At Thunderbolt in Los Angeles, the Piña Colada sodas and fruity juleps are easy-breezy—until you peek behind the scenes. The former is made with pectinase and lactose solution, plus a centrifuge and a custom extra-cold refrigerator; the latter borrows flavor-extraction techniques from Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence. Throughout the menu, no-frills classics belie hours of R&D.
So, when I recently spotted a nonalcoholic Lychee Daiquiri made with “rum extract” on the bar’s menu, I was sure the star ingredient was something very technical and involved. But, as it turns out, it doesn’t require centrifugal motion of any kind, and you don’t need to go to a specialty N/A bottle shop to get it. I had not heard of rum extract before, but it’s been a baking staple for years in everything from bananas Foster to cheesecake. And unlike the bevy of new zero-proof spirits on the market, it’s relatively affordable, dispensed by the dash.
To make the Lychee Daiquiri, the Thunderbolt team blends canned lychee together with a tiny amount of rum extract and glycerin; the latter ingredient is to fine-tune the texture, but if you’re making it at home, owner Mike Capoferri says you can skip that step. The bar shakes the base with lime juice and saline solution before serving it in a coupe.
Lychee Daiquiri
A nonalcoholic take on the rum drink made with pantry ingredients.
The Lychee Daiquiri is ingenious not just for its use of the culinary ingredient, which brings bold rum flavor without the proof, but also for its low-waste approach to canned lychee. “We played with lychee in so many ways, and the revelation was just blending the whole can into a cocktail base,” says Capoferri. Using both the fruit and its syrup adds body to the drink—an asset in the N/A canon, where watery cocktails sometimes fall flat—and avoids any sticky leftovers.
With such a simple application, rum flavorings are ripe for experimentation. But Capoferri says to be mindful of the different options: Rum extract contains a small amount of alcohol, though as it’s used in cocktails, the overall ABV is lower than in certain soda and bitters combinations and even N/A beers (which by definition can contain up to 0.5 percent alcohol). Capoferri’s preferred version, from OliveNation, is water-soluble and made from a blend of rums. But for those avoiding alcohol altogether, rum emulsion, sold by the same brand, can be a good alternative; it’s water-based and completely spirit-free. Try either in lieu of rum in a Mojito, dashed directly into the glass, or a Piña Colada, blended into a frozen base.
Of course, though, the Lychee Daiquiri is an excellent place to start. “This is one of the lowest-prep cocktails we make,” says Capoferri. “It’s such an easy thing that anyone can do, but it’s a very tasty cocktail.”