Eight Ways to Make Your Alcohol-Free Cocktails Look Festive

Make your alcohol-free cocktails look fabulous this Christmas with these festive garnish ideas. Let’s face it, mocktails that look great taste better. So, take your alcohol-free Christmas cocktails to the next level with a fun or fancy garnish. Here are eight of our favourite garnish ideas. 

Fruit is a time-old alcohol-free cocktail garnish and can make your mocktails look classy and sophisticated. Some delicious fruit garnishes include:

• Lemon and lime slices wedges or wheels

• Lemon, lime or orange peel (flamed can add extra flavour)

• Pomegranate seeds

• Candied cherry, lemon or lime

• Slices of apples and pears

• Raspberries

• Olives for more savoury, non-alcoholic cocktails

Keep your alcohol-free cocktails simple and classy this Christmas with a simple fruit garnish. 

Whole Spices

Whole spices taste like Christmas. They are in many of our favourite Christmas foods and drinks, from mulled wine to Christmas Pudding, and better still, they are also incredibly aesthetically pleasing. So, use a whole spice as a garnish and make a cosy, non-alcoholic Christmas cocktail. Our favourite whole spices to use include:

• Cinnamon sticks

• Star anise

• Candied Ginger

• Vanilla beans

• Freshly Grated nutmeg

Rosemary Christmas Tree

Herbs are commonly used to garnish cocktails, and, at Christmas, this can be useful. Rosemary, in particular, provides an excellent garnish to pair with many different alcohol-free spirits. You can find it used to garnish drinks with gin, and it pairs exceptionally well with citrus heavy drinks due to the citrussy undertones in its flavour. 

Rosemary tastes great in alcohol-free cocktails, but it also looks remarkably like a tiny Christmas tree. This quality makes it the perfect festive garnish because it looks like you are adding a miniature Christmas tree to every alcohol-free cocktail you drink. 

To level this garnish up, why not make snow-covered Rosemary Christmas trees? To do this, you need to make sugared Rosemary sprigs, which is very easy:

1. Start by combining sugar and water at a 1:1 ratio in a pot and let it simmer for three minutes. 

2. Stir your Rosemary sprigs into this simple syrup. Then, let them dry for an hour. At this point, your Rosemary sprigs should be sticky. 

3. Cover a plate in sugar and roll the Rosemary sprigs in the sugar until coated. 

4. Place them on a drying rack and let them dry completely.

You can now use the sugared Rosemary sprigs as snowy Christmas tree garnishes to give any drink a festive lift. 

Candy Cane 

Candy canes are quintessentially festive. So what better way to make your alcohol-free cocktail Christmassy than to use a candy cane garnish? There are two main ways to use candy cane as a mocktail garnish. The first is to use a whole candy cane as a garnish. Just hook the cane over the edge of the glass or let it rest in the drink. 

Alternatively, you can rim the glass with a crushed candy cane. This is easy to do in a few simple steps:

1. Crush the candy cane in a blender or with a hammer or rolling pin. Put this on a plate.

2. Cover the rim of the glass with a simple syrup (1:1 water and sugar). 

3. Turn the glass upside down onto the plate of crushed candy cane, and it should stick to the syrup. 

4. Tada! Your cocktail glasses now look fun and festive. 

Gingerbread Man

Christmas alcohol-free cocktails and other adult alcohol-free drinks are often served in mugs. Whether it is hot chocolate with alcohol-free rum, or a Moscow Mule served in a tin mug, Gingerbread men can make the perfect garnish. Lay a baked gingerbread man across the top of the alcohol-free cocktail and your drink immediately feels more Christmassy. Not only do you get a fun, festive drink, you get a tasty snack too! 

Sugar rim 

Rimming your alcohol-free cocktail glass with sugar is the perfect way to prepare your Christmas cocktails. It is easy to make different coloured or flavour sugar combinations by adding simple ingredients or food colouring. Some examples of Christmas cocktail sugar rims include:

• Cinnamon sugar

• Green and red sugar 

• White sugar or icing sugar as a dusting of snow

• Lemon or lime sugar

• Vanilla sugar

• Hot chocolate powder and sugar

All you need to do is choose your flavour combinations and food colourings, then mix this with your sugar. Finally, stick this to the top of a glass using lime juice or a simple syrup. 

On the theme of festive cocktail rims, Biscoff, chocolate spread, or Nutella can give you even more options of cocktail rim flavours. Here are some delicious combinations of treats you could use on the rim of a festive cocktail:

• Biscoff spread and gingerbread crumbs

• Nutella and brownie chunks

• Chocolate spread and crushed Oreo

• Nutella and Smarties

• Biscoff spread and candied ginger chunks

• Salted Caramel spread and crushed pretzels

• Melted chocolate and sprinkles

• Chocolate spread and fudge chunks

These are all exorbitantly sweet, alcohol-free cocktail rims. But what is Christmas without indulging your sweet tooth?! 

Whipped Cream

Christmas is all about indulgence, and there is nothing more indulgent than a drink topped with a huge pile of delicious whipped cream. So go ahead and get into the Christmas spirit with a luxurious garnish!

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