The Best Mocktails to Order at Any Bar

What makes a mocktail actually good

A plain soft drink is flat, one-note, and over in two sips. A good mocktail borrows the same structure as a cocktail. Keep three things in mind and you can order or invent one anywhere:

Something sour, something with texture, something aromatic. Get all three and it stops tasting like a soda.

Sour is fresh citrus, lime or grapefruit or lemon. Texture is bubbles or a little spice: soda, tonic, ginger beer, or a dash of bitters. Aromatic is the finishing touch that makes it smell like a drink: mint, a citrus twist, a few berries. That's the whole formula. The list below is really just eight ways to hit those three notes.

Here's my unpopular take. The bars that do print a mocktail menu usually list three things drowned in simple syrup and pineapple juice. I'd rather build my own off the well. Order for the flavors you actually want, and a plain bar beats a fancy one most nights.

Eight to order by name

1. Virgin Mojito

   Refreshing · herbal

   Muddled mint, lime, a little sugar, and soda. It's the gold standard non-alcoholic order because it's genuinely refreshing and nearly every bar has mint and lime on hand.

   Ask for: "A virgin mojito, please, mint, lime, and soda."

2. Soda and Fresh Lime

   Clean · low sweetness

   The simplest grown-up option. Soda water over ice with two limes squeezed in and dropped in the glass. Crisp and bone-dry, and usually the cheapest thing you can order.

   Ask for: "Soda water, lots of fresh lime, on the rocks."

3. Shirley Temple

   Sweet · nostalgic

   Ginger ale or lemon-lime soda with a splash of grenadine and a cherry. Universally known, so you never have to explain it. Ask for less grenadine if you want it less sweet.

   Ask for: "A Shirley Temple, easy on the grenadine."

4. Virgin Mule

   Spicy · satisfying

   A Moscow Mule without the vodka: ginger beer, fresh lime, over ice, ideally in the copper mug. The ginger gives it a real bite, which is what most soft drinks are missing.

   Ask for: "A virgin mule, ginger beer and lime." (Only if they stock ginger beer.)

5. Virgin Paloma

   Bittersweet · citrus

   A Paloma minus the tequila: grapefruit soda or fresh grapefruit with soda, lime, and a pinch of salt on the rim. Grown-up and a little bitter, which is exactly the point. The salt rim is what sells it.

   Ask for: "Grapefruit and soda, fresh lime, salt rim."

6. Espresso Tonic

   Bittersweet · energizing

   A shot of espresso poured over tonic and ice. Fizzy, bitter, and interesting, and a great pick at a bar with a coffee setup or a brunch spot. It looks and feels like a real cocktail.

   Ask for: "Espresso over tonic and ice, if the machine is on."

7. Cranberry and Soda

   Tart · light

   Cranberry juice cut with soda water and a lime wedge, so it lands tart and fizzy. Ordering it half cranberry, half soda is the move most people miss, and it keeps the whole thing from going syrupy.

   Ask for: "Cranberry and soda, half and half, with lime."

8. Soda with Bitters

   Dry · aromatic

   Soda water with a few dashes of aromatic bitters and a lime twist. It's the bartender's classic for the sober crowd because it drinks dry and complex. One caveat: bitters are alcohol-based, so a dash adds a trace. Avoiding alcohol entirely? Skip it and ask for ginger or citrus instead.

   Ask for: "Soda with a couple dashes of bitters and a lime twist."

How to order one that's not on the menu

Order it the way you'd order anything: name it, or describe the flavors. "Something citrusy and not too sweet, with soda and fresh lime" gives a bartender everything they need to build you a good drink on the spot. They make non-alcoholic drinks all the time, and most enjoy the small challenge of improvising one.

Remember the ones you loved

A few weeks after a really good one, I usually can't tell you the bar's name anymore, just that the mocktail was excellent and I'd go back for it. That gap is what Drinqly closes. Its sober mode logs a mocktail the same way it logs a cocktail, so you can rate it, snap a photo, note the bar, and build a running list of the non-alcoholic drinks worth ordering again. The next time a bartender gives you the look, you already know what to ask for. Bars that actually build a good mocktail menu, the kind worth naming in a post like this, can claim their venue on Drinqly for free and show up when someone nearby is looking.

Common questions