I don't know about you, but I am barely dragging myself across the finish line of 2023.
So when the convo in my friends' group chat turned to talk of a signature cocktail to ring for 2024 (my friend group does an "elevated potluck" for the occasion) my first reaction was: I. Just. Can't.
Or could I?
Could I do something simple and easy — ideally inexpensive — and something that could use up some of the alcohol I already had? (The holidays tapped me out, people!) And could there be a mocktail version that wouldn't leave out the non drinkers, like my husband?
Sure, I could try to spend days of my life making my own elderflower liquor or searching our shrub bitters for mocktails-into-cocktails that would no doubt be delicious. In fact, I might resolve to do just that in the new year. But right now? I want e-a-s-y.
Bringing in the big guns
That's when I decided to bring in reinforcements. I turned to Anna Lisa, the L.A.-based recipe creator behind the Trader Joe's 5 Items or Less website (and its 487,000 strong Instagram account) and author of the Trader Joe's 5 Ingredients or Less cookbook. I put the challenge to her.
Her solution was so blissfully simple that we both chuckled at her answer, and her advice: Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
She suggested I look no further than the beverage aisle at any supermarket in America, which will bulge with fizzy alcohol-free drinks. (The market share for bubbly sodas, seltzers and waters has gone through the roof since the pandemic.)
They're fairy inexpensive, and they make the perfect starting point for a mocktail that can transform into a cocktail, with the addition of some spirits, syrups and citrus and perhaps fruit, in any DIY combo that sounds appealing, she said.
1. Start with your favorite fizzy flavors
Since she is the Trader Joe's Queen, she suggested trying their line of apple cider vinegar sodas, which come in lemon and strawberry, ginger and lemon, and elderberry and pomegranate. (And in case you are wondering, no, they don't taste like you are chugging apple cider vinegar. They are light and slighly sweet, with no added sugar. The perfect blank canvas for a cocktail.)
But really, any fizzy sodas and waters you find at your local market can be subbed in here, as long as you start with a base flavor that you like.
2. Add a dash of syrup or a bitter
Next up, add a syrup or a bitter if you've got one on hand, or skip if you don't.
If you do have a syrup in your liquor cabinet, this may be the place to start building your drink's flavor profile so you are using what you've got.
3. Make it pretty
Then, think about accents. Lime? Lemon? Orange slices? Cherries? A strawberry sliced through the bottom so it can perch on the rim of a glass?
4. Spiked, or not?
Finally, if desired, add alcohol. "Vodka has very little taste to it, so it goes with everything," Lisa said. But tequila could work. Gin, too. Or a ginger beer?
5. For extra credit...
Bonus points if you channel a stylist's eye to the beverage area at the party, and serve drinks in pretty glasses or copper cups. Don't forget drink charms so no one confuses one drink with another (one of the downsides of trying to serve a signature drink for all.)
Mostly, though, she advised that party throwers just relax. "Don’t stress too much about it," she said. "Everyone is there to have fun and have a good time. Whatever you serve will be fine."
This laid back advice is based on hard won experience.
'Real cooking'?
Lisa started her website just two years ago — and only after dragging her feet and worrying whether anyone would read it. "My biggest fear was that people were going to be like... that's not real cooking!" she said.
But she was a tired wife and mom to a 2-year-old and a newborn, and trying to get dinner on the table each night was an endless chore. She found herself searching again and again for easy dinner recipes. And Trader Joe's was a go-to destination in part because it's compact size means "not a lot of choices for my mom brain." And then she remembered hearing the adage, "If you can't find it, create it."
And that's how she came up with the idea for the popular website that uses TJ's to find ingredients that can be mixed and matched into quick, easy and delicious meals. (In case you are wondering, she said she has no affiliation with TJ's, and has never heard from management there.) She is currently at work on a second cookbook and looking for a publisher.
'Enjoy yourself'
"I think people are intested in, 'Is it easier? Is it going to improve my life?'" Lisa said. "Nobody cares that it's not an hour-long dish that took 20 ingredients to prepare.
"As long as it makes you happy and you enjoy it, that's good for your mental health. Just take it easy and enjoy yourself."
She was talking about her philosophy for the daily dinner-time struggle, but it also served as cocktail advice for me.
And, now that I think of it, these are words of wisdom for all of us as we drag ourselves over the finish line and into a new year.
