Pregnant, breastfeeding or maybe making your dry January a more permanent thing. Mums know you don’t need booze to have a good time, but pretending can make it all the better. Parenting little ones can put a halt on enjoying Friday night cocktails and many weekends are spent enjoying a kitchen disco, rather then supping Tom Collins or Lychee Martinis.
Back in my pre-mummy days, I had a cocktail section to my book shelf and loved nothing better then a night out perusing an extensive cocktail menu. One of my favourite places to hang was Trailer Happiness, a Tiki Bar style hang out in Notting Hill. Cocktails that bubbled out of volcanoes, wicked music and retro interiors, made it the go to for my circle of bright young things. It’s still a destination for cocktail aficianados. With a menu including Polynesian Princess, Trailer Colada and Hawaiin Mist, as well as a regular rum club, what’s not to love?
You can create beautiful mocktails inspired by these Trailer Happiness ones – yum!
That’s why I hit up a pro Richard Turner, General Manager of Trailer Happiness, for his ultimate mocktail guide for mamas to create perfect non alcoholic drinks at home. So whatever stage of motherhood you are at, you can be sure you can toast the end of the day/ kids’ bedtime/ surviving the commute with, as Richard describes “non-alcholic deliciousness” that is so good, you won’t miss the booze. This is the ultimate guide, including a shopping list of equipment, tips on making purees and not 1, but 8 mouth-wateringly delicious mocktail recipes.
So now cocktail hour can be anytime you want. Survived the school run – cheers! The kids are finally asleep – cheers! and it doesn’t even matter if the kids have some too.
Over to you Richard!
Making sure you have the right equipment is the perfect excuse to shop glassware
EQUIPMENT
Blender – for blitzing your purees
Large fine sieve – best for getting rid of excess pulp/ seeds/ skin (ideally metal)
Wooden spoon – aids the above process and is very good for general stirring purposes
Cocktail shaker/ large jug/ bowl – something to mix your ingredients into, ideally glass
Large-ish flat bottomed saucepan – for cooking your purees in
Measuring jug
Small measuring jug – something you can measure ideally 25ml units, if not 50ml
Teaspoon – holds roughly 5ml of liquid
Scales – ideally ones that can cope with kilos
Juicer – for your fresh citrus
Straws – always best to sip an awesome drink through one
Glassware – to enjoy the finished product!
Sugar-free? Not when you want a mocktail that packs a taste punch
A WORD ON SUGAR
Sugar is used extensively in cocktail making as a flavour carrier. It is impossible to keep the flavours of fruits in particular, once you start adding the two major flavour killers in the form of chilling and dilution. Please don’t be put off by the use of sugar in the recipes, the key is balancing all the ingredients to create a wonderful drink.
White sugar is best, as it’s neutral in flavour. Brown sugars, like demerara, can be used, but provide a unique, sweeter, slightly burnt flavour.
Set yourself up with essential mocktail ingredients
INGREDIENTS
Simple Syrup – This is syrup made of a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water. This can be gently heated on the stove or made cold.
Citrus – The cornerstone of any delicious drink is its balance. This begins with sweet and sour. Lemon and lime are generally used at the base of most cocktails. For non-alcoholic drinks, lemon tends to work best.
Fruit juice – This will provide length to your drinks. Also can be made into amazing syrups (Use 1:1 ratio from simple syrup)
Cordial – Elderflower is particularly great in drinks.
Soda/Sparkling water – As an alternative/additional ingredient to lengthen you drinks. The bubbles also add a nice extra dimension to drinks.
Ginger Ale/Ginger Beer/Lemonade/Sparkling fruit drinks – As above
Fruit – Any fruit can be made into a puree. This is an easy, cheap way of adding awesome flavours to your drinks.
Mint – Because why not?
Now concentrate, here’s where you make some purees (not Jam!)
HOW TO MAKE PUREE
Buy a kilo of fruit, anything really. Roughly chop, seeds, skin, stalks and all, place in your pan. Add 500ml of cold water and 300g of sugar. Most mass produced purees will contain 1kg of sugar, keeping the added sugar low allows the sugar from the fruit (where a lot of the flavour is) to stay at the fore.
Place on the stove, med heat, occasional stirring, bring up to a brisk simmer. You do not want it to be at high temperature for too long – this will bring out a more jammy flavour as the sugars cook, not really what you want.
Drop the heat down to a really slow, gentle simmer, again stirring occasionally. Leave to cook for roughly 20 mins. You should taste the puree during this time to find to flavour you want. This should be a bright, delicious version of the original fruit.
Once you have found that sweet spot, take off the heat, leave to cool. Pass it all through a sieve, using the wooden spoon to squish the pulp through. Get as much of the flesh of the fruit out as you can. This can laborious depending on the fruit, blackberries – easy, Granny Smiths – not so much.
You can choose to blend it at this point if a smoother consistency is required. This should get you, roughly, 2 litres of puree.
Now to the fun part, let’s get making these mocktails already
MAKING DRINKS
To follow are some recipes I have used to good reception over time. Please use them as a guideline and maybe a bit of inspiration. Part of the joy of making drinks is putting your own twist on it, creating something uniquely yours!
If you find it too sweet, add more citrus or whichever lengthening ingredient you have used. Not enough fruit flavour? Add more puree, fruit syrup or cordial. Important… It is easier to add than to take away, be careful!
Put all the ingredients in a jug or bowl, add plenty of ice, grab the wooden spoon again, stir quickly for 10 seconds (actual Mississippi’s please)
Add to chosen glassware, ice and all. All the recipes are for a 200ml serve, not including ice.
Non-alcoholic drinks are on the whole long drinks, use highballs (Basically anything tall-ish, pints work just as well, in a pinch so do vases!)
If you want to make blended versions or smoothies, for most of these recipes you can – take into account you will need to up the flavours to counterbalance the ice and or yoghurt. The flavours will come mostly from the syrups or puree/sugar syrup combo. The juices will provide more dilution and volume of liquid. Good rule of thumb, double the sweet ingredients.
Chin Chin mamas, here’s to delicious mocktails at home
RECIPE 1
25ml lemon juice
100ml apple puree
50ml apple juice
15ml elderflower cordial
10 ml simple syrup
RECIPE 2
10 mint leaves – gently crush in the bottom of the glass
25ml lemon juice
100ml peach puree
15ml simple syrup
25ml apple juice
25ml soda
Add ingredients back into the glass, with ice, stir quickly to incorporate the mint.
RECIPE 3
25ml lemon juice
100ml pear puree
75ml ginger ale
RECIPE 4
15ml lemon juice
35ml pomegranate syrup
50ml pomegranate juice
100ml orange juice
RECIPE 5
25ml lemon juice
100ml strawberry puree
75ml Apple juice
RECIPE 7
25ml lime juice
15ml simple syrup
35ml blood orange syrup
100ml pineapple juice
RECIPE 8
20ml lime juice
35ml orange juice
35ml pink grapefruit juice
35ml guava juice
15ml passion fruit syrup
15ml pineapple syrup
45ml ginger beer
Now if you want the real deal, you can check out Trailer Happiness at 177 Portobello Road, London, W11 2DY
Thank you Richard & Cheers Mamas. Every hour is Happy Hour in Mummy Land.
Yvadney x
The post THE TRAILER HAPPINESS ULTIMATE MOCKTAIL GUIDE FOR ‘MAMA HAPPY HOUR’ {WHEN YOU WANT TO BE NAUGHTY, BUT HAVE TO BE NICE} appeared first on STYLE AFTER NINE.