Top 10 healthy cocktails in London

Imbibers seeking a virtuous start to 2015 will surely be tempted to stray from their resolutions in the world’s cocktail capital. But luckily London also has an array of healthy cocktails on offer.

There are an array of London bars offering healthy, organic cocktails full of vitamins and fibres

January is certainly a month of abstinence as new year’s resolutions are embarked upon with firm intent. But, as this list demonstrates, Londoners needn’t go completely dry to get the health kick they need.

The city is awash with exciting and innovative cocktail bars, and some have gone the extra step to provide healthy alternatives for drinkers this January.

London boasts what is thought to be Europe’s first superfood cocktail bar, offering a plethora of vitamin-rich mixes, while other mainstream bars have incorporated an organic theme.

Click through the following pages to discover which are the top 10 healthy cocktails in London, with details of how to recreate them at home.

Strength Giving Gimlet – Tredwell’s

Marcus Wareing’s new restaurant Tredwell’s has teamed up with cold-pressed, organic juice and smoothie company BoBo’s Juicery, to offer a range of healthy cocktails alongside its regular booze list for those looking to kick 2015 off to a more virtuous start.

Ingredients:

50ml Hendrick’s gin

2 small chunks cucumber

Thin slice fresh ginger

70ml BoBo’s Give Me Strength juice

1 handful or fresh wheatgrass or 1 teaspoon of wheatgrass powder

5ml fresh lime juice

Method:

Muddle the cucumber and ginger with the gin. Add the juices and ice, shake well, strain and serve into a chilled coupe glass.

Hayemaker Punch – Chino Latino Restaurant and Bar

London’s Chino Latino Restaurant and Bar has taken health dedication a step further with its delicious, alcohol-free Haymaker Punch, created by the bar in collaboration with champion UK boxer David Haye.

Ingredients:

4 pineapple chunks

1cm fresh ginger

½ large carrot

10mg dark chocolate

1 pinch of rocket

100ml pineapple juice

1 tablespoon vanilla syrup

Method:

Chop the pineapple, carrot, ginger and chocolate into small chunks and add to blender. Pour pineapple juice. Add more if necessary. Whiz in blender until only liquid remains. Add vanilla syrup to sweeter and whiz again. Add crushed ice and garnish with thin wedges of pineapple and a pineapple leaf.

Les Fleurs Du Mal – M Raw

This elegant, sophisticated cocktail from M Raw shows that in order for cocktails to be more healthy, they do not need to be full of fruity juices. Described as a “relaxing and calming” cocktail, Les Fleurs Du Mal also helps for a more mellow start to the year.

Ingredients:

50ml Grey Goose vodka
15ml Saint Germain Elderflower Liquore
10ml yellow chartreuse
10ml jasmine tea
5ml honey syrup
2 dashes of absinthe
2 dashes of rose water

Method:

Chill a crystal coupe glass with crushed ice and place on bar top, leaving the glass to chill. Add the ingredients to a mixing glass, then add ice to the mixture and stir for a minute or so. Remove crushed ice from chilled glass and strain the drink from the mixing glass into the chilled glass. Finish off with a floated rose petal for a garnish.

Ernest Especial – Sixtyone

Sixtyone bar, based in Marble Arch, has introduced this creative serve as part of its “cleansing cocktails” menu, which also includes the Carrot and Ginger Margarita and Detox Julep.

Ingredients:

40ml Havana Club 3-year-old

15ml fresh lemon juice

7.5ml agave syrup

3 BS peach puree (BS= bar spoon)

Half celery stick

Absinthe foam

10ml Absinthe La Feé Parisian

1 egg white

1BS caster sugar

Method:

In a shaker, muddle the celery stick, add all the other ingredients, shake and double strain into a small coupette. For the absinthe foam, dry shake all ingredients for over 45 second, slowly pour the mix on top of the drink, when it should float. Decorate with celery & black pepper.

