With St. Patrick’s Day’s approaching, people will be crowded in bars and parties, celebrating the holiday with lots of alcoholic drinks, but that doesn’t mean those are the only options for celebrating.
Mocktails, a non-alcoholic mixed beverage, as well as non-alcoholic beers can ll in the gaps for those who don’t like alcohol or can’t drink.
Mixing juices with soda was one of junior Lauren Simpson’s preferences when she was under 21. Inspired by a random trial of mixing her two favorites Simpson started to experiment and enjoy the surprises. Sometimes she added Sprite to fruit punch, or would pour Coke into cherry juice and garnish the beverage with a twist of lemon if available.
“I prefer fruity with a little bit (of) carbonation,” Simpson said.
Lime, orange juices, soda, non-alcoholic ginger beer and simple syrup are the most common ingredients in mocktails, according to bartender Tim Karsten at D4 Irish Pub & Café, an Irish pub on East Ohio Street. Sodas or ginger beer bring bubbles to the liquid, while fruit juices add colors and avors to change the overall feeling. e major di erence between cocktails and mocktails is the obvious existence of alcohol. Since alcohol is mostly clear and seldom adds much colors to cocktails, “any mocktails could look like cocktails,” Karsten said. “ at’s why we do it.”
Here are some alcohol-free options for your happy hour.
Alcohol-Free Beers
Though alcohol-free beers are just a beer- avored soda, it can be an ideal substitute for those who don’t want to get intoxicated.
There are many non-alcoholic beers from various brands available in grocery stores, which includes Clausthaler, Erdinger, Kaliber, Buckler, O’DOUL’S and others.
Compared to real beers, some of the non-alcoholic beers may taste sweeter, lighter or have bread avors. A er all, the two versions are created in di erent procedures. For real beers, yeast metabolizes sugar into alcohol, but alcohol-free beers have little to no yeast, which leads to a slightly di erent taste.
However, the two versions look almost the same. When you raise your glass with the alcohol-free beers, your drink may look no di erent than your friends’ and you can still enjoy the festivities.
Butterbeer
Though it originated in the Harry Potter series, Butterbeer is known as a great alcohol-free drink for young people. e wizard’s favorite beverage is popular among more than Harry Potter fans, and it’s easy to make.
Covered with a layer of cream, the brownish soda sparkles like the real beers you see in the movies. You may stir it up to have an overall creamy drink, or keep the two layers separate to compare the di erent tastes.
Preparing Butterbeer doesn’t require many ingredients just cream soda, heavy cream and butterscotch sauce. e Butterbeer has been developed into di erent versions in our non-wizarding world. Vegans can use vegan butter instead to create a vegan Butterbeer or for frozen Butterbeer enthusiasts they can make a milkshake by blending the original Butterbeer with ice cream.
Shirley Temple
The mocktail is named after the late actress Shirley Temple, though Temple herself didn’t think highly of the drink. She said the mocktail was too sweet in an interview with NPR, callimg it “the saccharine sweet, icky drink.”
Unlike Temple, freshman Elise Fong is a big fan of the mocktail. Fong has her own recipe to make the Shirley Temple. Pour soda and cherry juice into a glass, then drop two or three maraschino cherries into the mixture and the homemade Shirley Temple is ready to taste.
Fong said when she had a Shirley Temple in hand, people at parties would stop trying to persuade her to drink alcohol, since her drink resembled a cocktail style.
The mocktail Shirley Temple could be made with di erent ingredients. e traditional version consists of ginger ale, syrup and maraschino cherries. For the modern approaches of preparing a Shirley Temple, lemon soda or lemonade may substitute for ginger ale, and orange juice might also appear in the drink.
“I love the taste of cherries,” Fong said. “I guess I just like the (Shirley Temple) because it’s like one of those classic drinks and it looks fancy.”
Nojito
A traditional Mojito consists of white rum, soda, lime juice, mint and sugar. With ice cubes floating on the top, the flavor from mint leaves and lime slices creates a refreshing sensation. us, the Mojito is regarded as a popular summer drink.
The Virgin Mojito, or Nojito, needs almost all of the same ingredients as the traditional, except for the rum. A Virgin Mojito replaces white rum with more soda and lime juice. e refreshing taste remains, but the alcoholic elements are removed. In a homemade recipe, mashed ginger is added to the mocktail. It seems crazy, but the spicy avor from ginger could amplify the freshness from lime and mint. Pineapple slices, various juices or lemonade also appear in several recipes, adding other layers of fruity taste to the Virgin Mojito
Depending on your taste buds you can add whatever you want to mix your perfect Virgin Mojito.
