Beat the Heat With Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Beat the Heat With Non-Alcoholic Drinks

By

From mocktails made of tonic water to kombucha, here’s how you can beat the heat with fun, non-alcoholic refreshers this summer

Drinking alcohol is a part of many people’s cultures and is encouraged in social situations as well. While it’s generally understood that alcohol is not good for your health in the long term, many people don’t know the actual severity of its effects, even in small intakes. According to the World Health Organization, there is no level of alcohol consumption safe for our health, with risks already propping up at the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. Research also links alcohol consumption with dementia and a worsened immune system.

With these risks in mind, non-alcoholic alternatives to mixed drinks should be considered. To give you ideas on what to mix together at home, we’ve compiled a convenient list of highly-rated beverages and brands for you. Notably, the recipes in this list will not contain unnecessarily high sugar and calorie content—but there will be added sugar. And as with any beverage with an added sugar content, over-consumption can lead to risks like high blood pressure and diabetes. As it stands, the healthiest choice for everyone is and will always be water, but it’s fun to add some twists to our drinks once in a while.

Cucumber Mint Lime Refresher

Top Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Photo Credit: @healthade (via Instagram)

Health-Ade’s bottled kombucha drinks can be drunk on their own, but they’ve also published many recipes for people to enjoy and experiment with. One of our top picks is the Cucumber Mint Lime Refresher, which lets you join in on the fun of a happy hour without harmful effects. All you need for this recipe is Health-Ade’s Mint Limeade Kombucha along with lime juice, three slices of cucumber, four to six mint leaves, and one large ice cube.

Mint Limeade Kombucha is perfectly made for beach days with its fruity, floral, and tangy tasting notes. And like the rest of the brand’s kombucha line, this drink is full of living probiotics, detoxifying acids, and natural antioxidants. All of these features together can help to improve your gut health and reduce inflammation and the risk of illness.

Green Garden Cooler

Top Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Photo Credit: @seedlipdrinks (via Facebook)

Seedlip is known as the maker of the world’s first non-alcoholic spirits. While their spirits can be drunk on their own, they also taste great when mixed with other drinks like ginger ale or kombucha. On their website, you can find their official recipes for cocktails, one of which is the Green Garden Cooler. This recipe calls for Seedlip’s Garden 108, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, elderflower cordial, and soda water, as well as a highball glass and fresh herbs to garnish.

The centerpiece of this recipe is Seedlip’s Garden 108, a distilled, non-alcoholic spirit primarily composed of peas and garden herbs like rosemary, thyme, and spearmint. Garden 108 is also allergy-friendly, calorie-free, and sugar-free. Meanwhile, the elderflower cordial, like the lemon juice, can be store-bought or homemade to suit your sugar-level preferences.

No-Groni Spritz

Top Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Photo Credit: @fevertreeaustralia (via Instagram)

Fever-Tree’s No-Groni Spritz recipe tastes precisely like a Negroni cocktail, but without alcohol. To make this, you simply need to pour Fever-Tree’s Italian Blood Orange Soda over an icy glass of Æcorn Bitter, an alcohol-free aperitif. Top this off with an orange wedge, and you’re golden. Notably, the Æcorn Bitter is made to be gluten-free and vegan-friendly, with bitter but refreshing notes of grapefruit, bay leaf, and orange.

Fever-Tree tonics are made with all-natural ingredients, including quinine that creates any tonic water’s bitter taste. With that said, as much as this drink would be a healthier alternative to alcoholic beverages, you should be careful not to over-consume these in particular. Apart from the general risks of added sugar, quinine could result in allergic reactions and even hypoglycemia among people sensitive to it. As such, this drink is not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women and people with abnormal heart rhythms, liver or kidney disease, or low blood sugar. For everyone else, one to three glasses a day should be of no immediate concern.

Order your print copy of this month's MEGA Magazine:
Download this month's MEGA digital copy from:
Subscribe via [email protected]