After a few gloriously sunny, 80-degree pool days last week, the past Monday and Tuesday of gloom and doom had my household feeling dour and sour, so I did what once brought false cheer to any surroundings: made myself a drink.
Whereas the cheer was brought about in the past through the addition of alcohol, today my spirits were lifted by the charming little libation you see before you – a basic peach spritzer, bereft of all booze and absolutely absent of all alcohol. My how times have changed.
This simple concoction was made possible by all the non-alcoholic options out there now that were nowhere to be found twenty years ago when I was in my drinking prime. Back then the notion of a mocktail was decidedly unpopular, if you could manage to find one at all. These days there are so many flavored seltzers and mixers and waters that the alternatives to alcohol outnumber the liquor itself, and most decent drinking establishments have more than a few non-alcoholic options. Hell, there are even bars that don’t offer any booze at all. It’s a brave new world, and I’m here for it.
As for this pretty little cup of peach fizz, it’s one part peach margarita mix (which is available with hardly any sugar or calories) and one part peach/pear seltzer, equally void of calories and sugar. Normally I’d garnish with a thin but obnoxious slice of peach in entirely unnecessary excess, but on this gray night on top of two gray days, I had neither the time nor the effort to make that trip to the market. Happily, this manages to be just as refreshing without the fruit.