Green Goddess – The Lido Café

This refreshing low calorie cocktail contains all the necessary nutrients to keep your guilt at bay. Even the ginseng spirit contains up to 45 natural botanicals including echinacea, goji berries and Manuka honey, for that extra healthy kick.

Ingredients:

35ml Kamm and Sons ginseng spirit

15ml lemon juice

20ml kale juice

15ml sugar syrup

Soda water

Method: 

Stir all ingredients together then top up with soda water and garnish with ice cubes and a slice of cucumber.

Beetroot Mary – ETM Group

Mixologists at London’s ETM Group – which owns bars including The Botanist, Chiswell Street Dining Rooms, and One Canada Square – set themselves the task of creating a range of cocktails fit for drinkers seeking healthier alternatives in January. The Beetroot Mary is part of a range of serves created by the group which contain one of your recommended five a day.

Ingredients:

35ml Kamm & Sons

150ml beetroot juice

25ml raspberry puree

12.5ml lemon juice

Pinch Salt & Pepper

Pinch fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Put all ingredients into a highball glass with crushed ice. Stir thoroughly and garnish with raspberries.

Verde – Duck & Waffle

This simple but delicious cocktail has been created by Richard Woods at the Duck & Waffle. While it has been created as a mocktail, details below show how it can be turned into a boozy libation with a splash of Tequila or gin.

Ingredients:

45ml kale juice

25ml grapefruit juice

20ml agave nectar

Soda

Method:

In a shaker add the following ingredients, shake with cube ice and double strain into your glass filled with fresh ice. Or for a smoothie, add these ingredients to a blender with a handful of ice cubes and blend. For the less guilty of drinkers add a shot of gin or Tequila to this so a little kick. The herbaceous and earthy notes of these spirits compliment the kale, grapefruit and agave.

What the Doctor Ordered – Tanya’s Café

Billed as Europe’s first super-food cocktail bar, Tanya’s Café, based in Chelsea, offers an array of mixes created using organic and seasonal produce. But the What the Doctor Ordered cocktail takes things to another level with its vitamin-packed “doctor’s juice”.

Ingredients: 

50ml Sacred Vodka
20ml lemon juice
15ml doctor juice (Tanya’s Café combination of beetroot, carrot, celery, sweet potato, apple, lemon, ginger)
2 barspoons raw honey or 20ml agave nectar
2 dashes ginger bitters
2 dashes lavender bitters
3 barspoons soaked chia seeds

Method:

Add all ingredients, except the chia seeds, to a Boston shaker with ice. Shake hard and taste then strain into a patterned goblet. Garnish with thick orange twist and sprinkle with soaked chia seeds.

Ginger Alert – Salvatore’s Bar

Designed to give your system a wake up call, this mocktail, created by the mixology maestro Salvatore Calabrese, is rich in fibre and vitamins. For those who want to give the Ginger Alert a boozy twist, a splash of vodka would go nicely.

Ingredients:

70 ml apple juice

40 ml pear puree

20 ml lime juice

1 small piece of fresh ginger root

Ginger ale

Method:

Muddle the ginger in the shaker add all other ingredients except ginger ale. Shake with ice and strain into a high-ball glass filled with ice. Top up with ginger ale and stir. Garnish with apple fan, and 1 thin slice of ginger. Serve with a straw.

Cucumber Cooler – Bernares

Michelin-star Indian restaurant Bernares, based in Mayfair, offers a range of delicious low calorie cocktails inspired by its innovative food menu, such as the Cucumber Cooler.

Ingredients:

50ml Burleigh’s Gin

2 slices fresh cucumber

8 leaves fresh mint

20 ml lemon juice

5ml sugar syrup

15 ml elderflower syrup

Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic

Method:

In a cocktail shaker, gently muddle the mint and cucumber. Next, simply add the gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup and elderflower syrup, and shake. Pour over ice into a tall glass and top with Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic.