Health & Fitness
Mixing With The Right Crowd At Home
Fresh cocktails are “in” at restaurants and bars all over LA, and especially along trendier sections of Ventura boulevard. That's not news...that's "Mixology," and it speaks to people who want to know exactly what is in their cocktails
While fresh squeezed juices and muddled fruits are the mixer of choice for alcoholic and non-alcoholic concoctions, if you're big on guests and short on time, a go-to mixer may be the way to go--but those chemicals.
At the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo this past week in Los Angeles, several sodas and mixers offered a "natural" solution for both large volume (i.e. lots of paying customers) eateries and savvy home hosts, as many of these can be found at better supermarkets.
My choices for the freshest picks include:
Wild Poppy Juice Company (www.wildpoppyjuice.com)
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For years, many people believed a certain national brand was made with “the best stuff on earth.” However, the California home-grown Wild Poppy Juice Company puts that theory to the test with a variety of juices made with organic California fruit that’s sweetened with organic agave nectar and enhanced with spices around the world. Surprising flavor profiles include Blood Orange Chili, Grapefruit & Ginger, Peppermint Lemonade, Peach Vanilla and Plum Licorice. Just add (sparkling) water or perhaps a nice organic spirit.
Spindrift Soda (www.spindriftfresh.com): Created by a concerned parent who also wanted to lick a Diet Coke habit, Spindrift Sodas and waters allow people to taste the rainbow the guilt-free way. Low calorie sparklers come in Raspberry Lime, Lemon and Tangerine sodas made with juice. Sodas are available in Grapefruit, Blackberry, orange Mango, Lemonade, “Half & Half” Lemon/Iced Tea and Cranberry Raspberry. All products start with triple purified sparkling water, fresh squeezed fruit or berry purée (pulp and all!), and a dash of cane juice.
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With tea and herbal cocktails and infused spirits gracing cocktail menus at innovative restaurants across the country, companies like Rishi Tea (www.rishi-tea.com) are worth a sip or two, and not just for the myriad of flavors. This brand’s collection are made up of Fair Trade Certified loose leaf teas from tea gardens around the world--200 varieties to be exact.
Jax Coco (http://jaxcoco.com/). For years, there’s been a lot of talk about “designer water,” and one restaurant in L.A. recently made headlines for its on-premise “water sommelier.” Now that coconut water is now very much into the mainstream, Jax Coco is pushing the delicious, hydrating super-drink into pop culture by positioning itself as the world’s chic-est cocoanut water. It’s quite delicious as far as cocoanut water goes, but when stars such as Elton John, Stella McCartney and artist Marc Quinn put their clout behind it, it becomes a conversation starter. Like a good vodka or tequila, its journey from the garden to the bottle is also part of the package: Extracted coconut water undergoes a micro-filtering process to ensure its smooth taste and is subsequently flash-heated to preserve its nutritional profile.