Non-alcoholic Gin Sour mocktail recipe

Sour cocktails are more popular than ever. Bars around Melbourne are putting their own unique spin on different recipes, like this easy non-alcoholic gin sour mocktail you can make at home. 

It’s been said in cocktail folklore that the sour cocktail was invented way back in the 1800s by the British Navy during their long voyages across the seas, where sailors would mix rum with lime juice to fight the effects of scurvy and malnutrition. 

Since that time, bars across the world have invented many sour cocktail recipes, including several non-alcoholic mocktails fuelled by the move towards sobriety. However, whether a sour cocktail, such as a gin sour, is alcoholic or not, they all contain three key ingredients. 

“All you need is a liquor, a citrus, and a sweetener,” says RACV City Club Food & Beverage Supervisor Ben Crafter. “The citrus gives the cocktail its ‘sour’ flavour, and then the sweetener balances out the drink.” 

“But the trick to a really good sour cocktail is to have freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice.” 

The team at Bourke Street Green, in Melbourne’s CBD, has adapted the classic gin sour into a non-alcoholic mocktail version, which Bar Manager Rob Pierce says requires a little more tinkering than a traditional gin sour to get the same flavours. 

“When you’re using a non-alcoholic gin, if you drink them straight up, you don’t get the true flavours of the gin,” Pierce says. “I recommend adding in a little citrus, or a tonic water you’d normally have with gin, as that will activate the flavours.”

“It’s also nice to serve this gin sour mocktail in a wine glass, or an old rocks glass.”