Restaurateur Naveen Pai, may not be a huge fan of the mocktails though he makes an exception for his favourite Blue Lagoon. One of the main reasons why mocktails are warming up with the city, he feels, is that they can be served at family gatherings. Moreover, most recipes do not require complicated ingredients and are easy to make. A thought reiterated by Malay Mukherjee, senior bartender at Big Ben. “Mocktails like Frozen Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri and Mango Delight can be whipped up in a jiffy without much hassle. To make the former, one requires three-four fresh strawberries, 50-ml lemon juice, 50-ml sugar syrup and ice. Mix them and serve them in a tall glass. To make Mango Delight you need 2 scoops of mango ice-cream, 100-ml mango juice, one fresh mango and some green mango syrup. Blend them and serve them.”

What’s great about mocktails is that the ingredients can often be substituted with their low-calorie counterparts. For instance the cream in Pina Coladas can be substituted at home with some low fat variety and the sugar syrup can be made with sugar free substitutes. One of the best mocktails for the calorie conscious, feels Mathew Lepcha, Bar-Co-ordinator of West View at ITC is a ginger-pineapple-apple mocktail. “Take half-a-glass of pineapple juice, half -a-glass apple juice, some lime cordial and grated ginger. Mix with ice and serve in a tall glass. It’s a great drink for the calorie conscious, but for those who love to experiment, mix some grenadine syrup, orange juice, whipped cream and non-alcoholic Blue Curacao. Fill the glass first with some orange, then some fresh lime, then the grenadine syrup. Top it with the cream and the Curacao and garnish it with slices of orange and green or red apple. The colour gives the drink an illusion of sunrise or sunset.”