The snow has already started falling here in DC, and this storm is going to be a doozy. So what better to celebrate than a bright, tart, brilliantly red winter mocktail? Here’s a delicious winter fruit mocktail recipe that combines apple cider, sparkling grapefruit juice, and grenadine with a couple other surprising ingredients.  – Andrew

Winter Fruit Mocktail

3 oz Apple Cider
1 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Grenadine
1 heaping spoonful Lingonberry Jam
Izze Sparkling Grapefruit

Combine the cider, lemon juice, grenadine, and jam in a shaker filled two-thirds with ice and shake well. Using a tea strainer or a Hawthorne strainer with a tight coil, finely strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Top with grapefruit soda and enjoy!

There are lots of bright, wintery flavors happening in this drink: pomegranate and apple and lemon and grapefruit and lingonberry, a wonderful Scandinavian fruit that reminds me of a sweeter cranberry. Despite all that tart fruit, it’s more crisp and sweet-tart than sour.

This drink actually could have turned out too fruity, too much like a sweetened fruit juice the way a lot of mocktail recipes I’ve seen turn out, but the addition of the sparkling grapefruit juice (we love Izze’s) adds a dry, effervescent finish that balances out the other juices and syrups.

Jam and fruit preserves make an excellent addition to many cocktails, but they’re especially useful for mocktails. Alcohol adds not just flavor but also texture to a cocktail, and it’s hard to mimic the complex mouthfeel of a cocktail in a mocktail. Adding jam to a mocktail helps thicken it up and give you a richer, silkier texture (as long as you finely strain it and don’t end up with chunks of jam in  your glass).

Check back in next week for another fantastic Tiki mocktail! (This one has apricot jam in it.)

(Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, where we’ve been posting our experiments before they make their way onto this column!)

Glassware by Liquorary

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper