Legally non alcoholic or literally not a drop ? I ask because some great non alcoholic drinks use bitters which are made of alcohol but do not cause it to have a legal abv

I do a dry month every year and have resigned myself to the fact that there’s not a mocktail on earth I enjoy. Every year I try several and ugh.

However I quite love club soda with a splash of bitters. And it gives me a chance to play with/try all sorts of different bitters. And yes I know bitters have alcohol.

I also can’t stand NA beers or the new wave of 0.0 beverages. They just taste like sad wheat soda and leave me feeling gross and bloated.

Drink martinis and boulevardiers as my gotos fwiw.

But when dry it’s club soda + bitters for me.

I’ve had some success with taking a sour build, dropping the base spirit, and adding soda. Had a pregnant friend over and made myself a Jack Rose and made her soda + lemon + grenadine + Peychaud’s. Went over very well.

At a bar though, I mostly just get bitters and soda, unless the bartender has a lot of time to listen to my ideas for bespoke mocktails.

Honestly? Soda. If they don’t have a NA Menu. NA menus are popular enough that a lot of cocktail bars and restaurants with decent cocktails will have a NA menu. Similar to how I stick with beer at non-cocktail bars, my wife does the same if they don’t have a menu. Usually you’ll end up with something like 4 oz of pineapple juice, 2 oz of syrup, and a splash of soda otherwise.

The combination of a citrus juice and a sugar based syrup that is shaken and then diluted into a “highball” of sorts is a good place to start. So right off the bat almost any bar could make you a fresh delicious lemonade, limeade, or similar grapefruit drink. From there you can throw some lime juice into club soda, tonic, or cola.

Most cocktail bars will have fancier “mocktails” which might include jam or fruit purée or more complicated syrups, but if you’re just sitting down at any bar and want to order something you know they’ll have them those drinks I started with are a good place to start. Nothing wrong with asking what kind of alcohol free cocktails they have either!

I like virgin spicy margaritas with some lemonade, some marg mix, splash of soda water. Virgin mules are good. I want to try the zero alcohol Guinness! I think it’s new (?) and I love Guinness.

Virgin Caesar (or Bloody Mary, if you’re outside of Canada). Tastes exactly like a Caesar.

My favorite is virgin Moscow mules! (Non-alcoholic) ginger beer, mint, lime, ice. It’s refreshing, delicious, looks pretty, and you don’t miss the vodka.

I have plenty of options coming from Studio Null and Boisson! I signed up for Proxies “wine” club too! I haven’t tried anything yet but they all look so encouraging

Lately I’ve been enjoying Tost and dealcoholized sparkling wines!

If exceedingly small quantities of alcohol are ok, Ginger Beer and Angostura is one of my favorite mocktails to make that's incredibly refreshing, complex, and mature in taste. Zhuz it up with a lime wedge if you want, I usually won't unless I've got tacos planned and the rest of the lime won't go to waste.

If you're willing to put more effort in, Monin makes an "Orange Spritz" syrup that's basically Italian red bitter, which combined with Ikea's Pear Sparkling Cider, makes a pretty respectable Aperol Spritz mocktail.

When I bartended through pregnancy I would make myself a mocktail with orgeat, cranberry juice, and club soda pretty often. Infusing simple syrups with different herbs (lavender, thyme, basil, etc.) can also be a good way to make a lemonade more interesting and can be paired with gin or vodka for liquor drinkers.

I like a club soda or tonic with a dash or two of Angostura bitters. Technically it does a small amount of alcohol though.

I LOVE all kinds of bitter stuff.. Campari, Cynar, Fernet you name it. Until a couple of years ago I thought I could only get that from Amari like the ones mentioned. But Italians have made this other great thing, which is Chinotto sodas!

You don't need to do anything to it. It's just absolutely perfect on it's own. It's a bitter orange soda essentially, sweetness and orange upfront, and then a second later that wonderful bitterness coats your mouth and lingers on for a good while. Highly recommend it if he likes Negronis, Americanos or any of the riffs on them!

