Basil mocktails: strawberry and citrus recipe choices

A strawberry basil mocktail is a muddled drink. Fresh strawberries and basil leaves are crushed with citrus juice and a sweetener, then topped with sparkling water or club soda and served over ice. Muddling means pressing the fruit and herbs with a blunt tool (a muddler or the back of a spoon) to release juice and aroma without pulverizing them. Published recipes mainly differ in three ways: lime or lemon, the type of sweetener, and whether the drink is built in the glass or shaken and strained for a group.

Four documented formulas side by side

The amounts below are each recipe's stated quantities. The first three make one drink. The Taste of Home recipe makes six glasses.

Choosing lime, lemon or honey

• Lime: Mindful Mocktail and Spices in My DNA both use lime. Mindful Mocktail's version is the leanest on sweetener, at 1 teaspoon per cup of sparkling water, and you choose the sweetener type.
• Lemon with agave: Earthly Provisions pairs lemon with 2 teaspoons of agave. Agave is a liquid sweetener, so it blends into the muddled fruit without needing to dissolve.
• Lemon with sugar: Taste of Home muddles granulated sugar directly with the berries and basil, then shakes the mixture with lemon juice and ice.
• Honey: Spices in My DNA uses a honey syrup instead of straight honey, so the honey mixes evenly into a cold drink. This is the recipe titled as a fizz. It also uses the least sparkling water, at 2–3 oz, so the fruit and syrup taste more concentrated.

Easy single-glass method

The three single-serving recipes follow the same basic sequence, and Mindful Mocktail's version is the simplest to follow:

• 1. Put 3 medium strawberries, 4–6 basil leaves, 1 tbsp lime juice and 1 tsp sweetener in a glass.
• 2. Muddle for about a minute, until the strawberries are broken down and the basil smells fragrant.
• 3. Pour in 1 cup sparkling water and stir gently so the bubbles survive.
• 4. Add ice.

Earthly Provisions recommends muddling gently in a sturdy glass, adding the soda before the ice, and garnishing at the end. That recipe also allows thawed frozen strawberries, which helps when fresh berries are out of season.

Making the honey syrup for a strawberry basil fizz

For the Spices in My DNA fizz, combine ½ cup honey with ½ cup water. Heat the mixture to a boil, take it off the heat, and stir until the honey dissolves. Let the syrup cool completely before using it. To assemble one drink, muddle 1–2 strawberries with 2–3 torn basil leaves. Add crushed ice, ¾ oz lime juice and 1 oz of the syrup. Top with 2–3 oz sparkling water and stir. One batch of syrup is far more than a single drink needs, so it also covers several rounds.

Batching for a pitcher or a group

Mindful Mocktail allows scaling its recipe for a jug. You can muddle the fruit base ahead of time, but add the sparkling water close to serving so the drink stays fizzy. As an illustrative example, multiplying that recipe by four gives the following base for four drinks:

• 12 medium strawberries
• 16–24 basil leaves
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 4 tsp sweetener
• 4 cups sparkling water, added just before serving

Divide this pitcher by servings rather than by a target volume. It is meant to fill four glasses the way the original fills one. The finished amount depends on ice, glass size and how finely the fruit is muddled.

Taste of Home's recipe is already sized for a group. Muddle 6 strawberries, 12 basil leaves and ¼ cup sugar. Add ice and ⅓ cup lemon juice, then shake for 10–15 seconds. Strain the mixture into six ice-filled rocks glasses and divide 2¼ cups chilled club soda among them. That works out to roughly 3 oz of club soda per glass. The stated yield is six rocks glasses, not six tall tumblers, so expect short pours. Straining removes the seeds and leaf pieces, which suits guests who prefer a clear drink.

Quick decision guide

• Simple drink for one with a sweetener you already have: Mindful Mocktail's lime version.
• Lemon flavor with liquid sweetener and a tall glass: Earthly Provisions' lemon and agave version.
• Rounder, honeyed fizz with less dilution: Spices in My DNA's honey basil fizz.
• A strained, ready-sized round for six: Taste of Home's shaken lemon version.
• A make-ahead pitcher: scale Mindful Mocktail's base and add the bubbles at serving time.
• Drinks where watermelon is the main fruit with basil as an accent are a separate style. Use a watermelon mocktail recipe for those rather than adapting these strawberry ratios.