Pomegranate Fizz Mocktail
Photography by Simeon Crofts
DIETARY – Alcohol-free/Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-free/Nut-free/Dairy-free
Sweet, slightly tart pomegranate juice is the star of this mocktail recipe created to celebrate three whole years of Deliciously Free! We wanted to craft a truly tasty and refreshing booze-free beverage that balanced sweet with sour and, importantly, felt grown up. Something you’d happily have in hand on a special occasion or when drinking with friends. Plus, it had to taste just right. After all, making free-from delicious is what started this whole adventure!
Back in 2020, COVID-19 had hit Australia and we were in the very first lockdown. Dietary requirements were already ingrained in our daily lives (read more about our story here) and with a lot less to do, I found much joy whiling away time in the kitchen. I definitely joined the banana bread bandwagon! I had always loved cooking, and I had some experience writing recipes from my days as a journalist and had also done my fair share of cookery courses over the years, so it seemed a natural development to start getting creative with food. My husband, Sim, is a keen photographer and we both saw a gap in the allergen-free blog space, particularly where multiple needs were catered to in one central place, so we decided to turn a global pandemic into something productive!
This drink recipe was also inspired by my sister, who was recently diagnosed with a long list of food intolerances. After many years of chronic stomach issues, she was told one of the offending ingredients was alcohol, which, I must admit, I hadn’t considered to be an allergen. My sister only enjoyed alcohol on occasion but being able to hit the bar with friends or enjoy a boozy brunch was something she loved doing, and suddenly alcohol was completely off the menu. I started to look into mocktail offerings at restaurants and noticed they were often marketed towards children and were sickly sweet with syrups, lemonade and sugary juice. Or they didn’t exist on the menu at all. That’s where the oh-so elegant Pomegranate Fizz comes in!
Pomegranate is a real underdog in the drink world. Its delicious edible seeds also happen to make a lip-smacking juice that can be found in the drinks aisle of a supermarket (usually on the shelf, not in the fridge). Fresh and slightly sweet, the ruby red juice is kicked up a notch with the addition of sharp grapefruit and mellowed just enough by the soda water. The squeeze of lime gives margarita-vibes with a sour punch and the mint offers a fresh kick reminiscent of a mojito. It really is all the best cocktails in one!
Pomegranate Fizz Mocktail
Ingredients
- Ice
- ½ cup pomegranate juice
- ¼ cup grapefruit juice
- ½ cup soda water
- 1 tsp fresh squeezed lime juice
- Mint sprigs
- Pomegranate seeds (optional garnish)
- Dried lime slices (optional garnish)
Method
- Fill a glass with ice.
- Add the pomegranate and grapefruit juice, and soda water to your glass.
- Stir in the freshly squeezed lime juice and a few sprigs of mint and stir well, using your spoon to crush the mint.
- Serve with fresh pomegranate seeds and a slice of dried lime if desired.