How to Smoke a Non-Alcoholic Cocktail: 5 Smoked Mocktail Recipes

To smoke a non-alcoholic cocktail, set a cocktail smoker on the glass, load a pinch of mild wood chips such as cherry or apple, and push the smoke down into the glass with a butane torch. Lift the smoker as soon as the glass fills with thick white smoke, then garnish and serve. If the mocktail has sparkling water, soda, tonic or ginger beer in it, smoke the glass first and add the carbonated part after smoking.

That is the whole technique, and it is the same one I use on a whiskey drink. What changes in a mocktail is how much the smoke matters. Alcohol is the thing that usually carries aroma up to your nose. Take it out and a drink can go flat on top, all juice and sugar and acid. Smoke puts that top note back. When friends come over and one of them isn't drinking, the smoked mocktail is the drink everybody else ends up asking for.

If you want more zero-proof builds after these, the smoked mocktails hub collects every one on the site, and the Dry January smoked mocktails guide covers the seasonal angle.

What You Need to Smoke a Mocktail

• A cocktail smoker. A top-of-glass smoker sits on the rim and sends smoke straight down into the drink. Electric smoking guns push smoke through a hose under a cover instead. Either one smokes a mocktail.
• A butane torch lighter. A kitchen or bar torch, not a candle lighter. The force of the flame is what drives the smoke into the glass.
• Wood chips. Cherry, apple and alder are the easiest woods for non-alcoholic drinks. Pecan suits drinks with spice or nuttiness.
• A glass and a non-alcoholic base with some body. Tea, cold brew, cider, shrubs, ginger and grapefruit all take smoke well.
• Ice, if the recipe calls for it. Smoke that hits the ice coats it, and as the ice melts that flavor moves into the whole drink.

How to Smoke a Non-Alcoholic Cocktail, Step by Step

1. Build the drink in a rocks glass or coupe. Ice goes in first if the recipe calls for it. Hold back anything carbonated.
2. Load a pinch of wood chips into the top of the SmokeTop Cocktail Smoker by Middleton Mixology chimney, roughly the volume of a cherry. Just enough to cover the mesh screen. Overpacking chokes the chips and gives you less smoke, not more.
3. Set the SmokeTop directly on the rim of the glass.
4. Hold the torch about five inches above the chimney and aim the flame down through it, lowering slowly to two or three inches. The glass fills with thick white smoke in about 5 seconds.
5. Lift the SmokeTop. Top with any sparkling water, soda or ginger beer now, then garnish and serve.

The drink is done the moment the smoke reaches it. The aromatic oils land on contact, so there is nothing to wait on and nothing to time. Torch to reveal is about ten seconds.

You can pour first and smoke on top, or smoke the empty glass and pour into it. Smoking the empty glass coats the walls, so you get a stronger smoke character as the drink touches them. Pouring first puts the smoke on the surface of the drink and is the more common way recipes are written. Both are right. I switch between them depending on the drink.

Bubbles are the one place where order matters. Carbonated ingredients go in after smoking, every time. Smoke the glass, or smoke the still part of the drink over ice, then add the sparkling water or ginger beer last so it keeps its fizz.

The SmokeTop (U.S. Patent No. 11,871,769) has grooves on its underside that let the air already in the glass escape while the torch pushes smoke in, so the smoke keeps flowing down instead of stalling at the rim. It sits on the glass like a coaster and needs no batteries or hose. The original, patented SmokeTop®. Made in the USA, by bartenders, ready for your home bar.

Why Smoke Works Harder in a Mocktail

In a bourbon drink, smoke has to compete with barrel char, vanilla and the burn of the spirit. In a non-alcoholic drink there is far less standing in front of it. A light touch goes further, and the smoke becomes the main aroma of the drink rather than an accent on top of one.

The first smoked mocktails I made at home were thin. I was building them like juice and expecting the smoke to carry them, and it didn't. Alcohol gives a drink weight, and without it you need something else to give the smoke a place to sit. That is why the recipes below lean on cold brew, shrubs, honey syrup and tea tannin.

