6 low-alcohol cocktails and drinks to see you through summer

Is there any Australian tradition quite like the annual Christmas meltdown?

A cheeky glass of sparkling while the rugrats eviscerate the tree; a couple of stubbies while tending the barbecue under an excoriating sun; a glass or three of pinot gris to pair with the kilo of prawns… and then for some mysterious reason, you're sobbing and yelling at your stunned, sweet-faced nan.

We're all at least vaguely aware of the health risks associated with alcohol: high blood pressure; heart and liver disease; increased risk of stroke and certain cancers — and that's not to mention the effects on anyone experiencing even a hint of depression or anxiety.

Nevertheless, there's intense social pressure to get on it, especially at this time of year.

To assist, we've come up with six lower-alcohol options to help you last through a long, hot summer's day without dissolving.

Mojito mocktail

If you're teetotal, you'll have discovered it's slim pickings for anyone with a palate over the age of 12. Part of the great genius of fermentation is that it produces wacky flavours from volatile compounds that simply aren't available in a mix of sugar and water.

When I order myself a mocktail (can we find a better word, by the way?), I'm looking for something with similar qualities to my favourite booze: spiciness, sourness, acidity and funk.

Many traditional recipes call for the addition of sugar syrup, but we are adults. A dash of ginger beer gives all the sweetness you need, while lime juice is more sugary than you imagine.

Ingredients

• 1 massive amount of mint leaves
• 5 limes
• 1 ginger beer, to top
• 1 sparkling water

Method

1. Juice your limes into a cocktail shaker or jar.
2. Loosely tear the mint leaves and throw them in the shaker, and gently muddle with a mixer or spoon. Shake, but unenthusiastically.
3. Load up a glass with ice and pour over your limey, minty liquid. Top up with a half-and-half mix of soda water and ginger beer (if you've got a sweet tooth, just use the ginger beer).

Pro tip: For some next-level business, add a dash (and I mean a very, very small amount) of smoky habanero hot sauce to truly bring this cocktail into balance.

Aperol float

My editor expressly forbade me from writing about the Aperol spritz, the drink publicists have been insisting is the flavour of next summer for three years running ("It's just boozy Fanta!" my editor told me).

But he said nothing about an Aperol float, so technically I'm still within the brief.

Thanks to the creeping Americanisation of our language, the term "Spider" has fallen out of fashion, but that's essentially what this is: boozy Fanta — with ice cream!

While most of our recipes have focused on more "adult" flavours, some summer nights just cry out for a tub of Neapolitan and a soup spoon.

Aperol's an interesting ingredient because it has all the hallmarks of a spirit, but it's not actually that high in alcohol. Sitting at 11 percent ABV, it's less heady than most glasses of red, and about half the alcohol you'll find in its cousin, Campari. And while it does have some of the hypercolour sweetness of post-war Germany's favourite orange drink, it's balanced by its powerful bitterness.

There are also some unusual botanicals thrown in there: gentian, rhubarb and cinchona, for instance.

So instead of reaching for the cognac at the tail end of your next dinner party, why not combine dessert and after-dinner drinks with this outrageously Instagrammable little number?

Ingredients

• 1 scoop ice cream of choice
• 50ml Aperol
• Blood orange soda

Method

1. Heat your scoop (or spoon) under hot water and make your best quenelle of ice-cream. Dump in your prettiest glass.
2. Pour over 50ml of Aperol, and top with blood orange soda. Be careful here — it's going to bubble.

Rosemary and bitters mimosa

A mimosa is a cousin to the spritz, pairing champagne — or if you're Australian, sparkling wine — with orange juice. Interestingly, freshly-squeezed orange juice is not strictly alcohol-free, coming in with a trivial, but not non-existent, 0.5 per cent ABV (alcohol by volume). So technically you were drinking in the morning anyway.

Despite its ubiquity, many of us find the standard-issue mimosa somewhat pedestrian, with its complicated champagney-ness overwhelmed by its sweet, viscous juiciness.

To our mind, it needs something herbal, something savoury, and something acidic. Give this a whirl.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of champagne or sparkling wine (budget dependent)
• 4 oranges
• 1 lemon
• Dash of bitters
• Rosemary sprig

Method

1. Because you're an epicurean and wouldn't dream of buying juice that's been boiled at super-high temperatures thus ruining its flavour, squeeze four oranges to make some juice.
2. Take your tallest, fanciest champagne flute and fill it half with fizzy wine, half with OJ. Squeeze a small amount of lemon juice over the mixture — you don't need much as your oranges are already acidic.
3. Roll your sprig of rosemary around in your hand, bruising the leaves to release some of its delicious oils. Add a few drops of bitters (Australian, if you can find them), then swizzle the entire concoction with your rosemary sprig. Swig.

