Not everything needs to have alcohol in it. Shocking to say. Especially because I’m from New Zealand and have spent most of my adult life in Australia where the culture is pretty booze-focused. I’ve worked in restaurants and bars, and love a drink on a Fri… Satur… Sunday arvo.

But I’ve also spent over 15 years working on oxidative damage in bowel, liver, and lung cancer, and fibrosis. And as much as I hate to admit it, there is strong evidence that alcohol does increase the risk of developing certain diseases. Will that stop me enjoying an apéro in Marseille with views of the Mediterranean sea? Not any time soon. BUT, any time I can have a tasty alcohol-free drink that doesn’t make me feel like I’ve been relegated to the kiddies table, I’ll take it.

The secret is that it has to look good, or it’s just juice haha. Et voilà, just like that, our premium butterfly pea is a game-changer !

It’s about layers and gradients – each with different osmolarity, density or pH (for my fellow science geeks) of the ingredients used. And don’t underestimate the allure of differently shaped ice cube shapes, and the shape/cut of the glass used. If, (like most of us) you don’t have access to beautiful cut crystal glasses, you’ll be surprised what you can pull off in a clean highball/old fashioned glass with interesting ice cube shapes. It’s much cheaper to buy reusable silicon ice cube moulds than expensive (and very smashable) glasses. And to be honest, who can be bothered handwashing crystal when you can just chuck regular glasses into the dishwasher? (I’m pretty sure my Mum would fight me on that point. She gave me a set of crystal glasses for my graduation and I think I’ve used them about 4 times in 20 years because I’m too scared that I’ll smash them. I’m much happier smashing cheaper glasses.)

While I haven’t tasted many, non-alcoholic spirits are on the rise! Checkout this Harper’s Bazaar article from Jan 2022. We will have plenty more sophisticated flavours to pair with our butterfly pea blossoms and tisanes in the future. For now, let’s start with some easy mocktails. We’ll add to the list over time, so bookmark it as a reference.