All Hail the Mighty Mocktail!
Problem:
Have you ever been in the situation that you’d like to have a cocktail but couldn’t have the alcohol? Yeah, I know what some of you are already thinking, “what’s the point?” Well, are you Pregnant? Nursing? Sober? Trying to lose weight? Do you have to work later? Or maybe drive somewhere? Are you in a social situation where you want everyone to think you’re drinking when you’re not? Tonic water and lime are simply not fun to drink. What do you do in these situations? Enter the Mighty Mocktail. These drinks have been around for a long time, but in recent years their evolution has made leaps and bounds. The mocktails of the past were often made with lots of sodas, juice, and syrups that all equals lots and lots of sugar. But one thing always evaded these concoctions, they never really tasted like cocktails we all know and love because there was no viable substitute for the actual spirits that go into them.
The Solution:
Recently on the retail market some liquor substitutes have emerged. Ritual Zero Proof: a Chicago based company that has recently released three such products that are readily available nationwide. They have succeeded in creating an “Alcohol-Free, No & Low Carb, Gluten-Free product crafted of all-natural botanical essences, Ritual Spirit Alternatives substitute 1:1 in place of tequila, gin, or whiskey, capturing the taste, smell, and sensation of traditional spirits -- without the alcohol or calories.” Yes! all of these products are ZERO calories! You have your option of Gin, Tequila, or Whiskey alternatives.
The Taste Test:
I know what probably most of you are thinking. “How does this stuff taste in comparison?”
Each has its own unique flavor and its suited cocktails. I’ve had a lot of fun playing with these, and I’m happy to share my results. In each case, Ritual has saught to recreate all aspects of the liquor experience. Even simulating the alcohol burn with capsaicin fruit, otherwise known as hot peppers. For this reason, I do not recommend drinking any of these neat. While you can, and it’s a pleasurable experience, unless you are sensitive to spicy foods, just don’t expect them to taste like the spirits you know and love. With these spirit alternatives, mocktails are king. Ritual provides some wonderful recipes on their website. For this post, I opted to try other Traditional cocktail recipes and see how they fare. I should note, most of these do require a touch more sugar than their alcoholic cousins in order to overcome the spicy heat.
The Experiment:
There can only be one standard, the real deal. I decided a taste test was in order. I made two drinks in identical glassware and asked a friend to bring them to me one a time in another room so I couldn’t see which was which.
The Recipes and Ingredients:
I set out to create 100% alcohol-free mocktails using traditional recipes and see how they fare against their alcoholic cousins. I sought out recipes with easy ingredients that would not require a lot of shopping or specialty stores.
Recipe for Triple Sec Syrup:
Bring 1 Cup of water to a boil and add 1 Cup White Granulated Sugar. Stir the mixture gently until it turns clear. Lower the heat to medium. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest of an orange and simmer the zest in the simple syrup for five minutes. Allow the mixture to cool before removing the orange zest.
The Result:
Surprisingly, in most cases, I couldn’t tell much of a difference. In most cases what made it easy for me to tell them apart was the concentration of flavor. The cocktails had a stronger flavor especially with the Tequila and the Whiskey. In the Case of the Tequila, the hot pepper burn was always a dead give away. The mocktails that were the hardest to tell apart were those with the Ritual Gin Alternative. Without a side by side comparison, I doubt that I would have known the difference.
Happy Mixing!!
The Recipes:
Ritual Gin Alternative
Gin is an extremely versatile spirit, and let’s face it, there isn’t much that you make with Gin that you can’t make with vodka and vice versa, so this spirit alternative opens a lot of mocktail options. When you open the bottle you get the bright rest aroma of cucumber and juniper, sure enough, to make any gin drinker start salivating in anticipation. It’s full of botanical and herb flavors that compliment all those amazing Gin cocktails.
Mixers: Tonic, Club-Soda, Fruit Juice
Tom Collins
“Have you seen Tom Collins?” Probably one of the staples of the Gin repertoire. This “spiked” lemonade cocktail named after the barroom prank suits this spirit alternative extremely well. This was the best in the comparison experiment, and really easy to drink!
1 ½ oz Ritual Gin Alternative
1 oz lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
carbonated water
Preparation: Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a collins glass over fresh ice, top up with soda water, garnish with a lemon slice.
White Lady
Made famous at the American Bar at the Savoy in London, it was known to be the favorite drink of “Laurel and Hardy”.
2 oz Ritual Gin Alternative
1/2 oz Triple Sec Syrup
1/2 oz Fresh lemon juice
1 Fresh egg white (optional)
Preparation: If using egg white, combine all ingredients in a shaker without ice. Shake to create a thick foam. (Shaking without ice is known as a “Dry Shake”) Add ice to the shaker and shake again. Strain into a martini glass or coupe. Garnish with Maraschino cherry and/or a Lemon peel.
