Chai Something New Mocktail

Welcome to 2020 at Bear & Bug Eats! While our new content has been fairly sporadic the past several months (due to such pesky things as parenting, adulting, et al), we are now back up and running, cooking up some delicious new recipes, delving a bit into some theory behind cooking, and highlighting some of the food & beverage trends we think are pretty neat.

Speaking of “neat” and “trends,” we have been thrilled to see a lot more emphasis put on the importance of non-alcoholic cocktails, or mocktails, being on the menus of some of the nicer bars and restaurants out there. While we here at Bear & Bug are by no means against alcohol (see these Watermelon Cocktails and this Peach Bourbon Fizz), we do often appreciate the opportunity to enjoy a tasty non-alcoholic drink that’s a bit more creative than just a soda. Traditionally, this has meant lemonades infused with other fruit flavors, or a lemon-lime soda or ginger ale with some fun syrups added to it. 

Over the past couple years, though, we have noticed increasingly-more complex non-alcoholic cocktails being added to menus. Heck, there are even some companies out there that have started producing bottled non-alcoholic cocktails. (If this interests you, we recommend checking out Curious Elixirs – not an affiliate, just cool.) 

Being based in Central Florida, we are pretty big fans of the theme parks and resorts that are so prevalent here, especially considering Robby spent several years working in Food & Beverage at Walt Disney World. On a trip to Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs a few years ago, we had our first experience with what would be considered a true non-alcoholic “cocktail” when we tried their aptly-named Give It A Chai, and fell in love. Being the in-house liquids enthusiast he is, Robby spent the next several months playing with different ways to make his version of this concoction:

When we started discussing what recipe should be used to get back into things, we knew we wanted to post something at least a tiny bit different from what we’ve published in the past. So now, without further ado, let’s start talking about our first recipe of 2020!

This drink is actually quite easy to make, the most difficult part is simply acquiring and assembling all of the ingredients and tools. It starts with finding a high-quality Chai Tea Concentrate (we recommend Oregon Chai {<-Amazon affiliate link}), as this will serve as the base of the drink.

Next, you’re gonna add in some fruit juice – pomegranate juice, cranberry juice, and some fresh-squeezed lime.

Then, you’re gonna shake all these ingredients over ice, strain into a 300ml highball or Collins glass (or rough equivalent) over fresh ice, and top with ginger beer. 

Finally, our favorite part – the garnish. Using a brulée torch (or a regular lighter if you don’t have a torch laying around), light one end of a cinnamon stick on fire, burning about a quarter- to a half-inch of the stick. Place the cinnamon stick smoking-side up on top of the ice, so as you sip the drink you get a beautiful smoky cinnamon aroma.

And now you can Chai Something New!

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Adapted from the awesome Give It A Chai at Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs.

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