Mocktail Recipes
56 drinks worth making, each with the one bit of technique that separates it from sweet juice. Most take under five minutes.
Browse by occasion
Highball
Apple Cider Mule
A mule with cider in place of the vodka. Autumn's best drink and it takes three minutes.
3 min · Easy
Arnold Palmer
Half iced tea, half lemonade. Two ingredients, and the ratio most people get wrong.
5 min · Easy
Cherry Limeade
The American drive-in classic — tart lime, real cherry, plenty of ice.
4 min · Easy
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Clean, cold and barely sweet — the drink to make when everything else on offer is sugary.
5 min · Easy
Egg Cream
New York's soda-fountain classic. No egg, no cream — and the pouring order is the entire recipe.
3 min · Easy
Ginger Turmeric Tonic
Sharp, warming and barely sweet. The one to make when you want something that feels like it's doing you good.
5 min · Easy
Grapefruit Rosemary Soda
Bitter, herbal and barely sweet — for people who don't want a sweet drink at all.
4 min · Easy
Homemade Ginger Ale
Real ginger, lemon and soda. Once you've made it, the shop-bought kind tastes like sugar water.
15 min · Easy
Honey Citrus Cooler
Three citrus fruits and honey over ice. Nothing exotic, and one of the best things on this list.
4 min · Easy
Lavender Lemonade
Floral, tart and pale purple. Restrained lavender is the difference between a drink and a bar of soap.
10 min · Easy
Lemon, Lime and Bitters
Australia's default non-alcoholic order, and the most-ordered mocktail in the world. Three ingredients, one technique.
2 min · Easy
Moscow Mule Mocktail
Ginger, lime and bite. The mule loses less to going alcohol-free than almost any other classic.
3 min · Easy
Pineapple Ginger Cooler
Sharp, tropical and warming at once. The ginger stops the pineapple from being merely sweet.
4 min · Easy
Pomegranate Ginger Fizz
Deep colour, real bite. The most grown-up-looking drink on this list and one of the quickest.
3 min · Easy
Roy Rogers
The cola counterpart to the Shirley Temple, and the easiest drink on this list.
2 min · Easy
Shirley Temple
The original mocktail. Ginger ale, grenadine and a cherry — plus how to make it taste like a real drink instead of a sugar bomb.
3 min · Easy
Spiced Apple Fizz
Autumn in a glass, and the most reliable crowd-pleaser at a holiday party.
5 min · Easy
Strawberry Mint Cooler
Sweet, sharp and cold. Uses up strawberries that are slightly past their best.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Mojito
The classic Cuban highball without the rum — mint, lime, sugar and soda, and the technique that stops it tasting like lawn clippings.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Paloma
Grapefruit, lime and salt over ice — Mexico's real everyday drink, and better than a margarita.
4 min · Easy
Sour
Blackberry Basil Smash
Muddled fruit and herbs, sharp with lemon. Looks impressive and takes five minutes.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Cosmopolitan
Cranberry, lime and orange, shaken hard and served up. Looks the part and tastes sharp rather than sweet.
4 min · Easy
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar in balance. The simplest sour there is, and a good test of whether your lime is fresh.
4 min · Easy
Virgin Hurricane
Passion fruit, orange and lime — New Orleans' loudest drink, minus the rum that made it dangerous.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Mai Tai
Almond, lime and orange over crushed ice. Tiki's best drink, and the almond is what people actually taste.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Margarita
Lime, orange and salt, built so it tastes sharp and structured rather than like limeade.
5 min · Easy
Batch
Brown Sugar Bubble Tea
Chewy tapioca pearls, dark sugar syrup and cold milk tea. Worth the twenty minutes.
25 min · Medium
Mocktail Sangria
A pitcher that improves as it sits. The best thing to put on the table when you're hosting.
15 min · Easy
Party Fruit Punch
A punch bowl that isn't sickly — built on tea and citrus rather than sugar, and it scales to any number.
15 min · Easy
Peach Iced Tea
Real peach and real tea, not syrup from a bottle. Makes a jug that disappears fast.
15 min · Easy
Pink Lemonade
Coloured with real fruit rather than syrup, and sharp enough to actually be refreshing.
10 min · Easy
Southern Sweet Tea
The method matters more than the recipe — sweeten it hot, cool it fast, and never boil the leaves.
15 min · Easy
Strawberry Lemonade
Real macerated strawberries rather than syrup, and sharp enough to be worth drinking.
12 min · Easy
Thai Iced Tea
Strong spiced black tea over ice with condensed milk poured through it. Sweet, and worth it.
12 min · Easy
Virgin Pimm's Cup
The English summer drink — fruit, cucumber, mint and lemonade in a jug. Built for a garden and a crowd.
10 min · Easy
Blended
Coconut Lime Cooler
Creamy without being heavy, and dairy-free. A piña colada's lighter, less sweet cousin.
4 min · Easy
Horchata
Rice, cinnamon and milk, blended and strained. Sweet, cooling, and the best thing to drink with spicy food.
15 min · Easy
Mango Chilli Cooler
Sweet, hot and salty at once. The most interesting thing you can make from a frozen bag of mango.
5 min · Easy
Mint Lemonade
Blended rather than muddled, which is what makes it green, cold and far more intense than the stirred version.
6 min · Easy
Virgin Piña Colada
Pineapple, coconut and ice, blended properly so it comes out creamy instead of watery.
5 min · Easy
Watermelon Agua Fresca
Blended watermelon, lime and a pinch of salt. The most refreshing thing you can make in summer, in four minutes.
5 min · Easy
Watermelon Juice Cooler
Three ingredients, no equipment beyond a blender, and the best thing to drink in real heat.
5 min · Easy
Coffee
Sparkling
Cranberry Orange Spritzer
Tart, bright and barely sweet. Two minutes, and it looks like an occasion.
3 min · Easy
Cranberry Rosemary Spritz
Tart, herbal and festive. The drink to make when you want something that looks like an occasion.
5 min · Easy
Elderflower Cucumber Spritz
Delicate, floral and clean. The most elegant drink here and among the simplest.
4 min · Easy
Virgin Bellini
Peach and sparkling, two ingredients. The easiest thing to hand someone at a brunch or a toast.
3 min · Easy
Virgin Mimosa
Orange juice and sparkling, in the right ratio and properly cold. The default brunch drink, done well.
2 min · Easy
Hot
Hot Toddy Mocktail
Honey, lemon and spice in hot water. What to hold at a winter party, and genuinely soothing when you're ill.
5 min · Easy
Mulled Non-Alcoholic Wine
The smell of December. Makes the whole house smell right and scales to any number of guests.
25 min · Easy
Spiced Hot Chocolate
Made with real chocolate and a little chilli. The drink to hand people at a December party.
10 min · Easy
Stirred
Savoury
Virgin Bloody Maria
A Virgin Mary with smoke and heat. Better than the original if you like chilli.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Mary
A Bloody Mary without the vodka — which loses almost nothing, as long as you season it properly.
5 min · Easy
Virgin Michelada
Savoury, spicy and citrus-sharp, with a chilli-salt rim. The most interesting savoury drink you can make without alcohol.
5 min · Easy