This is my favorite non-alcoholic margarita!

There are 101 reasons why someone might not want to consume alcohol – right now, personally, we are in a season of less alcohol consumption for a number of reasons: physical health, mental health, young kids at home, etc. And in this season of less drinking, I’ve realized that having a fun, nuanced, actually good margarita in your back pocket that is more than just juice in a glass and doesn’t rely on alcohol is a really great life upgrade.

So basically, I make this all the time now. Multiple times a week. I keep my lime juice stocked, my simple syrup stocked, and it’s ready for me whenever.

How this started: we were having friends over for the Superbowl and we wanted a non-alcoholic margarita option for several of the friends in attendance. And I started googling.

A lot of the non-alcoholic margarita recipes I found online relied really heavily on just juices and sparkling water, and while I’m sure those taste great, they don’t have that signature bitterness OR anything really interesting happening with the flavor to make your mouth just light up with excitement and make up for the lack of alcohol. I really wanted something more fun and more special than just lime juice and orange juice with sparkling water.

So where we ended up is right here:

Three ingredients, no alcohol, one really really happy mama over here.

I love this drink so much – now officially declaring this my Drink of Summer 2023.

For another knockout NA summer drink, this cucumber lime agua fresca has been made in our house at least 78 times. I love it so much.

A Single Non-Alcoholic Margarita:

For the Jalapeno Cilantro Simple Syrup:

For the Tajin Rim:

Tonic Water: Tonic water doesn’t have alcohol, but it contains small amounts of quinine which gives it that deliciously bitter flavor that mimics alcohol. Some people can be sensitive to quinine, and it is recommended to avoid it during pregnancy. If you are quinine averse for any reason, don’t worry – you have other options. If the bitterness is important to you, I would sub a sparkly water with some kind of bitter element to it, like grapefruit. You can also add a dash of your favorite bitters, which technically are alcoholic but they are used in such small amounts that many people use them in mocktails. If you don’t mind a drink that’s on the sweeter side, this is also delicious with any of the sparkling juices at Trader Joe’s (I *love* their sparkling watermelon juice in this) or any other retailers that sell fun varieties of sparkling drinks. A plain sparkling water like Topo Chico would also be great.

Limes: I buy a huge bag of limes for this and then just juice all of them at once so I have a bunch of lime juice in the fridge. I use this little juicer for juicing!

Pitchers: I use these adorable little glass milk pitchers every summer for storing my simple syrups, agua frescas, iced coffee, lots of different things. For these margs, I juice a bunch of limes ahead and then keep one pitcher of lime juice and one of the simple syrup in the fridge for superfast margs anytime the craving strikes! Ultimate life hack.

Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can admire your masterpiece!