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THERE’S 160 cocktails on Be At One’s encyclopaedic drinks menu, eleven of which are said to be virtuous and guilt-free.
Lastly we’d try the Swedish Death Nettle which gets ten points for name alone
Though you'd assume all alcoholic drinks are bad for you, right? Even the ones dressed up like a fruit bowl. The answer, of course, is yes, most alcoholic drinks are bad for you, even that slim line G&T.
But there are rules.
For the healthy hedonist the best one to adhere to is this:
'The more the mixers the more the sugar content'.
According to Difford’s Guide For Discerning Drinkers, Mojitos can typically contain up to eleven grams of sugar, Cosmopolitans can have around seventeen grams, while a Margarita can have a whopping twenty grams of sugar.
Given the average person shouldn’t consume more than 30 grams of added sugar a day, one night-out could have you tipping way over the balance.
Be At One“Yes alcohol is never going to good for you on the whole but you can enjoy healthier cocktails with less sugar. At Be At One we’ve experimented with superfoods, vegetables and even protein powders. The result has been hit and miss but we’ve got some favourites,” explains our Be At One bar tender Colette, down in the Barton Arcade basement bar.
“We actually tried to make a drink with ‘nature’s Viagra’, maca powder, which is very popular with weight lifters and bodybuilders. That was not so good,” she laughs.
But can the average drinker really enjoy a clean drink? Or does a cocktail lose its appeal once we know it's good for us?
We’d soon find out.
Of the eleven virtuous cocktails, we’d try five. Some entirely sugar free and others that almost resembled a gym-buff’s veg smoothie.
ALMOND MOCHA
Superfood: almond milk. Rich in nutrients
Be At One’s almond mocha is one of their best-selling virtuous cocktails. Disguised as an innocent milkshake it comes topped with almonds (y’know... for healthy snacking) and contains a blended mix of coffee-flavoured liqueur Kahlua, almond butter, raw chocolate powder, almond milk and palm sugar syrup - a healthier alternative to regular sugar. If it wasn’t for the Kahlua, this could be considered a protein shake. It’s thick, and quenches hunger as well as thirst. One for the coffee martini lovers.
FLAME HAIRED VIXEN
Superfood: Carrot juice. Packed with anti-oxidants
The Flame Haired Vixen comes carrot topped, naturally. The cocktail is a mix of King’s Ginger liqueur, violette liqueur, carrot juice, apple juice and lemon juice, and slips down very easily. Staying true to the virtuous theme, it smells like a greengrocers and is, by our reckoning, almost certainly one, perhaps two of your five-a-day. Perhaps.
BEE’S KNEES
Superfood: Manuka Honey; anti-bacterical and medicinal
The next cocktail was described as ‘great for colds’. Half expecting a hot mug of Lemsip, the ‘Bee’s Knees’ cocktail was instead a refreshing concoction of British gin, herbs and Manuka pollen. Collette told us this drink is the ‘first recorded cocktail without sugar’ and thankfully the sugar wasn’t missed. Packed with Manuka bee pollen, this gives the drink its sting (sorry, couldn’t resist), while the soothing honey notes are well balanced against the gin and lemon juice. It’s summery and an invigorating hit to the senses. And, since bee pollen is a solid superfood and full of amino acids, this is also a great energy booster.
BEETROOT RETOX
Superfood: Beetroot. Great for digestion and normalising blood pressure
We were given a few warnings before we tried the 'Beetroot Retox'. 'It’s not a drink for everyone', 'You have to like beetroot to enjoy this cocktail,' we were told. They weren't wrong. While this cocktail looks great, a Princely purple dressed with pomegranate, it does taste strongly of beetroot, that can’t be ignored. It’s a concoction of Kamm & Sons (a botanical spirit with berries and manuka honey), pomegranate juice, beetroot juice, raspberry puree and sweetened with agave syrup. Give it a whirl, if you dare.
SWEDISH DEATH NETTLE
Superfood: nettle tea. A good diruetic
Lastly we’d try the Swedish Death Nettle which gets ten points for name alone. Zingy and refreshing, this cocktail will put the pep back in your step. And no wonder, it’s made with English breakfast tea, nettle cordial and lemon juice combined with tonic water and Absolut Elyx vodka. Light on the calories but heavy on the flavour, we'd go for this over a boring vodka tonic any day.
VERDICT
Like most good approaches to nutrition, the aim and operative here at Be At One is balance. The bar's virtuous cocktails - packed with superfoods and antioxidants to counter-balance all the bad booze - are a refreshing alternative to all those naughty sugar-packed concotions. Will we stop drinking the rest? Probably not, but it's nice to know Be At One are thinking about us. And while we're not convinced cocktails can ever be healthy, it's nice to know there's a heavenly substitute when it comes to reaching for the devil's water.
Find out more about Be At One's cocktail menu here.
Be At One, 13 Barton Arcade, Barton Square, Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BB
