How do you make a mocktail? Body, bite, acid, aroma and the glass

Ethanol carries aroma and adds warmth, texture and length, so a drink without it can taste thin. Alcohol-free spirits explained covers why, and what alcohol-free means on a UK label covers the words on the bottle. The replacements are in any kitchen: syrup, tea, citrus, herbs, spice, salt, ice and fizz.

Leaving the spirit out leaves a gap, not a drink. The Virgin Colada shows the repair. Where the Piña Colada has 50ml of pineapple juice and a few optional drops of lime, the Virgin Colada has 120ml of juice and 15ml of lime, because the rum gave the original its dryness as well as its strength.

Simple syrup is sugar and water in equal weights and keeps two weeks in our fridge. Rich syrup is 2:1 by weight and keeps a month, so two thirds of a measure does the work of a full one. The syrup page sets out the house ratios.

A thin drink usually wants weight rather than more sugar. Cream of coconut brings both: the Virgin Colada takes 45ml where the Piña Colada takes 30ml. Fruit does the same job. The Virgin Passion Fruit Martini scoops in the pulp of two passion fruits and adds 25ml of vanilla syrup for the body the vodka would have given.

Tonic is the plainest source. Tonic water is flavoured with quinine and sweetened, and the Spirit Alternative and Tonic begins at 100ml and tastes before adding more. Grapefruit soda brings fruit and sweetness, and the better bottles keep some of the fruit’s bitterness. Black tea brewed lighter than for a cup adds tannin and a drier finish: the Arnold Palmer pairs 135ml of cold tea with 45ml of still lemonade.

One bitter needs a warning. Angostura bitters are 44.7% ABV on our ingredient page, and two dashes are about 1.6ml. That is 0.7ml of pure alcohol, or 0.07 UK units by the NHS sum of strength times volume divided by 1,000. In a 200ml glass it comes to about 0.35% ABV, far over the 0.05% that the UK descriptor for alcohol free names. A drink with two dashes of bitters is not alcohol-free in that sense, so leave them out for anyone avoiding alcohol entirely.

The Virgin Passion Fruit Martini’s page adds the same caution for vanilla syrup: some vanilla flavourings are made with alcohol, so read the label if you avoid it strictly. Trace alcohol in an alcohol-free drink does the sum for four kitchen ingredients.

Fresh lime juice is about 6% acid on our ingredient page and fresh lemon juice about 5 to 6%, and both belong to the day they were squeezed. With no spirit to cover for tired juice, bottled lemon shows at once. Taste the juice before the first round, because lemons vary through the year, and adjust the syrup once for the whole jug.

Where a drink wants lime and sugar together, lime cordial supplies both, and the house version keeps a week chilled.

Press the mint, do not shred it. The Virgin Mojito presses ten leaves once or twice with a muddler, since torn leaf turns the drink bitter and grassy, and muddling masterclass covers the technique. Peel works on the same principle, and the Spirit Alternative and Tonic suggests grapefruit peel, rosemary or cucumber for bottles with other flavours.

Warmth is the hardest job to rebuild. Ginger beer is hotter and cloudier than ginger ale, and some bottles carry a trace of alcohol under 0.5%, so read the label if that matters. In the Virgin Mary the Tabasco and pepper carry the heat, and the Tabasco goes in a dash at a time.

Saline solution is salt dissolved in water at 20% by weight. One drop holds about 0.01g of salt, below the threshold of taste yet enough to dull bitterness and let fruit and sweetness through. Add a drop to a drink that tastes nearly right and taste again before a second.

A drink with no spirit has nothing to spare for dilution, so manage the ice. Fill the glass to the top, because a full glass melts slowly, and stir tonic and soda drinks only until the glass is cold. Shaking time does not shorten: the Virgin Passion Fruit Martini wants 10 to 12 seconds until the tin frosts, since foam stands in for the spirit and forms only when the drink is very cold. Build long drinks at the short end of the soda or tonic range, taste, and add more only if needed. Understanding cocktail balance explains how sweetness, acid and dilution trade against each other.

Fizz gives a drink its lift, so it goes in last. Soda water is carbonated water with a little mineral salt and no sugar, tonic water adds sweetness and bitterness, and sparkling water is water and gas alone. Open a fresh bottle for each round, because an opened one keeps a day or two at most, and pour down the inside of the glass. The Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade adds its 150ml of sparkling water last, since early bubbles are gone before the first sip.

Serve the alcohol-free drink in the glass the alcoholic version would take. Christmas drinks pairings gives the reason: with the same glass and the same care, nobody has to explain themselves. Valentine’s Day drinks makes the point for two glasses brought out together. The Virgin Passion Fruit Martini takes a chilled coupe glass, the Virgin Colada a hurricane glass and the Virgin Mojito a highball glass. How to garnish a cocktail and the glassware guide cover the rest.

Mix the base ahead and add the fizz to each glass. The Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade mixes cordial and lemon in equal parts and keeps the jug in the fridge, with the sparkling water poured into each glass, never into the jug. The Watermelon Cooler keeps its juice and lime for a day, with the soda added at the last moment. Label every jug and give an alcohol-free bowl its own ladle. How to batch cocktails covers the water, the citrus and the quantities, and a punch bowl holds the warm base.

The Virgin Mojito presses ten mint leaves with 25ml of lime juice and 20ml of simple syrup, then adds crushed ice and 120ml of soda water. The mint gives aroma, the lime gives acid and the syrup dissolves at once. The lime is 5ml more than in the Mojito so that the longer soda pour stays sharp.

The Virgin Colada blends 120ml of pineapple juice, 45ml of cream of coconut and 15ml of lime juice with a cup of crushed ice for 10 to 15 seconds. Shake the tin first, because it separates, and stop while the drink is still thick.

The Virgin Passion Fruit Martini shakes two passion fruits, 50ml of passion fruit juice, 25ml of vanilla syrup and 15ml of lime juice in a shaker and strains once, seeds and all, into a chilled coupe. Half a fruit floats on top, and a small glass of chilled sparkling apple juice goes alongside.

The Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade is elderflower cordial and fresh lemon juice, 25ml of each, over ice, with 150ml of sparkling water on top. Three ingredients leave nowhere to hide: flower and sweetness from the cordial, sharpness from the lemon, length from the water.

The Watermelon Cooler is 150ml of blended, strained watermelon juice with 25ml of lime juice over ice, topped with soda and stirred once. Melon has almost no acid, so the lime gives the drink its shape, and syrup goes in only for an under-ripe melon.

Alcohol-free versions of the classics sets the Virgin Mojito, Virgin Colada and Virgin Passion Fruit Martini beside their originals.

Cloudy apple juice is pressed and unfiltered and holds no alcohol, and in Britain cider means the fermented drink. Hot Spiced Cider for eight warms 1.2 litres of the juice for 20 minutes without boiling, with whole spices, orange peel and 50ml of maple syrup, and serves 150ml a mug. Spirit, if anyone wants it, goes into an individual mug at the pour and never into the pot.

The Wassail is alcohol-free when made with the cloudy apple juice alone, with no cider and no brandy; the spices, the clove-studded orange and the brown sugar, added a spoonful at a time, stay. Heat does not remove alcohol, a point winter cocktails makes with figures, so a pot stays alcohol-free only if none goes in.