The Secret To An Amazing Mocktail (No, Really. They Can Be Great!)

0:01 look gang you know how important privacy is that's why this episode is sponsored by nordvpn head on over to nordvpn.com Rogue spell it right r-o-g-u-e and hopefully you'll never find out what I'm up to I'm trying to solve this fishing in a swimming pool okay that's how you described it the first time you caught me drinking a non-alcoholic beer is it I hoped you had forgotten that did you know 40 years okay find like a steel trap yeah okay so mocktails deserve a little bit more respect yeah no it's like fishing in an awesome Pond where there are no fish

0:50 and we're back with award-winning beverage director Aaron Ashford and olamae you were going to teach us how to make a mocktail yes so mocktails are really popular right now I think a big part of it is because our drinking culture has changed so many people have choose chosen not to drink or have taken a break from drinking or you just kind of want to stagger your drinking throughout the night so that there's more longevity to your night now occasionally I'll have like a non-alcoholic IPA and I really like the the bitterness like I want it to be a challenge to drink is that a Hallmark of a mocktail because otherwise like if a mocktail is just a non-busy drink I'll just have a Diet Coke or something right so I think that's the biggest thing with mocktails is like what are you looking for do you want something that mimics a cocktail or do you want something that

1:35 doesn't taste like alcohol at all because you're not interested in that but there are a lot of like non-alcoholic canned cocktails and imperatifs that really mimic Cocktails so one is jafard they make this non-alcoholic a pair of teeth that mimics like a Campari so their goal is if you are trying to do lower ABV or avoid alcohol you can use this instead so we can do two different ones today I feel like one kind of mimics more what would be an alcoholic drink and then one mimics more like an agua fresca so I think the best thing with mocktails is to pick a structure like Tom Collins is the easiest one so it'll be Spirit Citrus sugar topped with bubbles so Spirit Citrus sugar topped with bubbles but the spirit's going to be something else yeah so that sphere can be anything

2:20 else you want it to be really it can be water which is the easiest one but if you're already going to use sparkling water at the end maybe it needs to be something more exciting maybe it's more citrus maybe it's a kombucha and again that that does have Trace Amounts of alcohol so depends what you're looking for some people don't even want bitters in their mocktail that has Trace Amounts of alcohol as well well like sometimes I'll do just a diet tonic water just because it's so bitter like the spirits tend to have that bite that lets me know I'm drinking I guess right so how are you getting that bite how are you getting that like bittering agent how are you getting kind of that herbaceous grassy note that different Spirits bring so luckily there are a lot of companies if that is what you're looking for for that bite and we have one in Austin called slow look and they're trying to do a cross between a vodka meets Jen

3:07 meets tequila so if you just take the spirit out of a cocktail you can easily plug that in and it tastes similar so can we have yeah a little tiny taste yeah so this was created by a couple bartenders in town when the espresso Martini was making a comeback they thought could you make a non-alcoholic as fresh a martini so they created this non-alcoholic spirit that way you don't have to use as much juice in your mocktails because that's a big thing is mocktails you're using a lot of citrus and that can be time consuming or costly so how do you lengthen the drink without using you know four plus ounces of grapefruit juice and it's booze that's not booze is that not booze I didn't even know this was a thing are you getting almost like a meaty kind of barbecue aftertaste no oh I'm getting a cleaning product I mean it's got that gin uh

3:55 effervescence you know yeah it's almost peppery right okay so how does this taste in a mate so I really like it two ways in a mocktail one I'm gonna do the non-alcoholic spirit with watermelon juice lime simple syrup and sparkling water so this one's kind of like an agua fresca I'm gonna do a tahin rim doing different salt rims is a really fun way to spice up your mocktails that way there's something a little more interesting going on a question of etiquette whenever I get a salted Rim like that at what point is it inappropriate for me to be licking like all the way up the side of the drink it's like a labrador so that is the purpose it makes it feel weird but the best way to Salt Iran you

4:43 don't want it on the top of the rim which is kind of old school bartender thing that we kind of finessed out to what it is now all the salt that you put on the top of the rim if you're doing that which is old school it all just Falls in falls on the table you don't really taste it it's messy so this is a cleaner way to do it which is to put it on the outside of the glass and so it is meant to be licked and then sip the drink and so it is part of it so the best way to do that is with a lime wheel and kind of do it in a swoop motion to where you're kind of getting like a round formation yep and then that'll be the formation of the salt so it looks pretty uh it's utilitarian it's less messy I'm so happy to hear this I've felt like such a nerd when like a necklace yeah that is how you do it so with this one I

5:29 want to do the base like I said we're going to do it two different ways I do want to use this non-alcoholic base if you did have seed lip or another kind of clear non-alcoholic spirit that would work perfectly well in this because I know this one is pretty local if you didn't do this you could change it up with a different juice maybe or even just add more sparkling water at the end do they have other types like oh I want something that is a faux rye whiskey they do so not this company in particular but there's another company called spiritless and they do a lot like that like a lot of companies are trying to mimic oh this is what a whiskey would taste like if there's no alcohol kind of tastes like tea because if I can drink Scotch without drinking Scotch oh that's the Dream It's a drink but you

6:16 don't get drunk so then in each one I'm going to do a different melon with the tahin I like the watermelon juice so I did two ounces of the spirit-free spirit ounce and a half of melon I'm going to do the same thing for each drink so it's the same exact build just different melon juices and which one is this one and then this is gonna be honeydew so this will be a lighter more Garden eccentric drink versus the watermelon is going to be a little more Savory with the tahin more like Texas summer and then to add kind of a rounder flavor to it I'm going to put lime juice in each one like I said Citrus on its own like grapefruit or watermelon or any kind of lighter Citrus really needs the support of lemon and lime they're utilitarian

7:03 and they're in every cocktail for a reason they are the base note that really carries the drink so adding lime just a quarter ounce to this will really bring out the flavor of the melon and then sugar every cocktail or mocktail needs sugar and this is just a simple syrup yes so this is just sugar and water cooked down together you can do that by doing equal parts so this is a one to one just a cup of sugar to a cup of water cooked in the saucepan till it melts let it cool and then that's your syrup so then when we finish it it's kind of where it stands out of the difference of the two besides the different melons so I'm going to top these with just regular cubed ice um any kind of ice cube tray in your fridge will do and then this is one of those weird cases where like with a whiskey you

7:50 might want to water it down so you're taking your time but it's a mocktail so you want to preserve the flavor as much as you can yes and since these ingredients are so light so that's a good thing to keep in mind is what is in it like watermelon juice is basically water so you don't want a ton of water to add to the watermelon so you want to keep it light you wouldn't want to stir it a bunch we can top it with sparkling water which I'm going to do I'm going to just adds some effervescence it doesn't necessarily dilute it more than the ice already is so you want to stir it just once around that way the mixture gets combined it's also a good opportunity to add more ice but I like to wait and add ice at the end once I add the modifier or sparkling component at the end this is just for bubbles just for bubbles and also to cut through the sweetness so like a lot of cocktails when we tasted

8:36 them before they were diluted same thing with these mocktails they might taste really sweet right now without something else to kind of cut through it give it that bubbly component make it it more refreshing this is a long drink so I would serve them with a straw but even if you're sipping it through the glass like a gin and tonic it's meant to be sipped it's meant to be drank long which is like a long slower sip versus like something that's in a coupe clasp which is you know more Zippy and more of a quick sip how much of these are to pull out the aromatics yeah a lot of it I would say so in this one since I'm gonna add sparkling water to the watermelon one this is more to cut through the sweetness it's just plain mineral sparkling water it's not going to add a ton of aromatics or flavor what I was depending on for that was the tahin rim

9:22 or for the garnish that I choose which on this one I want the aromatics to be like a bright herb like mint so mint is a good one Rosemary even Sage or thyme anything that gives you that on the nose because if you're gonna taste the salt Rim drink it through the shrub then you have the herb in your nose and it's all kind of like really aromatic and bright so I would do mint in that one for aromatics then I would do ginger beer and the Honeydew to really bring it out because honeydew is very light so ginger beer while it's really gingery and you don't want to do too much but there's only a little bit of room probably like an ounce hours and a half and I would give them a good stir and then this one the ginger beer will bring out the aromatics of the Honeydew it will taste more green and fresh and garden like and