Best Wood Chips for Smoked Mocktails

Cherry is where I'd start every mocktail. It is mild and fruit-forward and it gets along with tea, citrus, cider and ginger. For cider and shrub drinks I reach for apple, which is lighter and very forgiving. Iced tea and lemonade want alder, clean and light. And when the base brings its own spice, like a chai or a maple build, pecan's nuttiness meets it.

If you already know the wood chip pairing guide from your whiskey drinks, the same logic applies here with the dial turned down.

Can You Smoke a Mocktail Without a Smoker?

You can get a smoky note without a cocktail smoker, though it is a different effect from smoke in the glass. The simplest route is a base brewed from a smoked tea such as lapsang souchong. A smoked salt rim works on citrus drinks; salt the rim before you pour. A rosemary sprig or cinnamon stick, briefly torched and used as the garnish, gives off aroma as the drink is served. All of these flavor the drink or the rim. None of them fill the glass or coat the ice.

1. Smoked Hojicha Cold Brew

Hojicha is roasted green tea, and it arrives already carrying a toasted, slightly caramelized profile that cherry smoke extends rather than interrupts. This is the recipe to lead with if you are introducing someone to smoked mocktails.

Ingredients

• 4 oz hojicha cold brew, steeped 8 hours and strained
• 1/2 oz maple syrup
• 1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
• 2 dashes orange bitters (use a non-alcoholic aromatic bitters if you are keeping the build fully zero-proof)
• Cherry wood chips
• Large ice cube
• Garnish: wide orange peel

Method

Stir the cold brew, maple syrup, lemon juice and bitters over ice in a mixing glass until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over a large cube. Smoke with cherry chips using the method above. Express the orange peel over the glass and drop it in.

The roast of the hojicha and the cherry smoke land in the same register, which is what makes this drink taste finished rather than assembled.

2. Smoked Rosemary Non-Alcoholic Old Fashioned

The old fashioned template survives the removal of whiskey better than most, because its structure is sugar, bitters and aromatic oil. Rosemary supplies the resinous backbone that the spirit usually provides.

Ingredients

• 3 oz strong-brewed black tea, chilled
• 1/2 oz demerara syrup
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 3 dashes aromatic bitters (non-alcoholic if you are keeping it zero-proof)
• 1/4 oz apple cider vinegar shrub or a bar spoon of unfiltered apple juice
• Apple wood chips
• Large ice cube
• Garnish: rosemary sprig, orange twist

Method

Press the rosemary sprig gently against the inside of a mixing glass with a bar spoon to release the oils. Add the tea, demerara syrup, bitters and shrub, then stir over ice until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over a large cube. Smoke with apple chips. Garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig and an expressed orange twist.

Black tea tannin does the work that oak-aged spirit would normally do, giving the drink grip and a dry finish.

3. Smoked Apple Cider Shrub

A shrub is fruit, sugar and vinegar, and the acidity keeps this from tipping into dessert territory. It is the most seasonally flexible drink on this list and the easiest to batch.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz apple cider shrub (equal parts unfiltered cider, demerara sugar and apple cider vinegar, rested 48 hours)
• 1/4 oz lemon juice
• Pinch of flaky salt
• 3 oz sparkling water
• Apple wood chips
• Crushed ice
• Garnish: thin apple fan, grated cinnamon

Method

Smoke the empty rocks glass with apple chips first, then fill it with crushed ice. Add the shrub, lemon juice and salt. Top with the sparkling water last and stir once. Garnish with a thin apple fan and a light grating of cinnamon.

Smoking the empty glass matters here. The sparkling water goes in after smoking so it keeps its fizz, and coating the walls first keeps the smoke present through the whole drink rather than just the first sip.

4. Smoked Arnold Palmer

Half black tea, half lemonade, entirely underrated. Alder smoke is clean and light, and it turns a porch drink into something you would serve at a dinner table.

Ingredients

• 3 oz strong-brewed black tea, chilled
• 2 oz fresh lemonade (2 parts lemon juice to 1 part simple syrup to 3 parts water)
• 1/4 oz honey syrup
• Alder wood chips
• Ice cubes
• Garnish: lemon wheel, mint sprig

Method

Combine the tea, lemonade and honey syrup in a shaking tin with ice. Shake briefly and strain into a highball or rocks glass over fresh ice. Smoke with alder chips. Garnish with a lemon wheel and a mint sprig.

