Healthy Cherry Mocktail Drinks

No. of Servings: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

• Black cherry flavored yogurt – 4oz
• Fresh cherries – 1 cup (pitted and cut into small pieces)
• Cold Milk – 1 cup (toned milk may be used for those who are calorie conscious)
• Ice cream or crushed ice – ½ cup (optional)
• Honey – to taste (optional)

Method:

• Pour the yogurt, fresh cherries and cold milk into a cocktail stirrer/ shaker. Ensure that they all blend together well and the cherries are well coated with the milk and yogurt.

• Pour this mixture into a tall mocktail glass. To make your cherry mocktail even more exciting, frost the rim of the glass in which it will be served by dipping the rim lightly in some lemon juice and then dip this rim into some powdered sugar.

• Then add the crushed ice or ice cream (preferably plain vanilla) as per ones individual taste.

• Additionally cocktail sticks may be used as skewers for small chunks of assorted fruits and placed on the rim of the glass just before serving the mocktail. This will act as a colorful and healthy garnish.

Another healthy cherry mocktail drink can be easily prepared by simply mixing together around a quarter cup each of orange juice and cherry juice and serving it with crushed ice.

Health tips:

• Mocktails can be made even healthier by following recipes that use yogurt or toned/low fat milk. These ingredients are known to be high in anti oxidants and calcium but low on empty fat building calories.

• Mocktails typically also call for the use of a lot of fresh fruit such as strawberry, blueberries, cherries, oranges, mangoes, pineapples or even fresh fruit juices which are rich in vitamins and fiber required by the body to build muscle and tissue.

• Fresh fruits also help alleviate symptoms of cough, colds, lack of energy, lethargy etc as they are an abundant source of natural sugar that is easily absorbed by the body.

• The consumption of fresh fruit mocktails rather than sugary carbonated drinks also helps in keeping cholesterol levels in check and avoiding diseases like diabetes.

• Thus mocktails can be a refreshing and healthy option to quench your thirst and keep the body hydrated with the right kind of fluid intake.

• If the mocktail is meant for children then the most popular ingredient that may be added is ice cream.

Mocktails recipes

Low calorie mocktails recipes are very handy when you are trying to cut down alcohol consumption to lose weight. These mocktails are generally called virgin mocktails and contain no alcohol. A few tips to remember while preparing mocktails recipes include;

1. Always use fresh fruits or fresh fruit juices which have no added sugar.
2. Citrus fruits like melons, cherries, berries, oranges, grapes, peaches and apricots which are rich in antioxidants, are always healthier choices.
3. Herbs and spices like basil, mint, lemon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom provide additional antioxidants.
4. Always use diet tonic water or diet soda in such mocktail recipes as they are free of calories.

One such easy mocktail recipe is the Cherry mocktail recipe. The cherry mocktail ingredients include 4 oz of black cherry yogurt, 1 cup fresh cherries stoned and sliced, a cup of cold milk, half a cup ice cream or crushed ice and honey for sweetness. The cherry mocktail method of preparation involves mixing all these ingredients in a stirrer or cocktail shaker and pouring this mixture over crushed ice. This cherry drink can be served in a tall glass. One of the most important cherry mocktail tips is to use low fat milk or yogurt to make this a healthy mocktail. This healthy cherry mocktail recipe is a good source of antioxidants, vitamins and fiber and is also very low in calories.

Some other easy low calorie mocktails recipes include;

Blueberry mocktail:

In a blender, add 1 cup of water, 1 cup blueberry juice, ¼ cup lime juice, 2 cups of crushed ice and 1 tablespoon of chopped mint leaves and blend till smooth. Serve this mocktail immediately while cold. This recipe contains 75 calories per serving, which is equal to 1 fruit.

Apricot Zinger:

Prepare the ginger syrup by boiling 1 cup water, ¼ chopped ginger and ½ cup agave syrup. Strain out all the ginger pieces and keep aside.
Now to prepare the drink take 3ounces of apricot nectar, 2 ½ ounces of white grape juice, 1 ounce of the prepared ginger syrup, ¼ teaspoon finely ground cloves and mix well in a cocktail shaker. Put crushed ice in a broad glass and pour this mixture over the ice. Use fresh mint for garnishing. This drink contains 130 calories per serving.

These mocktail drinks are ideal options especially for people who want to cut down on alcoholic beverages to achieve weight loss.