This citrus strawberry mocktail recipe is the perfect refreshing summer drink! It’s great for parties, baby showers where you want easy mocktails for your guests, and really anytime you want something smooth, citrusy, and refreshing! It’s one of the best mocktail recipes out there!
So I don’t drink alcohol – never have and never will. But I really like a good fruity or speciality drink. I order them everywhere I go and my husband even knows to look at the menu for a speciality drink if he gets there before I do.
You could say I’m a mocktail aficionado or just a sucker for a good drink that’s something other than lemonade (unless it’s this Brazilian lemonade) or fruit punch.
I pretty much drank all of the speciality drinks in Disneyland (and there a lot) doing research for my best Disneyland food post!
I’ve tried a lot of mocktails in the past ten years including some of the best I’ve ever had in Phoenix. In fact, drinking mocktails even made my top things to do in Phoenix list!
I also love re-creating the mocktails I try at home. This strawberry citrus mocktail is still one of my favorite flavor combinations ever!
What is a Mocktail?
And in case you’re wondering what a mocktail is – it’s actually supposed to be a non-alcoholic version of an alcoholic drink. But they’ve become such a huge thing, especially at bars that have large drink menus, that now they’re just speciality non-alcoholic drinks.
They can be anything from soda based to fruit juice based to really whatever the person creating the drink decides. The only requirement is that they be delicious, or at least that’s my requirement!
Citrus Strawberry Mocktail Recipe
This strawberry mocktail recipe was originally created as part of the Clinton Kelly Make Over Your Margarita challenge! I was asked by Clinton Kelly’s team to make a margarita and since I don’t drink alcohol, I made one of my favorite mocktail recipes using margarita flavors instead!
This mocktail recipe uses two of my favorite flavors together – strawberry and citrus!
I love those flavors so much that I also made a strawberry lavender lemonade that combines the flavors again! And again with this strawberry coconut mocktail! I’ve put together some of the best mocktail recipes at the bottom of this post in case you’re a huge mocktail fan like me!
For me, the goal when creating the perfect mocktail recipe is to make a drink that tastes special and worth drinking my calories.
So many times mocktails end up being just flavored club soda, and I really wanted to get away from that with this citrus mocktail.
Instead, the flavors are centered around the strawberry simple syrup and then the lime really just accentuates that flavor.
Strawberry Citrus Mocktail Ingredients
The best thing about mocktail recipes is that they normally don’t require a lot of ingredients – especially if you’re using a simple syrup base. The only things you need for this strawberry mocktail include:
- Fresh strawberries (or frozen – see notes section below)
- Fresh limes
- Sugar
- Water
- Lemon-lime soda like Sprite or 7-Up
How to Make a Strawberry Mocktail
This citrus strawberry mocktail is absolutely perfect for the summer.
It’s a little sweet, fruity, and 100% refreshing. I’ll definitely be making these at some of my upcoming outdoor parties as the perfect way to cool down on a hot summer day. They’d also be a great way to cool off at a baby shower after playing these hilarious baby shower games!
Here’s how you make this strawberry mocktail!
1 – Make a strawberry simple syrup with water, sugar, and fresh strawberries.
I love starting things with a simple syrup – it’s such an easy way to infuse flavor and sweetness into a drink! And they’re so easy to make. You just boil water, sugar, and your additional flavor (in this case strawberries) together.
Keep the macerated strawberries to add to the mocktail – separate from the simple syrup! Another great way to infuse flavor into the drink.
2 – Combine the simple syrup with lemon-lime soda (I prefer Sprite), lime juice, and the macerated strawberries from the simple syrup.
3 – Garnish a glass using the garnishing instructions below (this adds so much!)
4 – Put ice in the garnished glass – the pellet ice is my favorite but if you don’t have one of these pellet ice machines then regular ice will do.
5 – Pour the drink over the ice and served chilled.
Citrus Strawberry Mocktail Notes
Another few notes for making this one of the best mocktails you’ve ever tried!
If you want the drink sweeter, add more of the simple syrup and macerated strawberries. I just prefer to stick with a little less in case people don’t want their drink quite as sweet.
Fresh strawberries are best but if you don’t have fresh ones on hand, you could use thawed frozen strawberries as well. Just make sure they are thawed and dried before putting them in the pot or the simple syrup will taste watery.
Don’t make the full drink ahead of time but you can totally make the simple syrup ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to pour the drinks. In fact, I recommend doubling the strawberry simple syrup anyway and using half of it in this strawberry poke cake!
Strawberry Mocktail Garnish Ideas
One of my favorite things to do is to garnish the rim of a mocktail glass with some sort of flavored sugar like I did with this very berry mocktail.
This strawberry citrus mocktail was just calling for a citrus garnish, so I went with lime sugar to rim the glasses.
To make the lime sugar, simply mix lime zest with sugar until you get a good consistency.
Wet the rims of your glasses with a bit of water (or lemon-lime soda) and dip into the the lime sugar for an added pop of citrus flavor.
Make sure to do this before you put ice or liquid in the glasses because it’s much easier to dip the glass into a bowl of lime sugar than it is to just add the lime sugar later on.
You can also garnish with fresh strawberries, fresh limes, or even candied versions of either.
Other Drink Recipes
Want to try some other delicious drink recipes? These are some of our other favorites!
- Strawberry coconut mocktail
- Christmas punch
- Triple berry mocktail
- Raspberry sherbet punch (great for baby showers as well)
- Lavender lemonade recipe
- Summer punch
- Sparkling watermelon juice
Easy Citrus Strawberry Mocktail Recipe
Ingredients
For the Strawberry Simple Syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup strawberries , chopped and pulsed in the blender
For the Mocktail
- 1 TBS strawberry simple syrup
- 1 cup lemon-lime soda
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 TBS macerated strawberries optional
Instructions
For the Simple Syrup
- Mix sugar, water, and strawberries together in a pot.
- Heat over medium heat until boiling.
- Mix together while boiling until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer to strain liquid syrup from leftover strawberries. If you'd like to add additional flavor to the citrus strawberry mocktail, you can put some of the leftover strawberry mixture into the drink.
For the mocktail
- Mix strawberry simple syrup, lemon-lime soda, lime juice, and macerated strawberries together for the ultimate citrus mocktail!
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Info
Don't forget to pin this strawberry mocktail recipe for later.
Quiz Lover says
Looks exquisite and refreshing! Thanks a lot for sharing this to everyone! 🙂
BritniV says
thank you
Brady Ferguson says
Dude, this tasted super good, but i did have to cut down the recipe for the syrup with simple division so it made less, so I wound up just using 6 tablespoons sugar and six water, then just 6 individual strawberries, but it tasted great. A great garnish is instead of ice cubes just use frozen strawberries, it tastes great and looks pretty. The one thing that is bad about this recipe is it is very sweet, but i was able to fix that by adding more lime juice than originally told to, giving it more of a bitter taste to balance out the sweet.
Britni Vigil says
Thanks for the note! I love the frozen strawberries idea and yeah, I normally just keep the rest of the strawberry syrup for our next round!