Mood Drinks: Alcohol-Free Cocktails to Create the Perfect Mood by Gabriel Cabrera
Helloooooo January! Specifically, Hellooooo DRY January!
In case you’ve never heard of it, Dry January is when you commit to making the month of January alcohol-free. The idea here is to take a break and reset after a month of excess over Christmas.
I’ve never been a really big drinker, but I do love a nice glass of red and a well-crafted cocktail. I noticed a pattern starting to happen in 2024, which was, let’s be real, a pretty tough year. There were times when I’d have a hard day and “reward” myself with a glass of wine or two, and it started to feel like all those isolated glasses were actually adding up to something a bit more significant.
So I decided to do Dry January in January of 2025, and I was actually quite surprised by how little I missed the alcohol. That month-long reset turned into a year where I cut back significantly on the amount of alcohol I consumed. For most of the year, my consumption was limited to about a one glass per week. It got a little heavier towards the end of the year, so I’m participating in Dry January (mostly–I had a collab with Boston Pizza and Jackson-Triggs last week) again this year.
Enter Mood Drinks.
One thing that frustrates me about not drinking is the lack of detail and care that often goes into zero-proof cocktails or mocktails. A lot of the time, all you get is some syrup and soda, maybe a wedge of lime. Mocktails have come a long way, though, and this book is full of drinks that are as carefully crafted as their alcoholic counterparts–just without the booze.
Gabriel Cabrera is a Mexican-Canadian, and he does a lot of food styling for a living. And boy howdy, does it show in the book!! Honestly, it’s worth it alone to purchase just for the insanely goregous photos. They really are stunning.
Mood Drinks: Alcohol-Free Cocktails to Create the Perfect Mood is divided into four sections, or moods: Chill, Uplift, Celebrate and Explore. You can choose your mood and then let the book guide you to a good choice.
Straight up, here were my fears about the book: would it require me to go out and buy a whole bunch of ingredients that I’d use a teaspoon of and then never use again? And would it include ingredients that were difficult to find?
The answer to the first question is, kind of. Yes, many of the drinks require things like vegan foamer or pineapple bitters (or some other flavour of bitters). A couple recipes called for Oregat Syrup, and some required non-alcoholic versions of your favourite booze like gin or prosecco. BTW if you’re in Vancouver, check out Bevees in Coquitlam, they have a lot of stuff there.
So yes, you may have to go source a few things. But the reality is, if you were building a bar with alcoholic spirits, you’d probably be doing the same thing, investing in bottles and accoutrement.
There are, however, quite a few recipes that use things as the base that are much easier to source: like teas for example, fruit juices, sodas, citrus and herbs.
Here are a few I tried, and I’ll include the recipe to my fave of the lot at the end.
Umbrella Bella
This one is made with a non-alcoholic spirit (gin) and kinda tastes like a day at the beach, thanks to the heavy coconut and citrus.
Sage Away
This one was made of a heavily-steeped green tea infused with sage, juniper and cardamom. I liked it, but I find that oversteeping green tea makes it bitter, and the recipe called for it to steep for 15 minutes. So yeah, it was a bit bitter.
Cojicha
This was delicious and very warming, great for January! It was basically a fancy coffee; a shot of espresso, blended coconut and soy milks (which made it really rich) and hojicha tea. I’ve made this one a few times.
One thing I appreciated but haven’t yet had the chance to test out (but hope to in the future) are the drinks that are more savoury in nature. There were quite a few here that used, say miso or sesame as ingredients that I found quite intriguing.
So, should you grab a copy of this book? Yes, definitely! Especially if you’re doing Dry January!
Apple of My Eye
Ingredients
Super Steeped Black Tea
- 3 black tea bags I used decaf earl grey
- 1/2 cup hot water
For the cocktail
- 1/4 cup super steeped black tea
- 1/4 cup good quality apple cider I used Sea Cider's Temperance line Eva
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp bitters
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- ice
Instructions
Make super steeped black tea
- Steep the tea bags in the hot water and allow to steep for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the tea bags and allow to cool.
To make the cocktail
- Place all ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir for 1 minute, or until the glass is frosty. Strain contents into a small, short glass.