Deliciously sweet with a hint of zing, this honey mocktail is perfect for summer drinks with friends and family! It's so easy to make with just a handful of ingredients, and you don't need any fancy kitchen equipment to make the honey simple syrup.
Love mocktails with honey? Have a peek at my peach mocktail for another fun drinks idea!
Fun mocktails always feel like such a treat, and this honey mocktail is loosely based on the Bees Knees cocktail. So I guess we can call it a twist on the Bees Knees mocktail! With sweet honey and bubbles, it's bright and refreshing, with an extra zingy ingredient . . .
Traditional Bees Knees cocktails are a mix of honey and lemon, but as citrus doesn't work for all of us, I've added some ginger to give a touch of zing. It balances the honey out so well and feels perfect as both a summer and winter mocktail!
Do check out my apple mocktail, passion fruit mocktail and lychee mocktail for more sweet drink ideas!
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⭐ Why this recipe is so good
Deliciously sweet and spicy. Honey gives such a lovely sweetness, and we balance it out with a hint of zing from fresh ginger.
Minimal ingredients. We use just three main ingredients that are easy to find in stores to make this honey mocktail.
Easy to make. All we need to do is make an easy honey syrup with ginger, then add some bubbles!
🍯 Ingredients
All the ingredients and their quantities are set out in the recipe card below.
Some notes on a few of them:
- Honey - you want to use runny honey, not set honey to make the mocktail.
- Ginger - definitely use fresh ginger root and not ground ginger!
- Sparkling water - for some bubbles, or swap for club soda if it works for you.
📖 Swaps and variations
Add apple juice. For some fruity flavor, you can add a tablespoon or two of apple juice.
Add lemon juice. It will likely not be suitable for my low histamine readers, but adding fresh lemon juice is also an option and gives a more traditional bees knees flavor profile.
Add some herbs. It's quite easy to flavor honey syrup with some fragrant herbs such as rosemary or thyme, just remove before pouring into your glass.
🍹 Step by step instructions
Making this honey mocktail is super simple, requires just a few ingredients and is perfect for summer drinks and parties with friends and family!
All the instructions are set out in the recipe card below, but these step by step photos should help guide you.
Step 1: Make honey simple syrup
Pour honey and still water into a pot, along with a couple of slices of fresh root ginger. Bring to a medium heat, and heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times so the honey dissolves (image 1). Remove the ginger with tongs - not fingers! Set the honey syrup aside to cool.
Step 2: Mix your honey mocktail!
Tip ice into a tumbler glass, then pour about ½ cup of the honey syrup into your glass (image 2). Top with sparkling water, and use a cocktail stirrer to mix. If you like less sweetness, use less of the honey syrup to taste preference.
💭 Recipe tips and notes
- Make sure to dissolve the honey in the water to make your simple syrup. It only takes a few minutes on a medium heat.
- Adjust the amount of syrup used to preference. For a sweeter honey mocktail, I suggest to use half the amount of syrup (so this recipe is for 2 drinks), but use less for a lighter flavor.
- A little apple juice stirred into the drink would give a nice flavor if you like!
🍸 More mocktails
Choose from so many fun mocktails here including my Hugo spritz mocktail and my elderflower mocktail, as well as these recent recipes:
I'm always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes! And I love to hear from you - so please do leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐ and comment if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Honey Mocktail
Ingredients
- ½ cup honey
- ¾ cup still water
- 3 slices root ginger
- 1 cup sparkling water
- ice
Instructions
- Pour the honey and still water into a pot, and add the slices of root ginger. Bring to a medium heat and heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times until the honey dissolves. Remove the ginger with tongs, and set the syrup aside to cool.
- Tip ice into two tumbler glasses, and evenly pour the honey syrup into each glass. Top with sparkling water.
Notes
- Adjust the amount of honey simple syrup used to taste preference. The amount given makes a fairly sweet drink, but you can reduce the quantity of syrup used for something a littler lighter.
- A squeeze of fresh lemon juice will give a more typical Bees Knees mocktail flavor, but this will likely not be suitable for low histamine readers.
- Nutritional information is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
- honey scores 0, but has a note, 'To be debated. Uneven. Naturally contains benzoic acid'.
- ginger, which scores 1. It has a note, 'Small amounts are well tolerated'.
- sparkling water isn't rated.
Suzi says
I haven’t tried the Mocktail yet but these same flavors are my go to for a hot tea so I can’t wait to try it.
Claire says
Hope you enjoy it when you do! Maybe this can be your colder summer drinks option 🙂