Strawberry, basil and vanilla mocktail

Since we are all stuck at home for the next foreseeable future, why not make it a little fun? These past few weeks we’ve been making these strawberry, basil and vanilla mocktails to drink around the campfire, in our backyard-camping spot. The kids are loving the experience, and I’m loving the added bit of fun and fanciness with these drinks.

I have used the Nexba tonic water as mixers for the strawberry, basil and vanilla mocktails- the only naturally sugar-free tonic water available in Australia (and also no added nasties). I went for the classic version, but if the lime, cucumber and mint flavour will work beautifully, too.

Fun fact- Nexba also uses natural quinine (giving the tonic water its distinctive taste), derived from bark of the cinchona tree. Quinine is used as a malaria treatment (both traditionally as a herbal medicine, and in modern medicine), and its bitter taste is usually disguised in tonic water by the use of lots of sugar- on average, 6tsp in a serve!

To make the strawberry basil and vanilla mocktail, you’ll need.

Fresh strawberries
Fresh basil
Pure vanilla extract or a vanilla bean
Nexba classic tonic water
Pure maple syrup
Lemon juice
Ice

Upgrade to a cocktail

If you’re after a hearer drink, you can easily upgrade by adding a shot of vodka, gin or white rum. If adding extra health benefits is more your thing, a shot of drinkable probiotics work beautifully. You can check out which ones I use here.