For many people, January is a month to celebrate – or at least tolerate – sobriety. One of the venues that showcases the non-alcoholic craft is Alejandro’s in downtown Monterey, an upscale Mexican restaurant that, in addition to offering an interesting menu, is simply a beautiful place to spend part of an evening. The bar itself is welcoming.
You may not be drinking tonight – hence the mocktail – but nothing stops you from having a perfectly satisfying happy hour with a drinking friend. A bartender was confronted with one question only – one that made her chuckle: “Which mocktail tastes most like an actual cocktail?”
The one we tested is the Pineapple Mule, prepared with distilled non-alcoholic spirit, pineapple gomme, ginger beer and lime juice.
The Mule really delivers. The base is produced by Seedlip, a company that specializes in non-alcoholic spirits; gomme is a 19th-century predecessor of simple syrup.
The menu also offers a Mojito alternative called a Nojito, with lime, mint, agave, soda and water.
Conclusions? Ginger beer or soda is a must in a mocktail. Tropical pineapple works well and many cubes of ice play a role that should not be underappreciated: The Caribbean Sea meets the Arctic Sea.
That’s how one discovers that a good conversation is a more important element of the bar experience than alcohol, a conversation that you will not regret tomorrow.