Low Calorie Cocktails

Low Calorie Cocktails
As someone who loves a good beverage, I have a few low calorie drinks on rotation. I love an iced coffee, pink drink, or when I’m in a boozy mood, some low calorie cocktails.

As someone who regularly competes in fitness competitions, I spend a portion of the year monitoring my calorie intake. Instead of cutting food groups out completely, I just make lower calorie version of my favorite foods and drinks.

This means I often enjoy a bagel for breakfast, pasta for lunch, and pizza for dinner. If it’s the weekend and especially during summer, I often enjoy a drink or two. And yes, that includes cocktails!

What is the best alcohol to drink on a diet?
Spirits such as tequila, gin, vodka, and rum are all low in calories. Each standard drink, or 1.5 oz fluid serving, has around 95 calories. However, when used in cocktails or mixed drinks, they can be quite the calorie bombs.

Luckily, with a few small tweaks, you can enjoy cocktails without the added sugar and calories. We’ve re-created the 5 most popular cocktails around the world and given them a low calorie makeover.

Low calorie cocktail recipes- 5 cocktails!
These low calorie cocktails prove you can enjoy cocktails on a low calorie or weight loss diet. Each one has around 100 calories each and needs less than 4 ingredients to make, and they look and taste just like their original inspiration.

Here are the five cocktails we’ve cut the calories of-

Long Island Iced Tea
Espresso martini
Margarita
Mohito
Gin and tonic
How to make a low calorie cocktail?
Each of these low calorie cocktails follows the same format of spirits or alcohol, then adding mixers or soda, and then unique mix-ins or ingredients to give them their signature look and flavor.

The Ingredients.
Alcohol– Vodka, tequila, rum, or gin.
Sugar syrup substitute or sweetener– The secret ingredient to keeping the calories low but flavor high. Homemade sugar free simple syrup (or sugar free maple syrup) adds sweetness to every cocktail, minus the calories!
Liquid– Soda, diet soda, or fresh juices.
Mix-ins– sliced fruit, flavor extracts, or whipped cream.
The Instructions.
In a cocktail shaker or glass mixer, combine your ingredients and shake/mix until combined. Pour into a glass and serve immediately.

Low calorie cocktail options
Here are the specific ingredients for each of the five cocktails. Three of them require a shaker and the other two can be stirred.

Long Island Iced Tea
Vodka
Rum
Tequila
Gin
Orange extract– Replaces the need for triple sec.
Sugar free simple syrup
Lemon juice
Diet cola
A traditional Long Island Iced Tea has 220 calories and 23 grams of sugar, but this low calorie Long Island Iced Tea has just 120 calories and 0 grams of sugar. That is a saving of 100 calories each.

Espresso Martini

• Espresso or cold brew– Either 30 ml of freshly brewed espresso (one espresso capsule) or cold brew.
• Vodka
• Vanilla extract
• Sugar free simple syrup

A traditional espresso martini has 230 calories and 25 grams of sugar. This low calorie version has just 98 calories and 0 grams of sugar. That is saving of over 130 calories.

Margarita

• Sugar free maple syrup– Adds a better flavor than the simple syrup for this particular cocktail.
• Tequila
• Lime and lemon juice
• Sparkling water

A standard margarita has around 250 calories and 32 grams of sugar. This low calorie or skinny margarita has just 100 calories and 1 gram of sugar. That is a saving of 150 calories.

Mojito

• Club soda
• Lime
• Sugar free simple syrup
• Rum
• Fresh mint

A classic mojito has 240 calories and over 30 grams of sugar. This low calorie mojito has just 95 calories per standard drink and zero grams of sugar. That is a saving of over 145 calories.

Gin and Tonic

• Gin
• Diet tonic water– Also known as sugar free tonic water or Indian tonic water.
• Lime

A traditional gin and tonic has 170 calories and 20 grams of sugar per serving. A low calorie gin and tonic has just 100 calories and no sugar. That is a saving of 70 calories.

Tips to make the best cocktails

• Unless you want an authentic cocktail, you can switch up the liquor or spirits used in each one. Most spirits (vodka, rum, gin, tequila) all have similar calories.
• Always serve the cocktails fresh, as they are most refreshing then. Do not store them for more than an hour and never freeze them.
• Add a squeeze of citrus, fresh berries, or other sliced fruits to the cocktails. They will provide extra flavor with very minimal calories.

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Even in its classic construction, there’s room for variation. For instance, Patrick Smith’s Espresso Martini blends equal parts fresh espresso and coffee liqueur to tick the coffee box, while vanilla liqueur works in tandem with Demerara syrup to add sweetness and body. Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Espresso Martini, meanwhile, eschews espresso completely in his home bar–friendly variation, opting instead for cold brew concentrate in his otherwise archetypal combo of vodka and Kahlúa.

Other modern recipes are ditching the signature Martini glass altogether, opting to serve their Espresso Martinis on the rocks instead. Such is the case with Tim Wiggins’ recipe, which not only shuns stemware, but espresso, too; like Morgenthaler, he relies on cold brew to bring the requisite coffee flavor to his rum- and orgeat-laced interpretation. Though Charity Johnston uses fresh espresso in her tequila-based But First, Coffee, the inspiration to serve it tall and over ice paradoxically came from her love for cold brew. “I wanted this cocktail to taste as if you’d just had a cold brew coffee from your favorite shop,” she says.

Indeed, the availability of bottled cold brew and cold brew concentrate has led to a widespread disavowal of fresh, hot espresso, which can be tricky to work with in a chilled cocktail. Bolstered by coffee liqueur, cold brew is the backbone of Kevin Baird’s When the Lights Go Out, an after-dinner Espresso Martini variation in which a half-ounce of Aperol adds “a subtle festive orange accent.” In a nod to the other coffee classic, the Irish Coffee, a float of cream finishes off the recipe. Justin Campbell’s recipe is a similarly indulgent, frothy affair; like Baird’s formula, it relies on cold brew to add that signature coffee flavor to his spin. With a tequila base, mole bitters and a half-ounce measure of Averna to round it out, The Benevolent might just be the most modern of the modern classic’s many riffs.

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