10:09 then for that one you could do maybe like some lime wheels or just something really simple that fills the glass and looks pretty and then those are two really interesting mocktails that kind of set you up and above a Diet Coke or an iced tea and it's something that encourages you to take your time and work through so if I read it right we want some kind of non-alcoholic base we're going to add some various melon juices we're gonna pull out some of the flavor with bubbly stuff right you have an abundance of mint that's going to give you a powerful aromatic experience whereas I loves me some ginger beer any of that hard bite is going to make me yeah all right you ready to give it a try yes hey uh this one has the salt on it do you want to do that one instead well that one I'm familiar with the taste of watermelon I don't really dig

10:55 it it's too sweet for me okay but I'm hoping that the ginger beer is gonna cut off the I I actually don't know what honeydew melon tastes like oh it's a lot of ginger beer yeah all right here we go [Music] I was about to do the face again wow okay you're mocking me but I don't care that's fine no this is interesting and complex and it is hard for me to believe that it is a mocktail because you've got them with Spicy Bite right up front that hits you right along with the mint and then you've got this really refreshing flavor and it is a long drink it is something that I feel like I sit out on that beautiful deck out there and

11:42 just savor it on a summer day now the Honeydew is fairly subtle but I'm told that there's no wrong way you know the way you like to drink a drink is the right way to drink it or whatever but would it be gauche for me to top it off with more ginger beer after having a little bit because I really dig yeah if you like the ginger beer and want more that's great I mean it's there especially if you buy like these are favorite tree Ginger beers and they're a little eight ounce bottles you only use an ounce and a half so you should top it off especially if you love that bite he just wants to drink and the Honeydew apparently I'm learning meanwhile where can we learn more of your stuff you can follow me on Instagram at Erin Katie and otherwise if you're local or visiting Austin I'm at olamae restaurant come by and see her and if you guys have some of your own mocktails in additions that you like to

12:29 try put them in the comments maybe we'll give them a shot requests crazy requests we'll make it happen fish sauce not sensible requests just just drink Worcestershire sauce there's a lot of things you could do inside the bathroom you could sign a peace treaty you can negotiate an alliance you can solve a Rubik's Cube you could form a union like over email getting your friends onto the point is you're not doing anything wrong in the bathroom just do us one favor lock the dang door and that's what they let you do with our friends over at nordvpn.com you can finish today's Wordle I could be contemplating my

13:14 thoughts contemplating other people's thoughts could be pooping just head on over to nordvpn.com Rogue spell it right r-o-g-u-e and you'll get two years at a huge discount plus one month free they've got everything they got your 30-day money-back guarantee they got your Best in Class encryption we're talking about encryption so good it penetrates the great firewall of China we're talking about anti-extradition locations in Panama for crying out loud they wrote a song about it oh I hear you what if Panama turns over the logs nor VPN don't keep no logs you know who does keep logs Porter's

14:01 weird Horrors hoarding logs you don't want to be no weird log hoarder all right let's get real for a second there's gonna be a giant cyber security awareness campaign and while everyone else is gonna visualize it with somebody in a hoodie and a bunch of ones and zeros in front of a laptop I don't want you thinking about none of that I want you to be thinking about me solving a Rubik's Cube on the toilet why because I didn't lock the door what could I have done to lock the door go to nordvpn.com Rogue use promo code Rogue r-o-g-u-e get a big old discount and all the encryption you need cyber security [Music]

14:50 I feel relieved glad we had this talk if you'll excuse me I'm just reminded of why I locked the door every time I come in here because I can't it's because of how stinky my Rubik's skills are [Music] I could be logging into my bank account I could be logging into my credit cards I could be logging into a lot of logging examples I could be fired up hot painful tweets that can be done modern Rogue is supported in part by viewers like you at patreon.com modern

15:38 Rogue in the description you can find all of our credits and additional ways to support the show I noticed that you used different types of straws here is there a reason [Music] she's gonna be soggy that's true paper shots do get soggy they look really pretty and you are saving the Earth but they do get soggy