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The Dry Pour October 16, 2026

Home / Learn / Recipes & Mocktails / From Scratch

From Scratch

10 recipes

For people who like the making as much as the drinking. Syrups, shrubs, strong tea and the drinks built on them — most of it from things already in the kitchen.

In short

From Scratch is where you make the ingredient as well as the drink — a syrup, a shrub, a pot of tea brewed too long on purpose — and then build on it. Nothing here needs a spirit alternative, and several of these techniques are older than the cocktail itself.

The drinks

A Shirley Temple in a rocks glass — pale pink over ice cubes with a raspberry and a striped paper straw.

Shirley Temple

Grenadine, lemon and ginger ale — the drink most people meet first, made properly.

Sparkling Tea, Made at Home

Tea brewed far too long, cooled and lengthened

Virgin Moscow Mule

Ginger beer, lime and a great deal of ice

Aquafaba

The water from a tin of chickpeas

Berry Grenadine Dessert Mocktail

Real grenadine, lemon and bubbles

Non-Alcoholic Elderflower Spritz

Elderflower, lemon and soda over ice
Build your kitFour things most of these drinks are built on.
Simple SyrupStart here. Sugar and water, one to one. Honey Ginger SyrupHoney, fresh ginger and water… A Fruit ShrubFruit, sugar and vinegar, left to sit… Real GrenadinePomegranate and sugar, gently reduced…

Acid, bitterness, texture

Acid

The one that is always missing
Tastes of
Lemon, lime, grapefruit, vinegar
Best in
Every drink on this page, without exception
Watch for
Bottled juice is flat — squeeze it

Nine times out of ten, a drink that tastes like cordial is not too sweet. It is under-acidified, and half a lemon fixes it in a second.

Add it before anything else. Taste, add citrus, taste again — and only then decide whether it needs sugar, bitterness or length.

Bitterness

Where the finish comes from
Tastes of
Bitters, strong tea, tonic, citrus peel
Best in
Anything built on syrup and something fizzy
Watch for
Two dashes, not four — it compounds

Sweet and sour alone make a drink that stops dead. Bitterness is what makes you want the next mouthful, and it is the cheapest thing on this list to add.

Over-brewed black tea is the free version. Steep it far too long on purpose, cool it, and use it like a mixer — the tannin does the same job.

Texture

What makes it feel made
Tastes of
Syrup, purée, cream, ice, bubbles
Best in
Anything that tastes thin rather than light
Watch for
Thin reads as unfinished, not delicate

This is the one most home drinks skip. A spoonful of syrup, a splash of cream, crushed ice rather than cubes — any of them turns a mixture into a drink.

Ice is texture, not temperature. Crushed dilutes fast and softens; one big cube keeps a drink sharp for half an hour. Choosing between them is part of the recipe.

If it isn't right yet

Taste it flat, before the fizz

Build everything except the soda and taste that. If the base is right the finished drink will be right, and if it is wrong you have not yet wasted the bubbles finding out.

Everything colder than you think

Glass, mixers, fruit. A cold drink tastes less sweet than a lukewarm one made identically, which is why the same recipe can read balanced at a bar and cloying at home.

Common adjustments

Too sweet

More citrus, first
Before you touch anything else. Most over-sweet drinks are under-acidified rather than over-sugared.
Cut the syrup by a third
And lengthen with soda rather than replacing what you took out.
A pinch of salt
Genuinely. It suppresses bitterness and sharpens fruit, and nobody tastes salt.

Tastes like nothing at the end

Bitters
Two dashes. The single biggest change available for the smallest effort.
Strong cold tea
Over-brewed and cooled. Tannin, for the price of a teabag.
Grapefruit instead of lemon
Bitter as well as sour, so it does two jobs at once.

Tastes thin or unfinished

Express a peel
Squeeze a strip of citrus skin over the surface. The oils are most of what you smell.
Crushed ice
Turns a tall drink into something you finish with a spoon.
A herb, slapped once
Mint, basil or rosemary between the palms and dropped in. Never muddled.

Making several at once

Build the base in a jug
Everything but the fizz, chilled ahead. Top each glass as you pour.
Frozen fruit for ice
Chills without watering down, and looks after itself on a table.
Make the syrup the day before
It keeps for weeks and it is the only step that takes any time.

Bitters

Bitters are bark, root and peel steeped down to something you use two dashes of — the same idea as tea brewed far too long, concentrated until a few drops can change a glass. This is the one thing on the page we would not tell you to make yourself: bitters want a dozen botanicals and a fortnight of waiting. These four taste nothing like each other, which is the reason to see them side by side rather than be handed one.

Single bottle of All The Bitter Aromatic non-alcoholic bitters, alcohol-free with warm spice notes of ginger, holy basil, and earthy roots.
The one to start with

All The Bitters – Aromatic Bitters

Warm spice and a gentian bite. It gives a soda-and-syrup drink somewhere to end.

$19.00
Single bottle of All The Bitter Orange non-alcoholic bitters, alcohol-free with orange peel, cardamom, coriander, and lemon balm.
For anything with citrus

All The Bitters – Orange Bitters

Orange peel and cardamom, so it lifts rather than deepens.

$19.00
Bottle of All The Bitter New Orleans non-alcoholic bitters, 0.0% ABV, featuring tart cherry, hibiscus, anise, and functional botanicals.
The unusual one

All The Bitters – New Orleans Bitters

Tart cherry, hibiscus and anise. Changes a drink rather than seasoning it.

$19.00
Bottle of All The Bitter Cherry Coffee Blast non-alcoholic bitters, 0.0% ABV, crafted for zero-proof cocktails and mocktails.
For anything dark or creamy

All The Bitter Cherry Coffee Blast Bitters

Cherry and roasted coffee. Made for eggnog and cream drinks.

$19.00

All bitters and flavor enhancers →

Questions

What can I make with nothing in the house?

Lemon, sugar and hot water is a hot toddy without the whiskey, and it is genuinely good. Add a teabag and it is better. Everything else on this page is a step up from that rather than a different kind of thing.

Which should I make first?

Simple syrup, because almost every drink here asks for it and it takes five minutes. Honey ginger syrup second, because it is the one that makes a complete drink on its own — syrup, lime and soda over ice, in about fifteen seconds.

Why do mine taste like juice?

Usually two things at once — not enough acid, and nothing bitter. Juice is sweet and soft all the way through; a drink has an edge at the front and somewhere to stop at the back. Half a lemon and two dashes of bitters is the whole difference.

Do I need special equipment?

No. A jar with a lid shakes as well as a shaker, a fork muddles, and a sieve strains. The only thing worth having more of than you think is ice.

More non-alcoholic cocktail recipes

Same structure, different bottle.

Non-alcoholic whiskey cocktails· 8Non-alcoholic gin cocktails· 8Non-alcoholic sparkling cocktails· 7Non-alcoholic spritz and negroni recipes· 6Virgin margaritas and tequila drinks· 6Virgin mojitos and rum drinks· 4Non-alcoholic vodka cocktails· 3

— The Dry Pour —

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