Alcohol Free Poinsettias

Asked by MimG. Answered on 20th December 2015

Full question

Ever since I bought Nigella Christmas, my family has made a tradition of drinking Poinsettias on Christmas Day. However, this year my son had pancreatitis and has to avoid alcohol. I don't want to deny the whole family the pleasure of drinking them, as we all love them so much, but I'll feel bad if my son has to sit and watch the rest of us enjoying them. Could you suggest a way to make an alcohol-free version of Poinsettias please?

Our answer

Nigella's Poinsettia cocktail (from Christmas and on the Nigella website) is a mixture of cranberry juice, orange liqueur and sparkling dry white wine, such as prosecco. The name poisiettia comes from the red colour, reminiscent of the poinsettia flower that is popular at Christmas.

The main flavours are cranberry and orange and sometimes this cocktail is made non-alcoholic by replacing the liqueur with orange juice and the sparkling wine with ginger ale or sparkling water. Another alternative would be to try the Seasonal Breeze mocktail (also from Christmas) and to make it sparkling you could either use sparkling apple juice instead of the flat apple juice, or you could use sparkling water as another alternative. It is probably worth making up a couple of these mocktails before Christmas day and letting your son taste them, to see which combination he may prefer.