Lyre’s is one of my hands-down favorite non-alcoholic spirit brands. I am a repeat buyer of their Italian Spritz and their pre-mixed cans, and recently purchased their Sazerac set, comprised of non-alcoholic Absinthe and Rye.
After making that purchase, I got an email offering a free, 15-minute drink coaching session with one of their mixologists. I set the call up for 4pm on a Sunday, which was 10am Monday in Auckland, where my mixologist Andrew Down lives. In the sign-up form, I listed the Lyre’s ingredients I had to work with, and they used that to determine two recipes to teach me, the Amalfi Spritz from scratch, and a Whiskey Sour. I prepped my ingredients, put on lipstick, quieted the house, and got ready for the call.
The call was AMAZING. Andrew was awesome and I learned some really important things about mixing non-alcoholic drinks differently than their alcoholic counterparts.
Lesson #1: Avoid Overwatering
When making a regular cocktail, shaking/stirring adds a slight dilution to the alcohol, which is fine. For non-alcoholic versions, it can make them watery. Andrew shared a few tricks that cut down on the dilution when making a non-alcoholic alternative:
- Don’t use “shitty ice”: Andrew called the ice from the refrigerator (which I was totally using, BTW) “shitty ice”, and I totally agree. It adds more water than sphere or cubed ice that comes from silicone molds, which is what he recommends using for all cocktails. I have these silicone molds on my Christmas list, and hope they’ll take my cocktails to the next level!
- Reduce your shaker time: A typical cocktail is shaken for 10-12 seconds. You’ll want to shake your mocktail vigorously for only around 3 seconds, and have your glass ready with garnishes to pour it in after shaking.
- Chill your spirits: By keeping your spirits refrigerated, you’ll be able to incorporate all ingredients quicker and reduce dilution during the making process.
- Build your drink in the glass: You’ll build your drink in the glass without ice before adding ice to it.
Lesson #2: Other Tidbits & Tricks
- Thickeners: I made my Whiskey Sour with pasteurized egg whites, however you can also use the water from a can of Chickpeas (Aquafaba), which is used to make vegan meringues. Andrew also introduced me to foaming drops available for cocktail-making, like these from Ms. Better’s Bitters.
- Bitters: I used Angostura bitters, since I do not avoid alcohol altogether and the addition is minimal. However there are other non-alcoholic bitter brands out there (I have some DRAM on the way). Andrew keeps some bitters in a spritzer and sprays them on top of the cocktail foam for additional aroma, which I think is just genius.
Overall, it was a wonderful lesson, and I definitely recommend buying directly from Lyre’s, for this among other reasons. Here were the recipes we made:
- 60ml Lyre’s American Malt
- 15ml Lemon Juice
- 5ml Simple Syrup
- 10ml egg white
- 3 dashes aromatic bitters
Rapid shake, and strain over glass of fresh ice with lemon wedge
- 60ml Lyre’s Italian Spritz
- 60ml Lyre’s Classico
- 30ml Soda water
Add all ingredients to glass, stir, and add large ice cubes and an orange rind. This is also delicious premade in a can.
A huge thanks to Andrew and everyone at Lyre’s for not only making great alcohol-alternatives that are easy to find, but also for providing an above and beyond customer experience. You can find a full selection of Lyre’s recipes on their website and on YouTube.
P.S. I asked Andrew how to pronounce Lyre’s, if it was more like “Leer” or “Liar”. He said it’s more like Liar, named after the Lyrebird, which can mimic just about any noise in their environment, hence the clever play on words since Lyre’s very effectively mimics any alcohol. For those of you who enjoy YA fantasy like I do, finding out that there’s a real life “Mockingjay” was also fun!
As Many As You Want 