This strawberry lychee mocktail is the perfect non-alcoholic Christmas drink to toast to the festive season. It’s fruity, fizzy and refreshing, making it the perfect accompaniment to a meal or snack to gather around. Plus it’s so easy to throw together with sparkling grape juice, fresh strawberries, lychee and mint.
Sparkling grape juice particularly has a special place in my heart, as my grandparents would pop open a bottle at Christmas every year. White grape juice was one of our favourites, which is why it features in this recipe! As a nostalgic tribute to all those celebrations, with a little twist!
I’ve taken it up a notch with a few extra additions this season. To take sparkling grape juice to a whole new dimension!
What You’ll Need to Make This Non-Alcoholic Christmas Drink:
This mocktail consists of a few different components thrown together.
Strawberries
Fresh strawberries give a vibrancy to this drink, along with seasonal colour. They provide a sweetness that’s able to infuse in the drink, for a bit of berry, fruity goodness. Spring and summer are when they’re in season here in New Zealand, so now’s a great time to get used to them!
Check out this NZ spring fruit and vegetable guide and the summer fruit and vegetable guide (coming soon) to learn more!
After you’ve removed the stem from each strawberry, chop them finely. This makes it easier to release the sweetness and infuse the strawberry flavours into the cold beverage.
Tip: Buy fresh berries from a farmer’s markets or strawberry farm (if you’re lucky enough to be near one). This means that you can support local farmers, get them directly from the source where they’re nice and fresh and it’s often cheaper.
If you’re in Auckland, the La Cigale French Markets in Parnell is one of my favourites for produce.
Lychee
A fruit with juicy white flesh, surrounding a seed, encased in a red bumpy husk. It’s got a subtly sweet floral flavour and is native to Southern China (source).
For this recipe, I used tinned lychees as they’re soft and more readily available than fresh. However, if you’re able to get your hands on some fresh, then definitely give those a try!
Lychee can often be found in the tinned fruit section of supermarkets, or at your Asian grocer.
Chop the white flesh finely, similarly to the strawberries, to help infuse the flavours into the drink. As a bonus, you can eat it after your drink is all done!
Mint
Fresh mint leaves add to the cooling refreshing effect of this mocktail. It also provides a bit of greenery as well as an aroma.
To release some of the flavours, tear it before adding it to each glass and then lightly crush it with a spoon, along with the fruits.
Use extra mint leaves to garnish each cup!
Tip: A great way to store your mint so it stays fresh is by trimming the stems and then standing them up in a glass full with 2- 3cm of water. Cover the leaves with a plastic bag and then store in the fridge. This should keep the leaves nice and lively until required. If you should need to keep over a few days, it pays to replace the water daily.
Fresh herbs can also be bought from farmers markets too!
Sparkling White Grape Juice
A sweet, fizzy drink that makes this non-alcoholic Christmas drink extra special and celebratory. It’s a great alternative to wine, as it’s made from grape juice that has been carbonated just as the name suggests.
Find the best quality one you can get! I found a great one at my local supermarket.
Tip: Chill your grape juice before you pour it over the ice so that everything is nice and cool.
Open the bottle just before serving to ensure optimal sparkle and fizz!
Ice
To ensure the mocktails remain cool and refreshing! It often pays to have a stash handy in your freezer prepared earlier and ready to go.
See below for some interesting ways you can level up your ice!
Optional Swaps and Alternatives:
Sparkling Grape Juice
Instead of white sparkling grape juice, you could also give red sparkling grape juice a try instead! It will just have a slightly different flavour and add a different colour effect.
Ice cubes
Change up your ice cubes in one of the following ways…
- Floral ice cubes. To take it to the next level! Before filling an ice tray with water, add in a few clean edible flowers. Then top with water, place in the freezer until frozen and then you have yourself some floral ice cubes.
- Frozen Fruits: Swap out regular ice cubes for frozen fruits instead. Strawberries or even whole frozen lychees would be a perfect match. The benefit of this, apart from it looking impressive is that it doesn’t dilute your drink as ice would.
- Or none at all! You could simply skip this step altogether if you chill your sparkling grape juice in the fridge.
Fruits
Change up this mocktail with a few different combinations such as:
- Pear and apple
- Golden and green kiwifruit
- Citrus: with slices of lemon, lime, orange or even grapefruit.
- Berries: with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries or even cherries.
Edible Flowers
To make this mocktail extra celebratory, add a few edible flowers as a garnish on each cup along with or instead of mint. You could also add in some straws too!
How to make this non-alcoholic Christmas drink:
This strawberry lychee mint mocktail can be assembled with a few easy steps…
- Divide finely chopped strawberry and lychee evenly between your chosen glasses. Then add in torn mint leaves.
- Use a spoon to lightly crush the fruit and mint to further release some of the flavours.
- Add ice to each glass.
- Pour the sparkling grape juice over the ice to fill each glass.
- Garnish with extra mint leaves
- Serve immediately!
MORE Drinks to share these holidays:
- Orangeade
- Gingerbread Lattes
- Homemade Chocolate Milk
- S’ mores Hot Chocolate
- Coconut Chai with Cream Cheese Topping
- Sparkling Passionfruit Green Tea, Passionfruit Soda and Mango Passionfruit Fizz
Save this to Pinterest!
Strawberry Lychee Mocktail – a Non-alcoholic Christmas Drink
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Fresh Strawberries finely chopped
- 1 ½ cup Tinned Lychee finely chopped
- 18 Fresh Mint leaves + extra to garnish
- Ice cubes optional
- 6 cups Sparkling white grape juice chilled
Instructions
- Divide strawberries and lychee evenly amongst your desired glasses.
- Roughly tear mint leaves and add them to each glass.
- Use the back of a teaspoon to lightly crush the fruits and mint to help release some of the flavours and juices.
- Add ice to each glass.
- Pour sparkling grape juice over ice to top up each glass.
- Garnish with extra mint leaves.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
If you give this Christmas mocktail recipe a go, don’t forget to tag @theculinaryletter and #theculinaryletter, so I can see all your wonderful creations!
And that is how you make this wonderfully refreshing non-alcoholic Christmas cocktail with fresh strawberries, lychee and mint. I hope you enjoy it and feature it on the menu this Christmas! Or even as a tasty celebratory drink whatever the weather.
Until next time, stay curious!
Laura
Stay connected!
