Latest features Charge your glasses - non-alcoholic Christmas drinks

Date Published:

13/12/2007

Stuart Walton recommends the best non-alcoholic drinks for Christmas cheer

Although we are already well into the season of reckless partying, it should be remembered that not everybody drinks or wants to drink. It isn't necessarily a case of the New Year resolutions having arrived too early. Designated drivers wisely take no chances, and just sometimes it's good to give your liver a rest.

Smooth options

Smoothies are a lot more expensive than old-fashioned blended juices, which is why you might as well opt for ones that offer you a little more in the way of exotic character than just another mix of orange and banana. Among the better ones I've recently tasted is I Am Fresh (Tesco, £1.97, 250ml), a blend of apple, red grape and pomegranate, which has a surprising amount of bite to it, together with the appetising, slightly bitter finish of pomegranate.

Innocent smoothies' flavour blends are mostly stimulating, even if the attempts at humour on the labels are a little wearying. Blackberries and Blueberries is the most luxurious-tasting, with its layers of plush purple fruit, but I also have a hankering about once a week for their Yoghurt, Vanilla Bean and Honey Thickie. It has the creamy richness of something much more artery-clogging, and yet its effect on the palate is refreshing rather than cloying.

Party punch

For party catering, little bottles are obviously not the economical way to go. Litre cartons of blended fruit juices are the answer. Avoid anything with concentrate in it (dried fruit that has been reconstituted with tap water), and particularly shun anything labelled 'juice drink', as opposed to just juice. These will contain sugar, and be water-based, meaning that the cost of their actual juice content can work out at several pounds per litre.

Marks & Spencer has some excellent blends, including Pressed Grape and Raspberry or Pineapple, Peach and Passion-Fruit, which have an appropriately festive medley of flavours in them.

If the detox impulse occurs at any time before New Year's Day, you might want to try Firefly Tonics, a range of unsweetened juices with a good slug of healing herbal extracts in each one. They have names like Chill Out and Sharpen Up, while the De-Tox version contains sea buckthorn and burdock, as well as lemon, lime, ginger, sarsaparilla, ginseng, artichoke and nettle. This might sound worthy, but in fact it has an appealing combination of taste sensations that's enjoyably challenging on the palate. Available in 330ml bottles from branches of Waitrose and Boots (from £1.49).