There’s nothing like a hot summer day and cold summer drinks to complement any summer party. 

And here at Bubbly Side of Life, we sure do love our bubbly cocktails, but we also love good bubbly non-alcoholic drinks too.  It’s the perfect way to make fun drinks that everyone can enjoy.  

And our only criteria for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks we create is that they all must have something to make them bubbly.  

For our alcoholic cocktails, that’s easy, sparkling wine of some sort.  It could be sparkling wine or even sparkling rosé.  It just depends on the cocktail.

For our non-alcohlic cocktails it can be anything from club soda or sparkling water  (there are so many flavors to that truly make the most fun drinks), to tonic water or even ginger beer.

We rarely use soda, but every once in a while, you’ll see us top our non-alcoholic cocktails with ginger ale. 

Delicious Mocktail Recipes

Years ago, when Bubbly Side of Life was just starting out, we received a request for an easy mocktail recipe from some people who needed an option to accompany one of our bubbly cocktail recipes.  

Well, I got the whole family involved (if you follow Bubbly Side of Life on Instagram, you have probably met my nephews who we call the bubblyologists) and we began to create. These easy recipes just took off.  And so we continued making them.  

Usually the kitchen looks like a disaster, but ultimately our favorites usually contain just a few simple ingredients with some fresh fruits.  

And if you were around last summer, I decided bubbly ice cube drinks were the perfect remedy for any hot day.  So guess what I created?  You guessed it.  Bubbly ice cubes for the perfect bubbly drink, non-alcoholic, of course.

I truly think that the bubbly drinks with ice cubes make the most perfect drink.  It’s easy to prep ahead of time and the drink just evolves as the ice cube melts.  I’ve been experimenting with these for a year now and it really does create the most refreshing drink for any hot summer day.

Easy Summer Mocktails

Let me share with you two super easy summer mocktails that could also be turned into bubbly cocktails if you wanted to.  To make these two recipes, you need an ice cube tray with each slot that’s 1 1/2 -2 oz.  We got ours at Walmart (it’s linked *affiliate link* on our LTK shop.). 

You can really use any combination of fruit juices that you want or that you love to create these, but here’s what we did.  

​Strawberry Lemonade

  • 1/2 oz Strawberry Lemonade 
  • 1/2 oz Limeade
  • 1/2 oz Blueberry Elderflower Juice from Trader Joe’s
  • Top with Strawberry Bubly

Cherry

  • 1/2 oz Blueberry Elderflower Juice from Trader Joe’s (with some fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 oz Limeade
  • 1/2 oz Cherry Juice
  • Top with Cherry Bubly

To create these, we simply poured the first juice first and let it freeze for a couple hours, then added the second and let that freeze and then the third.  Super simple.

Now to turn these into the perfect refreshing summer drink, we have to top them with something bubbly.  And there’s no right or wrong way to do this.  You can do what we did and top with sparkling water.  We liked the flavors of Bubly the best for these combinations, but again, there’s no right or wrong. 

If you like your drinks on the sweeter side, you can top with lemon-lime sodas like Sprite or 7-Up or even tonic water. 

While these make delicious and very refreshing non-alcoholic drinks that are not too sweet, they can easily be turned into a bubbly cocktail that we like better than a mimosa.

Mocktails to Cocktails

One of the things we love to do is to create an easy mocktail recipe that can be easily turned into a bubbly cocktail with the addition of a few simple ingredients.  And these ice cubes might be the easiest mocktail to cocktail we’ve ever created.  

All we did, was put an ice cube into a big wine glass and topped it with sparkling wine.  We did try a brut and a sparkling rosé and truly loved them both.  And if you know me, you know I don’t love mimosas, but I did love these because the ice cube is keeping your bubbly chilled and adding just a touch of the fresh fruit flavor to your drink.  

Let’s make another easy mocktail recipe that can be turned into a bubbly cocktail that is so delicious everyone will absolutely love it. 

Best Summer Mocktail

This mocktail recipe can easily be created as a big batch drink and you might want to because it was truly one of the most delicious summer mocktail recipes we’ve ever created.  

Ocean Blue Bubbly Mocktail

  • 1/4 cup Blueberries
  • 1/4 cup Raspberries
  • 2 oz Calypso Ocean Blue Lemonade
  • 1 oz Limeade
  • Sparkling Water
  1. In a cocktail shaker, add all of the ingredients except the sparkling water.
  2. Muddle well.
  3. Strain into your favorite glass. 
  4. Top with sparkling water.

Ocean Blue Bubbly Cocktail

  • 1/4 cup Blueberries
  • 1/4 cup Raspberries
  • 2 oz Calypso Ocean Blue Lemonade
  • 1 oz Limeade
  • 1 oz Vodka (we used regular, but lime, raspberry or even vanilla would all be good)
  • Sparkling Wine
  1. In a cocktail shaker, add all of the ingredients except the sparkling wine.
  2. Muddle well.
  3. Strain into your favorite glass. 
  4. Top with sparkling wine.

TIPS:

  • We like to use limeade in a lot of our recipes because the Trader Joe’s Limeade is a combination of lemon juice and lime juice.  But if you can’t find it, or forget, just grab some limes and squeeze some fresh lime juice.  
  • After muddling, to chill this drink, add some ice cubes and shake well.  Then strain into your glass.
  • If you don’t like fruit bits floating in your drink, double strain after muddling.
  • We have been loving all the sparkling water flavors that are out now to top our bubbly drinks with, but sometimes I just have plain soda water or club soda in the refrigerator and that works just as well.
  • To sweeten this drink up, add simple syrup.  I’d start with 1/4-1/2 oz because it’s always easy to add more if you like it even sweeter.  We do recommend tasting it first before you add any simple syrup because it’s quite sweet already.
  • Use frozen fruit or garnish with frozen fruit to keep the drink chilled and not watered down.

Big Batch Mocktails

We love a good pool party, backyard BBQs and you know a good deck night on a perfect summer night. And if you need a nice refreshing beverage that everyone can enjoy, one of the things we like to do is to create a big batch mocktail.  

So you’d take the recipe above and start with these amounts.  This can be easily doubled, tripled or even halved depending on the amount of people.  Often times, I only double the liquid not the fruit.  I promised it still works.

  • 2 cups Blueberries
  • 2 cup Raspberries
  • 32 oz Calypso Ocean Blue Lemonade
  • 16 oz Limeade
  • Sparkling Water

Personally, I wouldn’t muddle the fresh fruits in this, I would treat it more like a sangria and create it early and let it sit for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator to let the flavors blend together. 

Now you could top add a can or two of sparkling water right into the pitcher or allow each person to add their own so that it’s the perfect drink for them.

Now, here’s what I do.  The pitcher obviously has this refreshing summer drink perfect for the whole family.  And for those 21 and over, I place vodka and a bottle of bubbly (and bubbly rosé if I am feeling it) into an ice bucket next to the big batch mocktail.  

The adults can pour the amount of the mocktail they want, add the vodka they want and top with bubbly and now they have the perfect drink for themselves!  It’s so easy and now everyone is making their own drinks and you’re not playing bartender for the whole celebration.  

Your Favorite Recipes

Are you loving our bubbly mocktail and cocktail recipes?  We have so many more on the blog in all sorts of different flavor profiles.  

​We also put all of our recipes on Pinterest so that you can easily organize them and find them when you need them.  Join us over there! 

And we love to hear from you.  Do you have an idea for a bubbly drink that you want us to create, please let us know.