Happy July 1! All of my east coast friends are already sweating it out to a hot and sticky summer, and I am waving from afar in San Francisco where today it’s a cool, dry & hazy 65 degrees. Can you tell I miss hot weather? That has been the hardest part of this transition (aka my move across the country).

I knew when we were making the move that it wouldn’t be the weather I was used to, I knew that it would be moderately cool and consistent temps, but despite all of that, I didn’t really know at all. It’s hard to prepare for something that you’ve never personally experienced. The up side here is that I can basically wear workout gear anywhere I go in the city and nobody blinks an eye.

But, we’re not here to talk weather, we’re here to talk mocktails! Next week is the 4th of July (go America!) and that means that (most of us) will be spending time with friends and family, hopefully outside at a BBQ or picnic with lots of food, desserts and drinks!

If you are planning to skip out on the alcoholic beverages (for whatever personal reasons you may have) or if you are hosting a party and want to offer some non-alcoholic cocktails for your guests, then read on because I have three fairly simply recipes that you can whip up: Raspberry, blackberry and a mint mock-ito.

The recipe below is a step by step process using the raspberry recipe for demonstration purposes, but you follow basically the same steps for each of the three drinks. The full recipe and ingredient list can be found at the end of this post.

Mocktail Mixology 101

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for your drinks. Please note, this is for ONE SERVING.

Our core ingredients:

• Berries (we’re using raspberries and blackberries today) – a small handful or 6-8 berries per serving.
• Juice of 3-4 limes (equivalent of 1/3 cup)
• Juice of half a lemon (you really only need a splash)
• 8-10 oz. sparkling water (I used Perrier, but you can use your favorite brand, just make sure it’s plain, non flavored. My biggest beef with La Croix is that they use “natural flavoring” but what does that even mean?)
• 10-12 fresh mint leaves
• 3-4 drops of organic liquid Stevia extract (or sweetener of choice)… the key is to start small and add to taste. Can also use Monkfruit, or agave if you don’t mind the calories. Stevia and Monkfruit are all natural zero-calorie sweeteners from plants.  They are Keto approved, but should be used in moderation.
• Extra mint leaves still on the stem, for garnish

Our “mixing” tools:

• Juicer (optional – you can alway juice by hand, but make sure to discard the seeds)
• A muddler (don’t know what that is? It’s a fancy bartender tool to mash things together at the bottom of the cup to infuse/mix juices together. You can buy them for cheap on Amazon, or if you have a wooden spoon, you can use the top end of that (not the spoon end)
• A tall glass for serving
• Long handle mixing spoon (aka the swizzler!)
• A straw for slurping it all up (optional)

Directions

1. Start by juicing your citrus
2. Add 1/3 cup of lime juice, a splash of lemon juice, 10-12 mint leaves and 6-8 raspberries to your empty glass
3. Muddle everything together until it’s very well blended and the berries have been completely mashed up.
4. Fill almost to the top with ice
   
5. Add your sparkling water
6. Add 3-4 drops of Stevia liquid extract to start, then add more to reach desired level of sweetness
7. Mix it with with the long spoon, using what I call the “swizzle” method, aka, twisting it left and right with your fingers, and moving it up and down to blend everything.
8. Take a mint bunch (stem + leaves), place the leaves in your palm, and slap it together, like you are giving yourself a high five. This releases the oils and aromas from the mint leaves so you can smell it while you drink. Garnish drink with it
9. Add your straw
10. Enjoy!
    

Some Additional Notes

For the blackberry mocktail, follow the same exact steps, except swap the raspberries for the blackberries — it’s that easy!

Now if you want to make the faux mojito version, you would ONLY use the lime juice, skip the berries and lemon, and you may want to add additional mint (12-14 leaves total).

And to make this in bulk, you’ll need a lot of limes. For these three drinks I used 6-7 limes total so you can imagine how many you’d need for a party. You can buy lemon and lime juice pre-ready in the store, however, I tend to avoid those because they have preservatives in them and honestly, it doesn’t taste as fresh (because it’s not!), but we have to acknowledge our own limitations, and may not want to spend hours juicing limes.

I made all three, and did a very painful taste test for you guys (such a sacrifice) 😉 …. I can confidently report that all drinks are equally delicious, however if I had to choose my personal favorite, it would be the raspberry one.

Full Recipe + Instructions

Ingredients

Our core ingredients:

• Berries (we’re using raspberries and blackberries today) – a small handful or 6-8 berries per serving.
• Juice of 3-4 limes (equivalent of 1/3 cup)
• Juice of half a lemon (you really only need a splash)
• 8-10 oz. sparkling water (I used Perrier, but you can use your favorite brand, just make sure it’s plain, non flavored. My biggest beef with La Croix is that they use “natural flavoring” but what does that even mean?)
• 10-12 fresh mint leaves
• 3-4 drops of liquid Stevia extract (or sweetener of choice)… the key is to start small and add to taste.
• Extra mint leaves, on the stem, for garnish

Our “mixing” tools:

• Juicer (optional – you can alway juice by hand, but make sure to discard the seeds)
• A muddler (don’t know what that is? It’s a fancy bartender tool to mash things together at the bottom of the cup to infused/mix juices together. You can buy them for cheap on Amazon, or if you have a wooden spoon, you can use the top end of that (not the spoon end)
• A tall glass for serving
• Long mixing spoon (aka the swizzler!)
• A straw for slurping it all up (optional)

Directions

1. Start by juicing your citrus
2. Add 1/3 cup of lime juice, a splash of lemon juice, 10-12 mint leaves and 6-8 raspberries to your empty glass
3. Muddle everything together until it’s very well blended and the berries have been completely mashed up.
4. Fill almost to the top with ice
5. Add your sparkling water
6. Add 3-4 drops of Stevia liquid extract to start, then add more to reach desired level of sweetness
7. Mix it with with the long spoon, using what I call the “swizzle” method, aka, twisting it left and right with your fingers, and moving it up and down to blend everything.
8. Take a mint bunch (stem + leaves), place the leaves in your palm, and slap it together, like you are giving yourself a high five. This releases the oils and aromas from the mint leaves so you can smell it while you drink. Garnish drink with it
9. Add your straw
10. Enjoy!

Want to See More?

I’ll be doing some video + image demonstrations on my Instagram story & feed today and next week, and will leave it up on as a feature story for the next few days. You can go there for more on mocktail making. If you don’t follow me on IG, you can find me at fitfoodistsf!

Hope your 4th of July is everything you want it to be 🙂