A not-Paloma is an easy one that tastes great. I use Whole Foods brand Grapefruit Italian Soda, a whole limes worth of juice, and maybe some grapefruit bitters if you have them around. That in a chilled glass rimmed with Tajin is pretty darn delicious.

For something a little more involved, I make the kids virgin Painkillers when we are on vacation at the beach. Literally just the cream of coconut, orange, and pineapple juice shaken and strained then topped with grated nutmeg. They absolutely love them and it’s nice because you just make theirs first and then use the same tin to make the real deal. Just don’t mix them up! 😅

Ginger ale splash cran

Depends on what kind of bar you're in. A nice pub will probably have an entire menu of non alcoholic stuff. My usual ones are tea or coffee.

If the bar doesn't have hot drinks, well coke.

I like to think that a Lemon, Lime and Bitters is Australia's unofficial national drink. Lemonade, a couple of dashes of bitters (technically alcohol but we serve it to kids) and lime cordial or fresh lime juice depending on what you have. If the bartender is cool they'll help you out

honestly soda water with a splash of lemonade goes so hard

Muddle cucumber and shake hard with lime and mint and a dash of simple. Top with soda water and a splash of ginger beer, garnish with mint.

Verjus comes in blanc and rouge and adds awesome flavors to other ingredients as well for mock tails.

Tried St. Buena Vida at an event and it was by far the best NA drink I've tried yet. It's a sparkling wine, spanish grapes then dealcoholized so no junk in it. It's honestly really freaking good and has been a game changer for me. I drink it straight or will mix with different juices. When my friends come over we will do like "mimosas" with it as the base. Some of the other options I've tried have been undrinkable.

• Limeade and ginger beer with a piece of dehydrated lime

• Lemonade and hibiscus tea with freeze dried strawberries on top

• Lemonade and blueberry hisbiscus tea with freeze dried blueberries on top

• Limeade and sparkling water with freeze dried cherries on top

My own creation is pineapple juice, a dash of soda, and fresh jalapeños (just 3 or 4 slices).

Craftmix sells packets of cocktail mixes that you just add to water and it’s as easy as you can get.

Looks? Ehh. Ginger ale a 7-8 shakes of bitters. Throw a cherry on top if you want looks 😀

So now I will share mine; my favorite drink is pineapple juice with limoncello LaCroix. About 50/50. And watermelon juice with the pulp strained

Equal parts:

Pineapple juice (like Dole)

Coconut milk (milk substitute - coconut milk in a carton from trader joes for example)

Ice

Shaken extremely vigorously or even quickly blended.

I’m going to have to go with the Arnold Palmer.

These all sound great. Thank you

Stay Sober.

30ml apple juice

30ml cranberry juice

90ml ginger beer/equivalant (most ginger beer in my country is non-alcoholic)

Ghia is my go to! I love the lime one. Lyre’s bitter aperitifs are great for mock spritzes. Then there’s an herbaceous one I really like called Riverine. I’m in California and I don’t know if these are widely available beyond here (or ridiculously expensive to ship as some seem to be).

I love Athletic Brewing nonalcoholic beers. They actually taste like beer without the gross aftertaste a lot of brands have

I love the lagunitas hoppy refresher. It’s 0 cals and delicious! I prefer the original but they also have new berry and Orange flavors that are good too.

I just joined Surely’s wine club. I received a Brut, sparkling rose, sauv blanc and bubbly red. So far I’ve only tried the bubbly red but I’m actually really impressed by it. Poured in a wine glass I swear my brain is tricked and I can feel my body relax a bit!

I recently tried a Tepache soda, so good! Also a big fan of Kombucha. My favorite treat is non-alc “Aperol Spritz”, you can get a Lyre’s non-alc Aperol replacement, some non-alc sparkling wine, add a dash of the aperol in a fancy glass with ice and an orange slice… so good 😊

ooh