8 Local Mocktails to Try When You Need a Break From Booze
These Charlotte drinks are dry, but not boring
You, my sober friend, are no longer stuck ordering a boring ol’ Coke or orange juice while out with friends. Thirty-four percent of Americans had a 2023 goal to drink less alcohol, according to data from food and drink-focused advertising agency NCSolutions. (Twenty-four percent already drank none.) With mocktail and nonalcoholic beverage options growing in popularity and complexity, it’s easier than ever to abstain from alcohol without sacrificing flavor. Here are eight satisfyingly delicious and unique mocktails on Charlotte menus.
Billy Sunday’s Spirit Free Later ’Mater, $11
Ingredients:
Choice of NA spirit, lime, Cholula, Worcestershire sauce, smoked salt
“It’s a different flavor profile than a lot of what’s on our menu,” says General Manager Annie Stevenson. “It goes for a more savory, salty flavor versus a lot of other drinks that are more citrusy or fruity. It does kind of
taste a little bit like a bloody mary, but it doesn’t actually have any tomato in it. I always recommend it with NA mezcal. We do a bourbon barrel-smoked saline on the rim, so the mezcal adds another hint to the smokiness that’s already in there. It looks and feels like an actual cocktail.”
Humbug’s That Goddamned Espresso Martini, $10
Ingredients:
Cold brew, vanilla demerara syrup, salted coconut foam
“In this one, you’re going to get the body from the syrup versus the Fernet-Branca in the alcoholic version. The Branca gives it more of a minty flavor, whereas this one has a more vanilla note to it with the fresh vanilla demerara. We thought vanilla would be a little more approachable,” says Humbug co-owner Andy Schools. “This one is going to be more coffee-forward than the alcohol version, too, because it has more coffee in it by volume. It’ll still finish the same with that salted coco foam, which everyone loves.”
Tommy’s Pub’s Cat Whiskers Old Fashioned, $7
Ingredients:
Kentucky 74 NA whiskey; sugar; NA or regular bitters; topped with ginger ale, ginger beer, or 7UP
“I quit drinking back in 1998, but from what I remember, this drink tastes a lot like a brandy old fashioned sweet,” says Tommy’s owner Jamie Starks. “We use Kentucky 74, which has a smoky flavor. I squeeze some orange in it and add some regular or nonalcoholic bitters. Then I add a little sugar—no cubes, and I don’t muddle. That’s doing too much and trying to look too pretentious. Then I leave it up to drinker’s choice as to whether they want to top it with some ginger beer for a little bit of a tangy bite, or some ginger ale or 7UP. I top it off with a wedge of fresh orange and/or a maraschino cherry.”
Restaurant Constance’s Dear Rosemary, $13
Ingredients:
Blackberry juice, beet juice, verjus, kombucha, rosemary ice
“We buy a large amount of blackberries at the end of the season, and we juice and freeze them. Then when we make the drink, we take that juice out and combine it with red beet juice,” says chef and owner Sam Diminich. “We add a little bit of kombucha and verjus (juice from unripened wine grapes). Then we serve it over rosemary ice cubes. There are a couple layers of flavors that unveil themselves as you drink it: tannins from the beets, some earth undertones, and then you get elements of currant and lots of peppercorn, with some background sweetness from the blackberry, too.”
PARA’s Teenage Fever, $10
Ingredients:
Seedlip Grove 42, passion fruit juice, lemon juice, pineapple juice
“Teenage Fever is a tropical mocktail that’s romantic and decadent,” says Bar Manager Tee Nelson. “Passion fruit, in general, gives a lot of depth, a good amount of tartness, and also a good amount of sweetness. Seedlip products add an extra botanical flair. This one has a little ginger, lemon, and nutmeg, and it’s just nice and crisp, with depth. It’s hard to find a mocktail now that isn’t just a juice, or juicy, and so the goal was to not just make that. This is definitely more of an adult beverage.”
Haberdish’s Boy’s Club, $10
Ingredients:
Cheerwine reduction, baking spices, whiskey barrel-smoked black pepper, porcini mushroom, orange juice, soda water
“It’s kind of like a riff on an old fashioned,” says Bar Manager Heather Hamilton. “It’s made with a Cheerwine syrup, where we’re using Cheerwine, baking spices, and a whiskey-smoked black pepper from Savory Spice. It also gets a little bit of porcini mushroom, which will give it a quite savory note. And then it’s mixed with orange juice and topped with soda water. It’s garnished like an old fashioned with an expressed orange peel. Our cherries are alcoholic, but you’ll get the cherry note from the Cheerwine.”
Hestia Rooftop’s Kyuri Lychee, $8
Ingredients:
Lychee Calpico, lime juice, matcha powder, cucumber soda
“Normally, when people order a mocktail, they’re ordering it because someone else at the table is ordering a cocktail,” says Manager Kevin Ford. “We want to give the person ordering the mocktail the same experience as the person ordering a cocktail. This drink is really herbaceous, and it tastes a lot like you’re
drinking a lychee martini—except over ice.”
Idlewild’s Build-Your-Own Mocktail, $10
“We don’t offer a cocktail menu. All our cocktails are bartender’s choice, and the same applies to mocktails,” says owner Vince Chirico. “Guests can tell us what they’re looking for in an NA beverage, and we’re always happy to provide. We also don’t often use NA spirits. Instead, we opt to use our selection of in-house ingredients.”
