Coconut Lychee Mocktails

Cocktails don't have to be alcoholic to be good. Whilst having read this blog you could be forgiven for thinking I'm a raving alcoholic; in reality I make cocktails for taste not alcohol content and drink on average 6-10 shots a week.

Alcoholic drinks make good cocktails mainly because you can stock a wide range of flavours without worrying that they'll go off. Additionally the slight alcoholic edge causes you to sip your drink and enjoy it over a longer period (tasty non alcoholic slip down far too easily).

I generally find non alcoholic cocktails boring because they tend not to be very intense - mixing fruit juice together isn't very exciting. It is possible to find good examples however, so I'm blogging one I created recently (based on a dessert that I'll blog another time).

Ingredients:

• 5 Shots Lychee Juice
• 8 Shots Pineapple Juice
• 2 Shots Coconut Cream
• 1 Shot Simple Syrup
• 1 Passion Fruit

Coconut cream is the thick liquid you get when you don't shake a can of coconut milk (i.e. it's double concentration coconut milk). You can sometimes find it in cartons (blue dragon I believe). It's not the same as the blocks of creamed coconut.

It's possible to find lychee juice in cartons, but if not just buy lychees in juice and strain. The easiest way to do this is using a tin opener make a large hole on one side of the lid and a small hole on the other (for air). The following picture hopefully illustrates this:

Shake all ingredients (minus the passion fruit) with ice until your hand starts to go numb from the cold:

Strain and float the contents of a ripe passion fruit over the top. The seeds will eventually sink but you'll drink through a layer of passion fruit juice which is really rather good.