Trying to Be Cool – Dry January

While I have too many bottles stacking up here to really participate in Dry January, I applaud the idea. On top of that, I have to admit that I am treating non-alcoholic cocktails more like an afterthought. Nevertheless, I do believe that creating a good non-alcoholic cocktail is more difficult than creating one with booze. So, let us take a closer look at a recipe I  mixed up in Summer, but is also suitable for Dry January.

The lack of alcohol in a drink also creates a lack of flavour. This means, that good cocktails without alcohol make up for that otherwise. Vice versa, if you have a great non-alcoholic cocktail you always can throw in some booze and it will stay a good drink. At the same time, this is where a lot of 90s style no-ABV cocktails take the wrong path and try to make up for the flavour with a random combination of sweet fruit syrups. While there is nothing wrong with using syrups, especially with non-alcoholic drinks you have to make sure that you use it carefully and that you use a high quality one. Apart from that, I also found out that tea or coffee are good replacements for spirits in cocktails. On top of that, there are also non-alcoholic – let us call them “beverages” out there which were designed to replace for example gin in drinks.

Balancing is king

I actually created the “Trying to Be Cool” for designated-drivers at a cocktail party in 2019. Back then I just threw some ingredients I had standing around together without giving that much thought. Yet, the drink was well-received and frequently ordered. In the original version I used a different verjus and pomegranate syrup. This summer when I was in the mode for a good non-alcoholic tipple, I recreated the recipe, but was out of grenadine and just used raspberry syrup instead. If you like it a bit more tart than I would suggest using the original syrup. On top of that, you might want to adjust the amount of syrup depending on the acidity of your apple juice. The excellent single-variety “Ananasrenette” juice is medium sweet with just a noticeable hint of acidity.

While still a bit on the sweet side, the “Trying to Be Cool” nicely combines different fruit notes without tasting like a liquid fruit salad. The apple and green grape notes go very well together while the raspberry and rose notes lend the drink sweet notes. The carbonation of the rose lemonade also helps with balancing out the cocktail. Of course, as with every non-alcoholic drink that tastes good you have to pace yourself not to drink it too quickly. However, if you do the consequences are not as severe as with an alcoholic beverage.