Cocktails can be real sugar and calorie bombs, especially summery fare like margaritas.
For the health-conscious cocktail consumer, enter Be Mixed.
Launched last year by two Harvard Business School graduates, the New York City-based company makes zero-calorie, all-natural cocktail mixers made with sweeteners that don’t have a high glycemic impact.
“We were sick of drinking vodka sodas and wanted a great drink that didn’t have a ton of calories and sugar,” said Jennifer Ross, who founded the company with friend Cristina Ros Blankfein.
Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6, Ross is especially cognizant of her sugar intake.
“The mixers that are out there — if you use cranberry juice, orange juice, those juices have a ton of sugar in them,” Ross said. “It’s really hard to make cocktails at home period, let alone ones that don’t have a ton of sugar or calories.”
The nonalcoholic mixers use a blend of monk fruit extract, Stevia extract and the sugar alcohol Erythritol for its sweetness, and natural flavors for its three different varieties: margarita, cucumber mint (which pairs well with vodka) and ginger lime, a stronger mix that goes well with darker spirits and with vodka for drinks like a Moscow mule. The mixers could also be enjoyed over ice or with sparkling water for a mocktail.
“We started at a time when craft cocktails were really, really popular, and when the clean eating movement happened,” Ross said. “We like to call it the clean drinking movement. People are really conscious about not only what they’re eating but drinking.”
Each mixer comes in a 4-oz., pocket-sized bottle and costs $33 for three packs of four bottles. Be Mixed is sold online at be-mixed.com, as well as Fresh Direct, Whole Foods and on-demand through Minibar and Drizly.
Be Mixed is working with restaurants to put its mixers on cocktail menus, and it can currently be found at Catch and El Toro Blanco, as well as available as part of bottle service at Surf Lodge in Montauk, Ross said.
The company has also worked with bartenders from across the city, such as Extra Fancy in Williamsburg, to develop cocktails using its mixers. Here are three new summer picks, each incorporating one of the flavors.