A highball has a narrower opening than a rocks glass, so seat the SmokeTop squarely on the rim and let the taller glass fill before you lift.

5. Smoked Grapefruit and Ginger Highball

The bitterness of grapefruit and the heat of ginger give this drink two directions to pull in, and cherry smoke ties them together. It is a close cousin of the smoked virgin mule, with grapefruit doing the work lime does there.

Ingredients

• 3 oz fresh pink grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz ginger syrup
• 1/4 oz lime juice
• 3 oz sparkling water or ginger beer
• Cherry wood chips
• Ice cubes
• Garnish: grapefruit half-wheel, candied ginger

Method

Smoke the empty glass with cherry chips. Add ice, then the grapefruit juice, ginger syrup and lime juice. Top with the sparkling water or ginger beer after smoking and stir once. Garnish with a grapefruit half-wheel and a piece of candied ginger.

Ginger beer makes a sweeter, rounder version. Sparkling water keeps the grapefruit bitterness in front, which is the better call if the drink is going alongside food.

Serving Smoked Mocktails to a Group

A smoked non-alcoholic list scales the same way an alcoholic one does. Batch the base of any of these recipes ahead, hold it cold, and smoke each glass at the moment you serve it. Keep the sparkling water or ginger beer cold and separate, and add it to each glass after it is smoked.

It also fixes a hosting problem that has nothing to do with flavor. The guest who isn't drinking usually gets handed a can of sparkling water and sits out the part of the night where everyone else is watching a drink get made. Smoking a mocktail in front of them puts them back in it. The smoke filling the glass is the same show either way, and in this drink it is also the main ingredient.

For gifting, a SmokeTop bundle comes with a torch and wood chips, so it covers the drinkers and the non-drinkers on your list with one box.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you smoke a non-alcoholic cocktail?

Set a cocktail smoker on the glass, load a pinch of mild wood chips like cherry or apple, and push the smoke down into the glass with a butane torch. Lift the smoker as soon as the glass fills with thick white smoke, then garnish and serve. With the SmokeTop Cocktail Smoker by Middleton Mixology the glass fills in about 5 seconds.

What do you need to smoke a mocktail?

You need a cocktail smoker, a butane torch lighter, a small pinch of wood chips and the drink itself. A top-of-glass smoker like the SmokeTop sits on the rim of the glass and needs no batteries or hose.

Should you add sparkling water before or after smoking?

After. Carbonated ingredients such as sparkling water, soda, tonic and ginger beer go in after smoking so the drink keeps its fizz. Smoke the empty glass or the still part of the drink first, then top it off.

What non-alcoholic drinks are good smoked?

Drinks with tannin, roast or spice take smoke best: black tea, hojicha and other roasted teas, cold brew coffee, apple cider, shrubs, ginger drinks and grapefruit. Very delicate or floral bases, like a light cucumber cooler, can get covered up, so use a mild wood such as alder and a small pinch of chips.

Which wood chips work best for mocktails?

Cherry, apple and alder are the best wood chips for mocktails because they are mild enough for a drink with no spirit behind it. Pecan is a good option when the drink carries spice or nuttiness, like a chai or maple build.

Can you smoke a mocktail without a cocktail smoker?

You can add a smoky note without one by brewing the base from a smoked tea such as lapsang souchong, rimming the glass with smoked salt, or garnishing with a briefly torched rosemary sprig or cinnamon stick. These flavor the drink or the rim, but they do not fill the glass with smoke the way a cocktail smoker does.

Do you need alcohol for smoke to work in a drink?

No. Smoke leaves aromatic oils on the surface of the drink, on the ice and on the glass walls, and those reach your nose with or without alcohol. Smoke is often easier to notice in a non-alcoholic drink because there is no spirit competing with it.

Can I prep smoked mocktails in advance?

Prep the liquid in advance, not the smoke. Batched bases hold well in the refrigerator for several hours. Smoke each glass when you serve it, and add any carbonated ingredient after smoking.