Low-booze beer

It's mandatory to complain about how mid-strength beer has ruined cricket. But from Cricket Australia's point of view, you can understand the preference fewer naked punters sprinting onto the pitch to vomit all over Pat Cummins (however an appropriate response to the state of the game that may be.)

The shocking truth is that alcohol-free beer has come a long way.

Alcohol-free beers are defined as anything less than 0.5 per cent ABV, which, for contrast, is about as much booze as you'll find in a ripe banana (true).

They're made exactly the same way as "normal" beer, but by using a variety of methods known only to wizards (fine, and chemical engineers), alcohol is distilled out of the fermented beer.

And unlike "real" beer, "pretend" beer may actually be good for you. A study by the Technical University of Munich found runners drinking alcohol-free beer were 3.25 less likely to suffer respiratory tract infections, and had less soreness and inflammation compared to a control group.

The only problem I can see with these increasingly tasty alcohol-free beers is their effect on Australian cricket culture, and the rude awakening we may be in for if we actually watch the Boxing Day Test.

Riesling spritz

If you're someone who in the past has looked sniffily down their nose at the aunt who splashes soda into a half-glass of wine while insisting "it's how the Romans do it!" — take a deep breath.

Sparkling water is entirely neutral in flavour, and will only make a great wine subtly stretched, the way a long black can open up the characters in espresso or a highball will highlight the herbal, spicy notes in whisky (with the added benefit of fizz!).

Taking a relatively low-alcohol wine such as Riesling or Grüner Veltliner and topping it off with soda will take you down to about 0.75 of a standard drink.

Aromatic whites are the best choice for this kind of fizzy action: head toward the Semillon, the Riesling, the Rosé, the Pinot Gris. You could even give it a go with Soave or Albarino if you're game. I don't think it'd be so hot with your more oily whites like Chardonnay, but again: do whatever floats your boat.

If you want to see a sommelier faint, however, try ordering some Bordeaux and bubbling it up.

Ingredients

• ¼ glass wine of choice
• ¾ glass fizzy water

Method

1. Take wine. Apply to glass until quarter full.
2. Either fizz water yourself, or purchase water pre-fizzed. Apply to glass also. Drink heartily.

Pro tip: If you want to put ice cubes in your wine, more power to you. It'll subdue the more complex flavours in said wine, but that doesn't mean it won't be either delicious or, more importantly, pleasurable.

Vermouth

Vermouth never gets the respect it deserves. It's the kind of drink that sits at the back of the liquor cabinet, only coming out when a high-falutin' dinner guest orders a martini. But the stuff is magical.

It's perfumed and savoury, combining the fresh fruitiness of wine with the subtle esters and polyphenols found in spirits (translation: flavour).

First concocted by the Chinese around three thousand years ago, vermouth is essentially wine fortified with bark, roots, herbs, or whatever else you've got laying around.

Its versatility is part of the reason this stuff should be celebrated: when we talk about terroir, we're referring to the flavour of a particular place. With wine, that particular place is expressed by two ingredients only: grapes and yeast.

The most famous vermouths come from France and Italy, and they're the ones you'll find in your big box bottleshops. But Australia has a small but vibrant industry of small-scale producers making excellent local vermouth, using native ingredients such as wattleseed, strawberry gum, river mint and sea parsley.

Take this as gentle advice or a direct instruction: buy Australian vermouth.

Most vermouth rings in at somewhere between 16-18 per cent ABV. In other words, slightly more alcohol than wine. But because its flavours are so complex, you won't want a schooner of it.

Good vermouth is best consumed like a sipping whisky, usually on the rocks. But it's also incredibly delicious with a splash of mineral water and an orange wedge. So to be the most sophisticated (and contented) punter at your next garden party, rock up with a picnic rug, a bottle of this business in an esky full of ice, a pocket knife and your citrus of choice.

There are national guidelines that aim to reduce your risk of harm from alcohol. These recommend that healthy men and women drink no more than two standard drinks on any day (to reduce your risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury over a lifetime), and drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion (to reduce your risk of alcohol-related injury on that occasion).