January 10th, or thereabouts it seems is the date most people give up on their new year resolutions. One of mine was to have a dry January…
Waking up on a Saturday 11th January, without a hangover, has got to be a bonus after a Cocktail…Mocktail Mixing Masterclass at Mixology.
When I took up the BRITA Boost Challenge to give up alcohol in January, I didn’t realise this could be fun! I won’t lie though, I was dubious about cocktail making without alcohol. The choices when you go to a bar / club / restaurant of virgin cocktails are usually a strawberry slushy or a mix of orange juice and a red juice.
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| Cocktail Master, Neil |
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Our Cocktail Master for the evening Neil, led us through the ins and outs of juices, syrups, fruits, implements, glasses and more – very, very well! So well that I almost felt like I had found a new calling in the cocktail mixing industry!
During the two hours, we made a variety of Mocktails all with BRITA filtered water. First up was the Hot Toddy (recipe below). On the night we actually used fresh ginger and didn’t use a star anise; still left it tasting surprisingly great! …All the recipes can be found in the ‘Mocktail Recipes’ Album on the keep it simpElle Facebook page (click here)
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| Hot Toddy Recipe |
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| Hot Toddy Mocktail |
A Lavender Sour, an Elderflower Julep and some Pink Champagne later, I was feeling refreshingly hydrated yet my head was clear! Neil was great for filling the the gaps in our Cocktail Making history – like how punches came about and what all the different implements were called and used for such as the ‘Mexican Elbow’ which squeezes the juice out of lemon / lime halves (adds to Amazon Wish List)!
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| Lavende Sour |
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| Elderflower Julep |
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| Pink champagne |
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| Pink Champagne served up 🙂 |
The evening ended with a competition to create a Mocktail in teams. My team created the ‘Eldernut Slammer’! A concoction of elderflower and coconut in a shot! …we didn’t win, but if I may say so myself, it tasted damn fine!
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| Eldernut Slammer |
Could the evening get any better?! Yup! Because we all got sent home with our very own Cocktail or Mocktail Mixing Kit ready for our Dinner Parties we will be hosting later this month…alcohol free and fuelled by BRITA water of course 😉
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| Gifted a beautiful Cocktail Mixing Kit |
Who else is going dry for January?! How are you finding it?! …fancy a Mocktail?!
Elle
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