Smoky Non-Alcoholic Lime Margarita

2 non-alcoholic lime margaritas over ice in smoky grey margarita glasses.

5 from 1 vote

Smoky Non-Alcoholic Lime Margarita

There's no need to miss out if you don't drink alcohol. This Smoky Non-Alcoholic Lime Margarita is loaded with flavor, with no side effects of alcohol!

Prep Time5

Steeping Time1

Total Time1 5

Course: Beverage

Cuisine: Universal

Keyword: beverage, cocktail, drink, dry january, key lime, margarita, mocktail, non alcoholic

Servings:

Calories: 113kcal

Author: Carissa Serink

Equipment

Tea Infuser
Margarita Glasses or rocks glasses

Ingredients

1 teaspoon lapsang souchong tea or one tea bag (see note)
1 cup boiling water
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup lime juice
½ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon orange bitters (optional, see note)
kosher salt
crushed or cubed ice
lime wedges or slices optional, for garnishing

Instructions

Measure out 1 cup boiling water into a heat-proof measuring cup or mug. Steep 1 teaspoon lapsang souchong tea in the water using a tea infuser. Allow the tea to continue steeping until it cools to room temperature, about an hour.
Discard the tea leaves, and pour the lapsang souchong tea, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup lime juice, 1/2 cup lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon orange bitters to a 2-cup meauring cup. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt onto a small plate. Wet the rim of the glass(es) with water, lime juice, or the margarita mixture and dip the rims into the salt (note that this step is optional - if you don't want to salt the rims of the glasses, add about 1/8 teaspoon of kosher salt to your margarita mixture).
Fill the glass(es) about 3/4 full with crushed ice. Pour the margarita mixture over the ice and garnish with lime slices or wedges, if desired. Serve immediately. Store any leftover margarita mixture in an airtight glass jar or bottle.

Notes

Lapsang Souchong is intensely smoky. If you want your non-alcoholic margarita to be only a little smoky, use 1/2 teaspoon of tea. If you're using a tea bag, only steep the tea for a minute or two to cut down on the intensity of the smokiness, if needed.

Bitters contains alcohol. The brand I use is 28% ABV, but since we're using such a small amount, the alcohol content of this margarita is still very low (about 0.7g of alcohol for the entire recipe (0.2g for one drink), where a standard drink has 14g. Note that non-alcoholic beer can contain up to 0.5% alcohol, which works out to be 2.4g of alcohol for a pint).

If you don't want to use bitters, use a microplane to grate some orange zest into your lapsang souchong while it steeps, and strain it out before adding it to the drink. Alternatively, replace half of the lemon juice with orange juice (so you'd be using 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup orange juice).

Nutrition