Mix it up with Mocktails

Maybe you completed Dry Jan and don’t want to leave it there, maybe you’ve had one too many heavy nights out and want to take a break from drinking, or maybe you just want to try something new…

It can be difficult to navigate sobriety in such a drink-heavy culture on a good day, never mind when you’re surrounded by students in the SU bar on a two-pint Tuesday. 

I’ve been there, you walk past Kro Bar at 5pm on a Wednesday and think just one can’t hurt. Next thing you know, you’re eight pints deep, stumbling out of Big Hands at 3am having skipped dinner and struggling to keep your lunch down. You’re definitely not making that 9am and you think to yourself I’m never drinking again.

Well maybe this time, it’ll stick. We’ve put together some mocktail recipes for those of you who want to enjoy student life without the alcohol. 

Pornstar Martini Mocktail 

I’d go as far as to say that the humble Pornstar Martini is the Queen of all cocktails. The classic go-to drink at girls’ night out. 

Ingredients

25 ml Passion Fruit Puree (the inside of two passion fruits) 

10 ml Vanilla Syrup 

50 ml Pineapple Juice 

15 ml Lime Juice 

Half of a Passion fruit to garnish 

Method

1. First add the passion fruit puree, vanilla syrup, pineapple juice, and lime juice to a cocktail shaker.
2. Add ice to the shaker and shake well until the shaker is cold to the touch.
3. Strain the mocktail into your glassware of choice (a martini glass or a stolen pint glass from Friendship either works).
4. Garnish with half of a passionfruit and enjoy!

Virgin Margarita

We’ve just come out the back of Margarita week, if you’ve felt tempted at all then here’s the perfect replacement. 

Ingredients

25 ml Lime Juice 

25 ml Orange Juice

12.5 ml Lemon Juice 

2 tsp Sweetener (agave or simple syrup)

Sparkling Water 

Lime and salt to garnish 

Method 

1. First prep your glassware. A salted rim makes a margarita. Pour some salt onto a plate. Run a lime wedge around the rim of your chosen glass then dip in the salt and fill the glass with ice.
2. Add the lime juice, orange juice, lemon juice, and sweetener to your shaker with ice. Then either shake or stir.
3. Then pour into your glass and top with sparkling water.

You could make this frozen by adding some ice and blending. 

Top tip: add a dash of pickle juice for that Margarita tang.

Virgin Moscow Mule 

This one is slightly easier, with fewer ingredients than the others but is equally as delicious. 

Ingredients

100 ml Ginger Beer 

35 ml Soda or Sparkling Water 

Juice of 2 Limes 

Lime and Mint to garnish

Method

Simply add your ingredients to a glass over ice, stir, garnish with a lime wedge and mint, and enjoy! 

If these recipes are too ingredient-heavy for you, there’s always the option of non-alcoholic spirits or Citizen Spritz’s non-alcoholic spritz mixes. 

Citizen Spritz has a range of spritz mixes including bitter orange, passionfruit, cool lime, and pink grapefruit. Each is an alternative to a classic cocktail.

The bitter orange flavour was intensely bitter, a great replica of a non-alcoholic Aperol or Campari if that’s your cup of tea. The passionfruit, a substitute for the reliable Pornstar Martini, was more on the sweet side with hints of vanilla and orange. Whilst the cool lime, also a tad sweeter, could soon replace your happy hour marg. 

The instructions say to use 25 ml of the flavour spritz mix topped with 175 ml of soda or sparkling water. However, I’d say less is more as the flavours are quite powerful. 

Living the student life, we didn’t have any ice so we stuck the Citizen Spritz bottles straight in the freezer. Whilst the drinks were nice and cold, putting them in the freezer seemed to thicken the consistency so I would advise against this. Take the L and buy a bag of ice.