12 tablespoons of grapefruit juice, ¾ teaspoon of grenadine and 4 tablespoons of lime juice into a cocktail shaker or blender and shake/blend the juices together. Strain into 4 glasses and top up with soda water for a fruity, colourful mix.
Scarlet Lady: Blend 2 cups of watermelon and 20 red grapes in a blender until smooth, then add 12 shots of grapefruit juice and re-blend until smooth. Strain into 4 glasses with chopped grapes to decorate and serve.
Orangatang: Put 4 cups of orange juice and 4 cups of cranberry juice in a blender and whiz until thoroughly mixed together. Pour into 4 glasses, serve with crushed ice.
Seabreeze: Put 5 ½ cups cranberry juice and 2 ½ cups of grapefruit juice in a blender and whiz until thoroughly mixed together. Pour into 4 glasses, serve with crushed ice.
Other tips:
Be adventurous and mix your favourite fruits together to create your own special mocktail. As long as it tastes fresh, refreshing and exotic, you are on to a winner. You can give it a name and make it your speciality. Try fresh fruits in season. Our markets are always overflowing with different colourful fruits at different times of the year so get creative and see if you can make some unusual combinations work. It is also a great way to increase your fruit intake. For those who need to watch their sugar consumption, add sugar free soda drinks instead of water and sugar.
You can also experiment with tinned fruit but you’ll get best results with fresh fruits.
Boxed fruit juice can be used but note the difference between pure fruit juice and fruit juice drinks.Fruit juice drinks are similar to cordials and don’t taste the same as pure fruit juice.
