Don't 'mock' alcohol-free cocktails, says Saint John mixologist

Eric Scouten is on a mission to bring flavour and social acceptance to the teetotalling crowd.

"There's no reason why we can't make something that's just as elaborate, that's just as experiential, that's well-crafted for those people the same way that we would with a normal cocktail," said the bartender and owner of Kakuteru Lounge in Saint John.

Kakuteru always has as many non-alcoholic options on the drink menu as there are traditional cocktails, said Scouten.

It's a policy he instituted in part because of having grown up with a recovering alcoholic in the family.

Scouten mixed some drinks in the studio during an interview on Information Morning Saint John. (Julia Wright/CBC)

When his father went out with friends, practically the only beverage options were sugary soft drinks, said Scouten.

"I always felt like he had to have less than everybody else, and he never got to have the full experience, even though he was still out participating in the festivities."

There are many reasons why people choose not to consume alcohol, he added.

"Quite frankly, it's nobody's business but their own."

A person should be able to order an alcohol-free drink without shame, justification or "getting any grief from anybody," Scouten said.

He encourages taste experimentation.

Booze-free cocktails have been gaining popularity over the past decade, said Scouten, but they're still relatively unexplored territory.

"I'm personally really excited to see what innovations come."

Scouten called this creation a Daisy Blanco. It's an alcohol-free version of a White Lady, made with honey syrup, lemon juice, glycerin imitation gin and triple sec, and muddled rosemary. (Submitted by Eric Scouten)

Scouten puts a lot of effort into building alcohol-free menus.

In his view, the terms "mocktails," or "kids' drinks" don't do them justice.

He proudly fields questions from patrons about his creations from behind the bar of his "tiny" lounge.

"Nothing I do is a secret," said Scouten. "It's just some of the things … are so time consuming that no normal person is going to want to take the effort."

"I'm just a really big nerd about this stuff," he said.

There's a lot of chemistry and physics involved in creating certain effects, said Scouten, adding that some of the common ingredients in non-alcoholic drinks are "really fun" to work with.

Imitation alcohol products made with glycerin, for example, are great for creating egg white foam, used in "sours," said Scouten. That's a type of cocktail traditionally made with a base liquor, lemon or lime juice and a sweetener.

"When you shake it, it creates a minor foam on the surface of the cocktail. … When we add the egg white, it goes crazy."

A raspberry sour, made with non-alcoholic red wine, raspberry reduction, glycerin gin, fresh lemon juice and egg white. (Submitted by Eric Scouten)

Many Quebec-made glycerin beverage products are available in local shops, said Scouten, and "they've come a long way in the last little while."

Water is another important element in the science of making a good alcohol-free drink, said the bartender.

"Dilution is super, super crucial … because there's nothing else to basically water down the other ingredients," he said.

But making a drink doesn't have to be complicated, said Scouten.

"Three ingredients is a cocktail."

His advice is "just have fun and don't take it too seriously."

Here are four recipes Scouten shared — two easy ones for the novice and two that are a little more complicated:

Moscow Mule

In a tall glass filled with ice, add a squeeze of lime juice and top with ginger beer.

Dark and Stormy

Mix a teaspoon of molasses and an equal measure of lime juice.

Pour into a tall glass of ice and top with ginger beer.

Scouten made this cranberry punch using cranberry juice, mulled cider, lime juice and imitation spiced rum. (Submitted by Eric Scouten)

Cranberry Punch

Ingredients:

• 1 oz tart cranberry juice

• ½ oz cold mulled cider (apple cider that's been put on the stove in a saucepan with clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, bay leaf, cayenne pepper and oregano)

• ½ oz lime juice

• 1½ oz glycerin spiced rum

Directions:

Pour all ingredients into a tall glass over ice and top with ginger beer.

Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and some cranberries.

Sprinkle a dusting of powdered sugar for a fresh snowfall look.

Variations:

• Pomegranate juice instead of cranberry.

• Ginger tea instead of ginger beer.

• Oak chips (they have to be strained out before serving).

• Aromatic boosters for the powdered sugar, such as citric acid, dehydrated orange, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. 

This non-alcoholic take on an amaretto sour has glycerin-based imitation amaretto and whisky as well as lemon juice, chai syrup and egg white foam. (Submitted by Eric Scouten)

Chai Sour

A non-alcoholic version of the popular amaretto sour, made festive with a chai tea syrup.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz glycerin imitation whisky

• 1 oz glycerin amaretto

• 1½ oz lemon juice

• 1½ oz chai syrup

• 1 egg white

Directions:

Shake all ingredients without ice (dry shake). Be quick and careful, Scouten advises, because the gas is expanding and will want to pop out of the shaker. There's an exothermic reaction happening, in which the citric acid from the lemon juice is sort of cooking the egg white "like a ceviche meringue," and creating carbon dioxide. This does a couple of things for the drink, he said. It softens the citric acid and it increases the textural balance.

Add ice and shake again.

Strain into a tumbler-style glass.

Using a vegetable peeler, pull off a big piece of lemon zest. Using both hands, twist the rind to express lemon oil over the surface of the egg white foam. This will puncture the larger bubbles and make sure there's no surface of egg white left uncoated, so it doesn't become slightly sulfuric over time.

After giving the egg white foam a few moments to settle, get the liquid in the shaker moving again. Pour a little bit more liquid through the egg white foam and pull it up out of the glass to give three dimensionality.

Coat the top with a light dusting of maple sugar.

If you're interested in finding out more about this kind of thing, Scouten recommends a good book to start with is The Bar Book, which focuses on technique and bar knowledge with a few recipes to illustrate the lessons.

If you're looking to take things up a notch, there are many other good books to choose from, he said, including The Cocktail Codex and his "personal bible" Liquid Intelligence by David Arnold.