It's Mocktail Time! 🍹for some | Calling-Time on an Alcohol-Free cocktail cliché for others!
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Mocktails are on the move - one way or another!
The Alcohol-Free cocktail has matured in taste, style and elegance in recent years. So is it time for a more serious sobriquet?
Let's look at the issues that may be infusing Mocktails with a complimentary shot of cringe. . .
'The Spiritfree Manifesto'
It's time for a little stroll back to 2017. . . when mocktails were on the mend: sickly syrups and fruit juice galore were giving way to talented bar-room mixology.
However, top Chicago bartender/business visionary Julia Momose began to notice unease among Mocktail customers.
A certain stigma.
Shared by those who provided their drinks, in a new era of the "considered nonalcoholic cocktail".
The whole process began to lack "a term more befitting the skill that goes into creating the beverage" - and not because of pride on the part of the bartender.
Well, partly so.
But for the drink's producer, and customer alike, it seemed vaguely ridiculous to serve-up and receive a mockery of alcoholic cocktails. When efforts and expectations always reach for the highest quality experience.
Since 2017, Momose has been actively promoting her non-alcoholic cocktail brand message. As Spiritfree. . . invoking a new way to look at the alcohol-free cocktail: "not holding back, nor is it being held back".
And the CROSSIP case
The values and sentiments of Spiritfree drinks are certainly shared by media-groomed mixologist Carl Anthony Brown.
With an extra squirt of lime!
Wherever mocktails are worthy of mention by CROSSIP, we're talking: "an imitation of a cocktail. Inauthentic. An object of derision. Disappointment in a glass".
The company banter is perhaps focused on the image of not-so-recent mocktail recipes.
As alcohol-free cocktails emerge from an era of ill-prepared, often thin and overly sweet mocktail misery. Although the term itself can still be an issue:
"It has negative connotations. Some mocktails can make us feel like we've been transported back in time to our primary school disco!"
However, CROSSIP make their case with a live and let live outlook. Acknowledging a wider context for NoLo cocktail scenarios. And if mocktails sound a bit childish, well, so is the spirit of celebration on a typical birthday night out - or whatever the occasion!
A certain sophistication shaping the NoLo Cocktail Scene
If anything, the majority of considered non-alcoholic cocktails shun the term 'mocktail' these days. As do most major brands of alcohol-free spirits, when promoting cocktail recipes.
There are still top-quality mocktail producers and recipes around - and put to the taste test there's no real distinction.
Among the market leaders of alcohol-free Cocktails are Savyll Beverage Co., Highball Cocktails and Hella Cocktail Co.
All of whose marketing methods avoid mention of mocktails (as if nothing unpleasant ever occurred 😉 )
Savyll seeks to "recreate the familiarity, complexity and sense of occasion of the world's most popular cocktails."
With distinguished results - if not exclusively held merits, on the part of the NoLo cocktail set.
Beware the Mockscow Mule! And enjoy a few Mockaritas. . .
Mocktails have a stubborn streak - and no shortage of style despite their recent growing pains!
Brands like Kul Mocks, Mingle Mocktails and Mocktail Club are taking alcohol-free celebrations mainstream. As Mingle Mocktails Founder, Laura Taylor observed at past parties:
"When someone is holding something different the attention is focussed on the drink rather than the fun. Mingle sets out to remove this clunky glass barrier to make everyone feel part of whatever occasion".
Whereas Mocktail Club take up a travel theme to provide a range of premium beverages. While keen to provide an exquisite drinks formula:
"We use clean ingredients to make tasty craft mocktails that include superfoods, such as pomegranates, cranberries and blackberries".
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| No Escaping it: Mocktails have an elegance of their own, if you know where to look www.escapemocktails.com |
In short, the Mocktail has survived skint knees, and grown-up tall and handsome! While consumers are simply starting to adapt to the trend and its promising future. . .
For now, non-alcoholic drink companies appear largely set on retiring the term 'mocktail'. . .
And sometimes with strong disclaimers!
Will such derision shape the next decade? In all likelihood, not entirely!
And here's why:
- traditional cocktail companies like to include a range of mocktails in a cute category
- similarly, mocktails provide a handy recipe section for cocktail mixologists
- the Mocktail remains a deft marketing portmanteau with a long history
So Cocktails? Mocktails? Booze-free Baroque tales?
Ever wonder how the term 'cocktail' came about?
Of course, we all have - while stood at a bar for too long!
And it's nothing that would remotely enter your mind:
"It was customary to dock the tails of horses that were not thoroughbred. . . They were called cocktailed horses, or later simply cocktails".
Yet even with that unsavoury knowledge, you'll still enjoy great cocktail recipes.
As fresh experience gives way to new effects and impressions. . .
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| NOPE to negativity: Alt-Cocktails "formulated for festivity and bubbling with botanical flavours" www.drinknope.com |
Even mocktail marauders CROSSIP are glad to acknowledge that:
"Language is often open to interpretation and usage can evolve over time."
As always, the time is Now.
And taste is what really matters - whatever goes into your 0% ____ktail glass! ✨
Any thoughts on mocktail matters of the day? Let's hear 'em 😎
John Gilheany is a niche Non-Alcoholic Drinks Copywriter available for marketing campaigns at: 'A dash of Tonic!' Copywriting Service
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