Refreshing non-alcoholic cocktails and summer drinks

Quench your thirst this summer with five delicious drinks recipes for non-alcoholic cocktails and smoothies.

Mocktails are great refreshing alternatives to traditional alcoholic cocktails. Try out the drinks below; they’re great recipes for kids too, so you can enjoy them as a family.

Easy fruit punch

• Take two handfuls of pineapple chunks or mango and lightly mash this with finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger, then add to a large jug.
• Pour over 1 litre of cranberry juice (great for colour), the juice of three freshly squeezed limes and a litre of ginger ale – or fizzy water if you don’t want to taste too sweet.
• Add a few chopped strawberries or cucumber to taste, and allow a few crushed ice cubes to chill the drink before serving.

Mock-ito

• Create a mint syrup by dissolving 200g white sugar in 400ml of warm water with a large bunch of mint, chopped. Strain and leave to cool.
• In a large jug, stir the juice of six fresh limes, 1.5 litres of fizzy water (or a 50/50 mix with lemonade or limeade), and the mint syrup.
• Add crushed ice and a few fresh mint leaves and serve.

Banana refresher

• Roughly crush a handful of ice cubes.
• Slice one banana and put in the blender with the ice.
• Add a glass of semi- or skimmed milk.
• Whizz until smooth and serve immediately.

Sham-pagne

• Into a large jug pour one litre bottle of ginger ale, with 500ml pineapple juice and 500ml white grape juice.
• Taste this and add more juice if you think the balance isn’t quite to your taste – experiment with the mixology!
• Add lots of ice and allow to chill for about 10 minutes before serving in champagne flutes.

Tropical smoothie

• Put a handful of pineapple chunks into a blender. (Tinned is fine if you don’t have fresh, but wash any syrup off first.)
• Add a large scoop of orange sorbet, a small pot of vanilla yoghurt and a glass of orange juice.
• Whizz until smooth and serve immediately.

Savvy tip
Put small slices of lemon or lime, or washed raspberries into an ice cube tray, add water then freeze. They look great in drinks.

Pass it on – create a kids ‘mocktail’ party
A kids’ party with mocktails is a great idea especially for a summer birthday as the kids can experiment with their recipes in the garden instead of messing up the kitchen!

• Add a few drops of natural food dye to lemonade or fizzy water for a jug of colourful mixer.
• Put out a few different fruit juices for them to mix and match flavours and let the cocktail mixing commence!
• Give them small plastic cups – mixing a large glass of a drink at a time is costly and wasteful. Kids love to sample a little of their handiwork then try something else.
• Avoid fruit pieces if you have small children, because of the risk of choking.
• Get them to make their own cocktail decorations – little paper umbrellas and flowers.

Why not check out our Fab summer parties themes?