Raspberry Mocktail

Mocktails can be just as fun to design and drink as cocktails. This delicious and fresh Raspberry Mocktail is proof of that, combining fresh lemon juice, homemade raspberry syrup and raspberry herbal tea.

About Mocktail Design

Designing a good mocktail can be a fun challenge. Sure, you can always just throw some soda and berries into a glass with ice. But if you want to really layer in the flavor, it's going to take a bit of work.

Mocktails are a lot more diluted than cocktails, and you don't have the flavor of the alcohol as a backbone. So, you're going to need to think outside the box if you want something more complex than lemonade.

Adding Flavors to a Mocktail

Since we can't use liqueurs or infusions to add flavor, we have to look elsewhere. Teas, fruit juices and fresh herbs all work great. Basically, anything that will extract its flavor in water is fair game.

Another great way to add in flavor is to use a flavored syrup as a sweetener, instead of plain simple syrup.

In this recipe, I used a homemade raspberry syrup, made by macerating fresh raspberries and straining them through a cheesecloth. To go with that, I used a raspberry herbal tea and lemon juice.

Egg Whites in a Mocktail

I wanted to fancy this up a bit more, so I added pasteurized egg whites (from a carton) in order to get a foamy top. Adding egg whites to a mocktail is tricky. You need to add enough to make a foam, which is tough because of all the watery liquid. But you can't add too much, because it will dial down the flavors of the other ingredients. Experiment until you find a happy medium.

Bitters: Yay or Nay?

The answer is up to you and how comfortable you are with a tiny amount of alcohol. Bitters are highly concentrated, so you only need a few drops, but they do pretty much all contain at least some alcohol.

I skipped them for this recipe, but there are a few low-alcohol brands available, such as Fee Brothers. I would recommend trying those, and you can also check out this article for some other non-alcoholic options to add bitter flavors.

Making this Raspberry Mocktail

Fresh Raspberry Syrup

To start, you'll need to make some raspberry syrup. I wanted to make a syrup with the taste of fresh raspberries. Rather than heating up the raspberries with sugar, I macerated them, which just means I mashed them up together with sugar and let it sit for a while.

After about 20 minutes, I added a little bit of water, stirred it up and then strained it through a cheesecloth.

The resulting syrup is really delicious and has the sweet-tart flavor of fresh raspberries. Bottle it up and you can keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

You can check out some video instructions for this syrup in my Instagram story highlights (and follow me while you're at it!)

Building the Mocktail

Ahead of time, you'll need to make the raspberry tea. I used this Raspberry Zinger tea. I brewed it according to the package, let it cool and then chilled it in the fridge.

Once you have the tea and syrup ready, you can put the mocktail all together. Add the tea, syrup, lemon juice and egg whites to a cocktail shaker. Shake everything without ice. If you want to try to get a ton of foam, try putting in the spring from your cocktail strainer or a blender ball in the shaker.

Then, add ice and shake everything again to chill. Strain it into a fancy glass and garnish with lemon and raspberries.

Other Recipes You Might Like

• This Earl Grey Gin cocktail can be converted to a mocktail using Earl Grey tea
• Omit the rum in this Dragonfruit Mojito for a delicious and beautiful mocktail
• Amp up your orange juice by using ginger juice, like in this Blood Orange Ginger Whiskey Sour

Did You Make This Recipe?

I would love to hear if you tried out this Raspberry Mocktail! Did you try adding egg whites? Please leave me a star rating or comment below, I would love to hear from you!

📖 Recipe