If you want to find the best cocktail mixers, do yourself a favor and skip the grocery store! These electric-hued mixes are sugar, dye, and chemical-filled. Not to mention severely lacking in flavor!
Fresh Ingredients
If you check out the standard grocery store cocktail mixers, you’ll often find high fructose corn syrup as one of the first ingredients. Up next: a bunch of chemicals you probably can’t pronounce or identify. And Yellow 5 or Blue 1 likely round out the list.
These are essentially the Capri Suns of the mixology world — not a lot of natural goodness and a whole lot of sugar. Instead, look for mixers that contain pure ingredients like mint, lime juice, ginger, and fruit. Not only are they healthier, but they also pack a punch of flavor!
Since 2019, cocktail drinkers have been craving more sophisticated flavors. This year, spicy, bitter, and herbal are top trends, but these are almost impossible to find in store-bought mixers. That’s where boutique, organic cocktail mixers come to the rescue!
Sugar Content
As for sugar, choose mixers that use natural substitutes like agave syrup. We know that overconsumption of sugar leads to health issues like obesity, cavities, and chronic illnesses. But did you know that sugar also dehydrates the body?
Both alcohol and sugar have diuretic properties. When you combine them, say in a cocktail, your body tries to balance this by using the liquid from your cells. This process results in dehydration, which is probably the last thing you want when having a few drinks!
With an ever-growing emphasis on health, cocktail lovers are looking for better options. We lightly sweeten our mixers with natural agave. That means a healthier cocktail for you today and no sugar headache tomorrow.
Ease of Use
Do you happen to have a jigger or a muddler on hand? Probably not! Craft cocktails often involve complicated equipment that most of us don’t have in our kitchens.
Beyond that, cocktails often require specific ratios and measurements. If you’re eyeballing how much vodka to add, you might end up with a cocktail that’s too strong or too watery. And multiplying these ratios when serving a large group is an even bigger headache!
Finding a cocktail mixer that’s easy to use can actually be harder than you might think. Their labels often lack recipes, so you’re left confused about how much to use. And they might even require extra ingredients like seltzer, simple syrup, or liqueurs.
Dirty Pelican cocktail mixers take all the guesswork out of mixology. You simply combine the mix and your choice of spirits with ice, and enjoy! Or top it off with a garnish for that extra special touch.
Versatility
This might be a bold overstatement, but almost everyone has half a bottle of unused Margarita mix sitting in their kitchen cupboard. Or they’ve tossed one in the trash in the past year. That’s the problem with some cocktail mixers — they’re only useful for one type of drink.
But that takes all the fun out of cocktail creation, doesn’t it? Take our Blackberry Zest mix, for example. It’s a perfect pairing for vodka, gin, tequila, mezcal, bourbon, whiskey, and rum!
Another thing to look for is a mix that’s delicious enough to use for mocktails. As we dive deeper into wellness and healthy living, alcohol-free cocktails are becoming more popular. A cocktail mixer that can stand on its own, without alcohol, means true versatility!
Small Batch Production
The first mistake beginner at-home bartenders make is assuming the spirits are more important than the mixer. They take their time choosing high-quality, small-batch distilled vodka. Only to mix it with a $2 Margarita mix that’s mostly sugar.
Small batch and boutique cocktail mixers are a much better option. When you buy a product created by a small company, you know they’re making it with care. There’s closer attention to detail and more love put into the finished result.
Inexpensive mixers are often produced in large batches in a factory. They lack the hand-crafted quality and fresh ingredients that boutique mixers offer. And you can definitely taste the difference!
Optimal Packaging
The way a cocktail mixer appears isn’t just about aesthetics. Sure, you also want something that’ll look stunning sitting on your home bar, but it goes beyond that.
An overwhelming amount of grocery store mixers come in plastic bottles. We get it; plastic is cheaper to produce. But what about the sustainability aspect of it?
We recommend looking for mixers in clear glass bottles. Bottles with clear ingredient labels, calorie content, and recipes are ideal! So many companies miss out on these crucial elements, leaving consumers confused.
Finally, try to choose cocktail mixers that live in the fridge, not the pantry. Fresh ingredients don’t survive on shelves, meaning those mixers are full of chemicals added to prolong their shelf life. Glass, refrigerated packaging makes more of a difference than you might think!
