I’m going on my 13th week of pregnancy, and with dealing with the heat, hyper kiddos, and a business, sometimes I miss the days where I could go to a happy hour and have a nice drink. I have tried making mocktails before but usually it just tastes like a sorry attempt at a sophisticated kids drink. I decided to tweet Bill Norris, Austin’s rock star of mixology, about what I could do to make my drink as close to the real thing as possible. His advice was Dry Soda as my base.
If you don’t know who Dry Soda is, you should. The best way for me to describe it to you would be the wine of soda. Don’t expect your usual sickening sweet sodas that so many depend on to make it through a day, but a more refreshing bubbly drink. Their current flavors are Cucumber, Vanilla Bean, Lemongrass, Rhubarb, Juniper Berry, Kumquat, & Lavender, which open up a wide variety of ideas for creating amazing cocktails and mocktails.
I’ve had Dry Soda’s Lavender, Kumquat, and Lemongrass before and knew that with my pregnant belly my best bet to not startle the baby would be Cucumber. The Cucumber flavor is amazing and I always add it to my ginger ale for a crisp, refreshing pick-me-up.
So when it came to making a mocktail I instantly new what I was going to make. I decided on watermelon for my base flavor, simply scooping out balls of melon for the kids and collecting the juice for my drink. For sweetness I made a jalapeno simple syrup, which you make just by adding 2 sliced jalapenos to your syrup as it’s boiling. The last touch was a squeeze of lime and a pinch of hibiscus salt to bring all the flavors together.
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| From two forked mamas |
I was really nervous on this not coming out, but I was pleasantly surprised that it really did taste like a cocktail without the boozy goodness. Michael added some white wine to his and had a spritzer, and I was thinking Campari would be a good addition to it as well.
We’re really looking forward to making more Dry Soda mocktails and cocktails as we go through baby #2′s journey.
I wanted to post an exact recipe but it all depends on your preference on what flavors you want more. Michael added less jalapeno simple syrup and more watermelon juice, and I had a even mix of everything. Let me know how it works for you!