Ritual Tequila Alternative
Pretty much everyone has a bad Tequila story. One of those long college nights at the bar, or the Mexican restaurant with “just a few too many” margaritas, waking up the next morning wishing you hadn’t. well fear not! Now you can keep the margaritas flowing!
From the bottle this wont smell like your average Tequila. There are those vegetal aromas that give it a tequila-esque characteristic, but other aromas reminiscent of pickle juice are also prevalent.
Be warned: If you are not into spicy foods, this may not be the product for you. Each of the cocktails i made had a distinct “creeper burn” that slowly intensified to a habanero level of heat, at least for me. Dilution of the cocktail and the addition of more sugar will lesson the effect, but it will have mixed results on the cocktail flavors.
Mixers: Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer, Tropical Fruit Juice, Tropical Fruit Soda
Ritual’s Tequila Alternative Recipes
Note: At the time I began writing this, Ritual had yet to create the Tequila Cocktail Page. You will see some overlap here, But rest assured that like them, I came to these recipes on my own. The fact that we agree is just proof its good!
Tequila Sunrise
This tropical favorite had its heyday in the 1970-80s. Its a semi-sweet cocktail and the heat from the Ritual just ramps it up another notch. Super easy to make, its presentation will be sure to dazzle!
1 ½ oz Ritual Tequila Alternative
3 oz Orange juice
½ oz Grenadine syrup
Preparation: Pour the tequila and orange juice into glass over ice. Gently add the grenadine along the side of the glass, which will sink to the bottom. Do not stir. Garnish with orange slice and cherry.
Paloma
This little known, and underappreciated beauty, is your new favorite summer cocktail! Difford’s guide claims it was created by Don Javier Delgado Corona, of La Capilla, in Tequila, Mexico. But nobody knows if that’s really true. Feel free to play with other tropical fruit-flavored sodas!
2 oz Tequila
½ oz Fresh lime juice
Grapefruit soda (not seltzer), to top
Preparation: Add Tequila and Lime Juice to a highball glass with ice. Top with Grapefruit Soda. Garnish with a lime slice.
Margarita
I couldn’t let it go by without sharing a Margarita recipe. This prohibition, Tijuana adaptation of the Daisy Cocktail is now an American and Mexican staple. I am a big fan of the 2-1-1 recipe for this cocktail, generally, I cringe at the concept of adding extra sweetener, however here I find it helps add some agave flavor and to tame some of the heat that comes from the Ritual Tequila Alternative. If you find the burn still too great, try adding ¾ to 1 ounce of water to the recipe. or if serving on the rocks, top it with a bit of soda water.
2 oz Ritual Tequila Alternative
1 oz Lime juice
1 oz Triple Sec Syrup
½ oz Agave Syrup
Preparation: Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a salt-rimmed margarita, martini, or coupe glass. To serve on the rocks: strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass over fresh ice.
Ritual Whiskey Alternative
When it comes to spirits, I’m definitely a Whiskey man, and almost always Bourbon. My standard test of a bartender’s competency and skill lies in the Sazarac cocktail. (a recipe I’m still developing for this product) I hold my whiskey cocktails in the highest regard and esteem, which is probably why I had difficulty finding recipes that fit my already high standards. that being said, I’m happy to say that I found a few! The other side of this is that for this project I was aiming to find cocktails that were totally alcohol-free. When it comes to Whiskey cocktails they tend to be in a different category. Rather than featuring sweet and fruity flavors, they tend to fall more on the savory. Using ingredients like bitters, and sweet vermouth both of which contain alcohol. Thus, they are not included in my list but can be found on Ritual’s website below.
From the bottle there are distinct notes of cherry, spice, vanilla, wood, and a small amount of that hot pepper we have seen before.
Mixers: Cola, Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer
Kentucky (Bourbon) Mule
This popular adaptation of the Moscow Mule is a staple at my summer BBQs. It’s always better in the copper mug, but if you don’t have one a highball glass works just as well. Feel free to substitute Ritual Tequila Substitute in the same recipe for a Mexican Mule.
1 ½ ounce Ritual Bourbon Alternative
½ oz tablespoon lime juice
4 oz ginger beer (or more to taste)
½ oz simple syrup
1 fresh mint sprig
1 lime slice
Preparation: In a copper mug or highball glass, add bourbon, simple syrup, and the lime juice. Fill the cup with ice. (crushed works best) Add ginger beer; stir gently to combine. Garnish with a mint sprig and lime slice.
Sidecar
I know what you’re all going to say. That this is a brandy cocktail and it doesn’t count. Well tough cookies, its really good!! This recipe was runner up in the blind taste test.
2 oz Ritual Whiskey Alternative
3/4 oz Lemon juice
1 oz Triple sec syrup
Preparation: Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a martini glass or coupe (sugar rim optional). Garnish with a lemon slice.