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5 Reasons Why Mocktails Are Your Summertime Best Friend

Everybody wants a nice, cold beverage in the summertime. While it’s easy to opt for a chilled beer or a glass of rose, choosing the non-alcoholic version of your favorite boozy drink is one of the best things you can do for your health and lifestyle. Why are mocktails better, you ask?

Here are 5 Reasons Why Mocktails Are Your Summertime Best Friend

Reason 1: You’ll Save Money

 Your wallet will be very pleased with you if you decide to cut back on the booze. One beer at a bar can quickly become two or three, which will do some damage to your bill. Even buying your own alcohol at a liquor store can be pricey. While this example might be a little extreme, if you have three drinks a day, five days a week, at an average of $10 a pop, you’re spending about $150 a week or $7,800 a year — just on alcohol! To think of this a bit differently, the cost of a bottle of white wine averages $14.41, while an average bottle of red wine costs $15.66. If you drink one each per week for a year, that’s more than $1,563. Mocktails leave out the priciest ingredient in a drink: the booze.

Reason 2: It’s Way Better For Your Health

The only thing that will thank you more than your wallet is your body. While a boozy drink every now and then is fine, making it a habit can do a lot of harm to your health. Not only is the extra sugar and calories not going to be great for your waistline, but short-term effects of alcohol include poor judgment and increased accident risk, trouble concentrating, mood swings, raised blood pressure, and passing out. The long-term effects of excessive drinking could cause memory loss, liver problems, and a host of other health issues. The bottom line? Keep your alcohol indulgences at a minimum, and replace most of your boozy drinks with a delicious mocktail.

Reason 3: It’s Inclusive

There’s, unfortunately, a social component to drinking, and oftentimes being the one in the room without a drink can feel exclusive, or even cause unnecessary negative comments from people with a drink in hand. That’s why holding onto a mocktail can come to your rescue — you don’t feel left out and nobody will know whether there’s vodka in it or not.

Reason 4: It’s Fun!

Coming up with mocktail recipes can get your creative juices flowing and making them are super fun, too! You get to experiment with different fruits, sodas, garnishes, and muddling techniques, which makes putting a mocktail together way more fun than pouring yourself a simple glass of beer.

Reason 5: It’s Pretty Delicious

Lucky for us, mocktails taste great and probably even better than their alcohol-filled relatives. Who wouldn’t want a hydrating, fresh, and bubbly drink to sip on in the summer, without the extra alcohol calories and risk of a hangover?

 

5 Delicious Cocktail to Mocktail Swaps

To DIY your own mocktails, here are some swaps inspired by some of our favorite summertime beverages.

Watermelon Margarita

Ingredients (Serves 4!)

• 1 medium seedless watermelon, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 4 teaspoons agave
• 5 tablespoons sparkling or soda water

Instructions

Puree watermelon chunks in a food processor until you yield four cups of watermelon puree. Then, add the lime juice and agave and mix again. Pour into four cups, and top each with sparkling water.

 

Moscow (Mango) Mule

Ingredients

• 5 slices of cucumber
• 1 oz honey
• 1.5 oz mango puree
• 1.5 oz fresh lime juice
• 1.5 oz ginger beer
• Ice

Instructions:

Muddle the cucumber and honey in a cocktail shaker. Then, add the mango puree, lime juice, and a handful of ice. Put the cover on the shaker and shake everything for 10 seconds! Strain into a glass or use a copper mug for a true Moscow mule feel. Top your drink with ginger beer and stir.

 

Mint Mojito Mocktail 

Ingredients

• ½  oz lime juice
• ½  oz agave
• ½ oz blood orange purée
• 4 fresh mint leaves
• Splash of sparkling or soda water
• Ice

Instructions:

Muddle the mint, lime juice, agave in a glass. Then, add ice and blood orange puree before topping with soda water. Garnish with fresh mint.

 

Paloma Mocktail 

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz lime juice
• 1 oz grapefruit juice
• 1 oz agave syrup
• Pinch of sea salt
• Sparkling or soda water

Instructions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake, shake, shake with ice. Strain over ice into a glass and top with sparkling or soda water.

 

Blueberry Bee’s Knees Mocktail 

Ingredients

• 1 oz filtered water
• ½  oz lemon
• ½  oz honey
• 5 blueberries + 1 blueberry for garnish
• Ice
• Sparkling or soda water

Instructions:

Muddle five blueberries at the bottom of a glass. Then shake all the ingredients together with ice and strain into the glass. Top with a splash or two of soda water and garnish with another blueberry.

 

Don’t forget the food! From dip to nachos and even sliders. Your guests will be eating and hydrating well with these mocktails and tasty treats!