I’ve been playing around with mocktails lately. I love the idea of a celebratory drink or an end of the day cheers with my husband, but I don’t always want the alcohol.
For me an important cocktail or mocktail has a wonderful balance of flavors, sour or tart if you prefer, sweet, bitter, a touch of botanical or herbs, sometimes a splash of sparkling water. There are many great ways to add flavors, muddled berries and cucumbers, citrus, shrubs, herbs, honey, date syrup, lemongrass, spices. I find I use citrus in almost all my mocktails. Tart and sweet seem to be the easiest flavors to capture. Bitter is often more difficult for me.
Really you can search for ‘best mocktails’ and find a gazillion great recipes and articles. A few of my favorite for creative simple syrups, ways to add flavor, and recipes are: Food52, liquor.com and the book Wild Mocktails and Healthy Cocktails: Home-Grown and Foraged Low-Sugar Recipes from the Midnight Apothecary by Lottie Muir. This book is gorgeous and full of fun ideas like Lemongrass Tea and Black Pepper Syrup.
I found this refreshing, tart and full of flavor Saffron & Cardamom Lemonade Concentrate recipe by Saee Khandekar in Food52’s recipes section.
Saffron & Cardamom Lemonade Concentrate
A traditional summer cooler from India—a lemonade infused with green cardamom and saffron, served cold with fresh mint. —Saee Khandekar
Makes 500ml concentrate
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Ingredients for Simple Syrup:
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoon green cardamom powder
- 8 strands, saffron
Additional/Optional Ingredients:
- Mint leaves
- Salt
- Cold water
- Soda water
Instructions:
- Make a simple syrup by dissolving the sugar and water over low heat. Stir occasionally to ensure that it does not burn. Simmer for a minute once the sugar is dissolved.
- Turn off the heat. Add the cardamom and saffron and cool completely.
- Pour in lemon juice and stir to mix.
- Strain and store in a sterilized bottle in the refrigerator.
- To make the lemonade, muddle some mint leaves and a sprinkle of salt in a glass. Add 3 Tablespoons of the concentrate to glass. Add ice and cold water or soda water for some sparkle.
