Somebody, recently, told me my espresso machine was a [squeaky noise] box. [laughter]
I made myself an americano from that very [squeaky noise] box.
So, uh,
poo-poo
to you.
Welcome back, friends - it's Anders. Happy New Year.
Today we are making non-alcoholic cocktails.
Mocktails - if you will. I know a lot of people do Dry January.
I support taking a break from drinking alcohol, so I thought I'm gonna put together four drinks for you
to get you through this month of January.
Uh, you're gonna have to ration them out because four drinks, uh, let's just say one a week.
The same rules apply to mocktails as they do cocktails
in terms of balancing flavor, you want to think about texture in a drink.
Let's go. If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button for more sips, tips, and recipes.
And let's go have ourselves a mocktail party!
To the bar.
Mmm!
Or kitchen! You can do this in your kitchen.
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Number One: Spa Water.
I did not come up with this one. This is not an original of mine. It's been around,
but this is how I do it. It's a nice, easy drinking cocktail that I like to do in a julep cup because
it makes it fun, and you can sit back, feel like you're at a spa somewhere getting your nails -
did.
To make the Spa Water, grab yourself a julep cub, add four cucumber slices, four to six mint leaves.
In my case I'm doing six leaves. Half an ounce of simple syrup.
I'm doing a semi-rich syrup, so it's one and a half parts sugar to one part water.
And then one ounce of fresh lime juice.
Give that a quick muddle - just to break everything up. Then add a little bit of crushed ice, pour in two to three ounces of soda water,
give it a little stir, top it off with a mound of more crushed ice so it looks like a julep.
You can give it a mint sprig for garnish - and a cucumber slice.
Sip on this, and you are instantly transported to a spa on a beach somewhere - so relaxing!
Number Two: Basil Orgeat Lemonade.
Orgeat lemonade is a wonderful thing, and I would make this all the time at the bar for
people who didn't want to drink, because you have this floral, almondy syrup with bright lemon, and it's wonderful.
I'm adding basil to that! If you need an easy orgeat recipe, I've got one for you.
Just sayin'.
Look.
We're going to do this one on crushed ice too, but you don't have to. It's up to you.
To make this drink, take one and a half ounces of orgeat, and one and a half ounces of lemon juice, and four basil leaves.
I've got good sized basil leaves here. And you can add more or less of any of these things.
Throw it into a shaking tin, shake it up.
When you're shaking these up you don't need to shake them for very long - just to incorporate everything.
Without alcohol, the drink is going to want to freeze up and turn to slush rather quickly.
Now, take a large piece of basil, put that on the bottom of the glass,
and cover it with crushed ice, double strain into the glass to catch the basil,
and top it off with soda water. Top with more crushed ice.
Give it a stir.
If you want, you can garnish it with a lemon wheel, you could garnish it with more basil.
It's a fun, zippy, lemony, herby, almondy treat.
Next.
Number Three: The Devil's Day Off.
This is an original of mine, and I will say - I like it.
I am utilizing a little thing called red bitter soda.
This is Sanbitter - it's an Italian red bitter soda. The company, Stappi, also makes one.
They're kind of like non-alcoholic Campari. They have a bitter finish. I like them quite a bit.
You can order them online. I use these in the gun shop fizz cocktail.
To make this drink, into a shaking tin, combine two ounces of grapefruit juice,
half an ounce of lime juice, a quarter of an ounce of agave nectar, and a good pinch of cinnamon.
Now, if you're making a lot of these, then you might then you might want to try making a cinnamon agave syrup.
Shake this up, pour it into a collins glass with ice, and mix it with three ounces of your red bitter soda.
These things are about three ounces - 3.4. So one bottle of the red bitter soda.
Garnish this with a sprig of rosemary. Give it a smack, wake it up.
Go in for a sip - you smell the rosemary, you get the spicy cinnamon with the grapefruit,
and the bitter finish from the soda.
This one's a good one. Devil's Day Off -
write that one down.
Number Four, finally: The Grey Fox.
Not finally - we're having fun. We're not rushing to end this thing.
Now I came up with this cocktail, but I did not name it. Somebody else named it, and I thought it's actually a very clever name
because I use earl grey tea. In fact, I make an earl grey syrup.
I'm the fox.
To make this syrup, we're going to start with a strong earl grey tea.
So take one cup, or 200 grams of hot water,
to that add four earl grey tea bags. Let that steep for 10 to 15 minutes.
We want a good, strong tea. Once that's done we can remove the tea bags. Squeeze out every last bit of the tea
because we want every bit of liquid and flavor. And add 400 grams of sugar.
This is going to be a rich syrup, so it's two parts sugar to one part liquid.
Then put that on low heat. We're going to stir this to dissolve all the sugar.
As soon as the sugar is dissolved, take it off the heat, let it cool, and the syrup is complete.
Now, to make The Grey Fox, you'll want one ounce of that rich earl grey syrup,
one ounce of fresh lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce of aquafaba - or chickpea water.
If you want, you could add an egg white, but I prefer the aquafaba.
Give that a dry shake, that'll help whip up that aquafaba.
Then add ice, give it a quick shake. Then into a collins glass, add a little bit of tonic water on the bottom -
maybe an ounce on the bottom there.
Then double strain into the glass over the ice, and top it off with tonic water.
You're going to want to be very careful because it wants to foam up quite a bit,
but that's what's fun about it. And give it a little lemon zest on top.
I've enjoyed this one with a sprig of thyme.
It's fluffy! The earl grey syrup with the tonic water, I think, is a great match.
Have fun with these. I'm sorry I didn't have any shrubs for you. Shrubs are a great non-alcoholic option. Maybe one day we'll make shrubs.
All right - well, hey. Thanks again, everybody.
Like and subscribe.
Hey!
Like and subscribe. Now get outta of here.
When I first heard the name Spa Water, it didn't sound that attractive to me.
I thought, well, spa water is like water that you wash yourself with - so why would you drink that?
I don't know!
Maybe they mean, like, the water before it touches your filthy body.
[laughter] No - it's the water you get at the spa with like -
AHH-ooh!
- like this lemons and the cucumbers floating in it.
Oh - see, if you haven't figured it out, I have yet to go to a spa.
Okay, so it's water that you get at the spa. Thank you, Az.
Az has been to a spa before.
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