Cotton Candy Mocktails

It’s the end of the year, and all I want is to celebrate! I’ve always loved molecular gastronomy. This cooking technique consists of mixing chemistry and cooking to deliver a cool visual effect.

So when the kids asked me for a kid’s mocktail recipe this Christmas, I thought I should come up with something magic and fun to watch and serve!

My first idea was a gummy bear mocktail, but it’s not as fun as this candy cocktail which contains all their favorite things: science, candies, and a sweet taste!

So here’s my cotton candy drink recipe that is sure to impress!

What’s A Cotton Candy Mocktail?

It’s a delicious sweet cotton candy drink made of real cotton candy, fruit juice, and sparkling soda or water.

It’s a super fun cocktail that kids love because the cotton candy magically disappears as you pour the liquid onto it.

How To Make A Cotton Candy Mocktail

Let’s have fun with this cotton candy mocktail recipe!

All you need to make this 5-minute mocktail are:

Ingredients

• Cotton Candy – we used store-bought strawberry flavor cotton candy.
• Sparkling Water – or any soda you love like ginger ale, strawberry soda. We prefer water because it doesn’t add sugar to the recipe. In fact, cotton candy already releases sugar and flavor in the drink, and some soda makes the drink too sweet.
• Cranberry Juice – we used low-sugar cranberry juice.
• Strawberry Puree or strawberry juice.
• Lime Juice or lemon juice.

Decorating The Glass

First, choose a cool, fun glass, some people like Champagne flutes because they are tall and fancy. However, I found martini glass much easier to fit the cotton candy in.

Then, I decorate the glass with sugar. To do so, fill two shallow bowls: one with water and one with a mix of white sugar and pink liquid food coloring drops.

Next, dip the top of the glass into the water and immediately rub it into the sugar bowl. Repeat if needed to add more sugar on the border of the glass.

Finally, freeze the glass for 5 minutes to set the sugar and also refrigerate the glass.

Filling The Glass With Cotton Candy

Place the cotton candy into the glass, making sure the glass is full of candy.

Making The Mocktail

Then, in a cocktail shaker, add pulsed ice and fill with cranberry juice, strawberry puree, lime juice, and sparkling water.

Shake until well combined and cold.

Serving

That’s where the magic happens! Make sure you serve this in front of your guests or kids for the best entertaining cocktails experience.

Pour the liquid onto the cotton candy and watch it melt, disappear into the glass.

This is a total blast for kids and the best kids cocktail for New Year’s Eve or a birthday party.

Other Flavors and Colors

You can make different cotton candy mocktail flavors using different cotton candy flavors.

Purple Mocktail

Combine some blueberry blue colored cotton candy with the same juice as mentioned above. The pink and red juices combined with blue cotton candy make the cocktail vibrant purple.

Blue Mocktail

For a blue mocktail, combine blue cotton candy with blueberry puree and grape juice!

Yellow-Orange Mocktail

Simply use a yellow cotton candy color or white cotton candy and add mango puree with orange juice or pineapple juice.

Taste

This tastes like a bubbly strawberry cranberry drink with a noticeable cotton candy flavor that you can always boost by adding more cotton candy into your drink.

Topping Ideas

It’s a bit tricky to decorate this mocktail with cotton candy because as soon as the liquid touches cotton candy, it melts and disappears.

So my trick is to hold the cotton candy onto a toothpick that you pick onto a strawberry.

Another fun option is to add some mini marshmallows that float on top of the drink or candy skewers on the side.