Blue Lagoon Mocktail

🍹 Why We Love This Recipe

• Super fun and tropical: This blue lagoon mocktail is a gorgeous blue, full of citrus flavor, and has an optional cocktail umbrella, which IMO is the best cocktail garnish ever. What more could you want in a mocktail?
• Easy to make: This recipe has no special or hard-to-find ingredients, and it comes together super quickly once you've made your simple syrup.
• Alcohol free: Since not everyone can drink, this is a great drink to make when you're entertaining for a crowd. Plus, if you do want to add alcohol, it's easy to add in rum, tequila or vodka without adjusting any other quantities!

🍋 Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this Blue Lagoon Mocktail:

📋 Ingredient Notes

• Blue food coloring: A traditional (alcoholic) Blue Lagoon cocktail contains blue curaçao, an orange-flavored liqueur with blue food dye added for a striking, vibrant hue. Since blue curaçao contains alcohol, we simply use blue food coloring in this blue lagoon mocktail, plus orange-infused simple syrup to replace the orange liqueur flavor. We used natural food coloring that's made with butterfly pea powder. If you (for whatever reason) have butterfly pea powder on hand, you can also add a bit straight to the cocktail (just be sure to shake well). If you have no qualms about using regular food coloring, go ahead and use that instead!
  • This is our favorite natural food coloring. Each color is made with natural ingredients, like turmeric and spirulina. We use them all the time for frosting!
• Using freshly-squeezed juices will really elevate the flavor of this mocktail. We promise it's worth the extra few minutes of prep time!
• Simple syrup: We used a bottled variety to cut down on prep time, but you can easily make your own by combining equal parts water and sugar in a saucepan and heating until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let the simple syrup cool before adding to your cocktail.
• Orange peel adds a bit more depth of flavor to this Blue Lagoon mocktail, and it's an easy addition. Simply steep the peel in simple syrup for at least an hour before mixing up your drink. Doesn't get any easier than that!
• Club soda adds some extra fizz to this blue lagoon mocktail and helps tame down the acidic citrus flavors. You can also sub with sparkling water (flavored or plain) – we particularly love adding a splash of lemon Spindrift to ours!

🔪 Step-by-step Instructions

(1) Add orange rind pieces to simple syrup and let infuse for 1-1.5 hours.

(2) Add orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, simple syrup (with orange rind), and 4-5 drops of food coloring to a cocktail shaker filled halfway with ice.

(3) Shake well for 10-15 seconds, then pour into a cocktail glass filled with ice.

(4) Top off with club soda or sparkling water and garnish with citrus slices (optional). 

💭 Expert Tips and FAQs

• Alcohol free spirits: For extra flavor, feel free to add an alcohol-free liquor substitute to this blue lagoon mocktail. There are plenty of awesome options on the market these days – we particularly like Ritual Zero Proof Spirits. That being said, it's totally not necessary to add any extra ingredients. This blue lagoon mocktail is delicious as is!
• Blue food coloring: Feel free to use a natural food coloring, butterfly pea powder, or just regular old food coloring. You can also leave it out altogether, but that kind of defeats the purpose of making a blue lagoon mocktail!
• Cocktail umbrellas are a super fun (albeit slightly old school) way to elevate the presentation of this drink. We got ours on Amazon. (You can use leftovers in other tropical drinks like our mango mojito or guava rum cocktail!)
• Infuse the simple syrup with the orange peel for at least an hour to ensure that the simple syrup absorbs the orange flavor. This is not traditional in a regular blue lagoon cocktail, but since you're not able to use orange liqueur in this alcohol free version, it helps replicate that flavor.
• You can also opt to infuse the syrup ahead of time, store in the fridge, and then make your mocktail when you're ready.

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