Choose a pear mocktail with ginger, rosemary or cloves

Pear is mild and soft, so a pear mocktail takes its character from the flavoring and the mixer. Choose ginger for a light, fizzy drink. Choose rosemary for a tart, herbal one. Choose cloves for a spiced, fuller drink that is shaken and served like a cocktail. The four formulas below show how each choice changes the ingredients, the prep and the result.

The short answer

• Ginger, light and long: homemade ginger syrup, pear nectar or juice, a little lemon and plenty of plain seltzer (Craving Something Healthy).
• Ginger, floral and no-cook: pear nectar, elderflower syrup, ginger beer and sparkling water, built in the glass (The Mediterranean Dish).
• Rosemary, tart and herbal: lemon, rosemary syrup and pear juice shaken, then topped with ginger beer (A Nerd Cooks).
• Cloves, spiced and spirit-style: a non-alcoholic spirit, reduced pear juice, lemon and clove-sage syrup, shaken hard (Lunds & Byerlys).

Side-by-side comparison

Ginger: two different approaches

Craving Something Healthy gets its ginger from a homemade syrup. Boil ½ lb of peeled, sliced ginger with ¾ cup sugar and ¾ cup water, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for about 20 minutes, strain and refrigerate until cool, at least an hour. The drink then combines 1 oz of that syrup, 2 oz of pear nectar or juice, ½ oz of lemon juice and 8 oz of plain seltzer over ice. The large amount of unflavored seltzer makes this the longest and lightest drink here. Because you make the syrup yourself, you control how strong the ginger is. The source also offers an alcoholic martini version. Use the mocktail formula as written instead of adapting the martini.

The Mediterranean Dish skips cooking entirely. Pour ¼ cup pear nectar, 1 tbsp elderflower syrup, ⅓ cup ginger beer and ¼ cup sparkling water into the glass in that order. Make sure you buy elderflower syrup, not elderflower liqueur, which contains alcohol. Ginger beer supplies both the spice and the sweetness, so the result depends heavily on the brand you choose. This is also the formula to pick if you want cinnamon. Its optional rim mixes 1 tsp sugar, ¼ tsp cinnamon and ⅛ tsp cardamom, and the syrup holds it to the glass.

Rosemary: the tart, herbal option

A Nerd Cooks uses 1 oz lemon juice, ¼ oz rosemary syrup and 2 oz pear juice. Shake these three with ice, strain over fresh ice and top with 2 oz ginger beer. The lemon is half the volume of the pear juice, so this drink is noticeably sharper than the ginger-syrup version. The small amount of rosemary syrup adds an herbal note without overwhelming the pear, and the ginger beer adds fizz and warmth. Choose it if you want something crisp rather than sweet.

Cloves: the spiced, spirit-style option

Lunds & Byerlys builds the most structured drink of the four. First, simmer 1½ cups of pear juice until it reduces to 1 cup, about 10 minutes, then cool it. Reducing the juice concentrates its flavor. Next, make the syrup: simmer ½ cup sugar, ½ cup water, 1 tbsp whole cloves and the leaves from one sage sprig for 15 minutes, then strain and cool. For each drink, shake 2 oz Wilderton Earthen NA Spirit, 2 oz reduced pear juice, 1½ oz lemon juice and ½ oz clove syrup with ice for 30 seconds and pour over ice. A sage-sugar rim is optional. There is no fizzy topper, so the drink is still and spirit-forward. It takes the most prep and depends on a specific packaged non-alcoholic spirit.

Which one suits your purpose

• Quick, with no cooking: the elderflower and ginger beer build.
• A light, refreshing highball: the ginger syrup and seltzer formula.
• A tart drink with an herbal finish: rosemary with ginger beer.
• A still, cocktail-like drink for guests who skip alcohol: the clove and sage formula.
• Control over sweetness and spice: either formula with a homemade syrup (ginger or clove), since you decide the strength.

Batching for a group

A Nerd Cooks says you can scale the juice-and-syrup base and add the ginger beer drink by drink, which keeps the fizz fresh. The same approach suits any formula with a carbonated topper. Here is an example for four drinks, calculated from the single-drink ratios rather than taken from a tested batch: combine 4 oz lemon juice, 1 oz rosemary syrup and 8 oz pear juice. Shake about one quarter of the base with ice for each serving, strain over fresh ice and top each glass with 2 oz ginger beer, for 8 oz of ginger beer in total.

Check the labels on packaged ingredients

Ginger beer, elderflower syrup, purchased rosemary syrup and non-alcoholic spirits vary from brand to brand. Before serving anyone who needs to avoid alcohol, read the alcohol-content statement on each bottle. Check the elderflower bottle in particular to confirm it is a syrup and not a liqueur.

A planning worksheet

• Flavoring: ginger syrup, elderflower syrup, rosemary syrup or clove-sage syrup.
• Pear component and amount: nectar, juice or reduced juice.
• Syrup: homemade, with its prep and cooling time, or purchased.
• Mixer: plain seltzer, ginger beer, sparkling water or non-alcoholic spirit.
• Rim: none, cinnamon-cardamom sugar or sage sugar.
• Label check: the alcohol-content statement for each packaged ingredient.
• Recipe: follow the documented mocktail ingredient list, not a version adapted from an alcoholic drink.