Christmas and Holiday Mocktails

Short answer: holiday mocktails work when they keep a cocktail's structure, bitter, slow and cold over ice. These five are built on the Phony Negroni: the Spiced Phony, the Phony Sbagliato, the Phony with Espresso, a batched pitcher for six and a Frozen Phony for four.

St. Agrestis bottles on a holiday dinner table

The holidays are the hardest season to not drink. Every dinner has a toast, every party has a bar, and every relative has a question. The way through is not sparkling water in a wine glass. It's a drink with enough structure that nobody, including you, notices anything missing.

That's what a negroni-style drink does in December. It's bitter, it's slow, it holds an ice cube and an orange peel, and it reads as a cocktail from across the room.

The holiday serves, from the St. Agrestis recipe collection

These come from the published Phony Negroni recipe guide, with the measures and steps for each below.

Spiced Phony. The winter serve. Make the syrup once and it keeps two weeks.

Spiced syrup (makes eight ounces)

Ingredients

  • Four ounces water
  • Four ounces cane sugar
  • One cinnamon stick
  • Four whole cloves
  • One star anise
  • One strip orange peel
  • One strip lemon peel

Method

  1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.
  2. Bring to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves.
  3. Remove from heat and let steep for thirty minutes.
  4. Strain into a clean glass jar. Refrigerate up to two weeks.

Spiced Phony

Ingredients

  • One 200ml bottle of Phony Negroni
  • One-quarter ounce of spiced syrup
  • One swath of orange peel
  • One cinnamon stick for garnish
  • Large ice cube

Method

  1. Add the spiced syrup to a rocks glass over the ice cube.
  2. Pour the Phony Negroni over.
  3. Stir once.
  4. Garnish with orange peel and the cinnamon stick.

Phony Sbagliato. The celebration pour, built for the toast.

Phony Sbagliato

Ingredients

  • One 200ml bottle of Phony Negroni, chilled
  • Two ounces of dry prosecco, or a non-alcoholic sparkling wine for a fully non-alcoholic serve
  • One swath of orange peel
  • Ice

Method

  1. Pour the Phony Negroni over ice in a large wine glass.
  2. Top with the sparkling wine.
  3. Stir gently once.
  4. Garnish with orange peel.

Phony with Espresso. For the after-dinner hour. Or open a Phony Espresso Negroni, which builds the coffee note into the bottle.

Phony with Espresso

Ingredients

  • One 200ml bottle of Phony Negroni, chilled
  • One ounce of fresh cold espresso, or strong cold brew
  • One swath of orange peel
  • Large ice cube

Method

  1. Brew espresso fresh and chill for five minutes.
  2. Pour the Phony Negroni over the large ice cube.
  3. Slowly pour the espresso on top so it layers visibly before stirring.
  4. Stir gently three times.
  5. Add the orange peel.

Batched Phony. Serves six. Nobody plays bartender during dinner.

Batched Phony (serves six)

Ingredients

  • Six 200ml bottles of Phony Negroni, well chilled
  • One large orange, peeled into long strips
  • One fennel frond or two sprigs of fresh thyme, optional
  • Two to three pounds of ice, kept separate

Method

  1. In a two-quart pitcher, drop the orange peel strips and optional aromatic.
  2. Pour all six bottles of Phony Negroni into the pitcher.
  3. Stir once to incorporate the peel oils.
  4. Refrigerate for ten to fifteen minutes for the flavours to integrate.
  5. Pour over individual glasses of ice as guests arrive.

Frozen Phony. Serves four, for the warm-climate holiday.

Frozen Phony (serves four)

Ingredients

  • Four 200ml bottles of Phony Negroni
  • Eight ounces of crushed ice (or one cup of ice cubes)
  • Two ounces of fresh orange juice
  • One strip of orange peel per glass

Method

  1. Combine all four bottles, the crushed ice, and the orange juice in a high-power blender.
  2. Blend on high for fifteen to twenty seconds until slushy.
  3. Pour into four chilled rocks glasses or coupes.
  4. Garnish each with a strip of orange peel.

What to put on the table

Phony Negroni: the anchor. Bitter and deep red, modeled on the 1919 Florentine Negroni, gentian root at the center, made in Brooklyn, less than 0.5% ABV. It holds SFWSC Platinum from 2024, the first Platinum the competition ever gave a non-alcoholic product.

Amaro Falso: the after-dinner bottle. A complex bitter botanical in the Italian amaro style, which is what December dinners end with.

Phony White Negroni: the bright one, Double Gold at SFWSC 2025, for the guest who wants festive without heavy.

The Starter Pack: all six flavors in one box, which settles the what-to-bring question for every party on the calendar.

Buying for someone else? The non-alcoholic gift guide covers who to give what.

Hosting math

For a dinner of eight, one batched pitcher (six bottles) covers the table, plus a few espresso negronis for after. For a party of twenty, a 24-pack of the flagship and a starter pack give you range. The bottles are 200ml single serves, so counting is simple: one per guest per hour is generous.

The toast question has an answer already: the Sbagliato serve exists for exactly this. Build it in flutes and the midnight toast needs no asterisk.

The full collection ships in packs; the Build Your Own Bundle lets you pick any five if the table has strong opinions.