Loving the BITE: 3 Deliciously Fresh Drinks to Usher in 2015

There is much to look forward to at the beginning of a New Year.  In 2015, I anticipate new rides, old rides, new goals, new adventures, new and old friends and cycling buddies.  And today, we celebrate our new year with a traditional celebratory drink: champagne.  Here are 3 Delicious Coconut Water and Champagne cocktail recipes (any of which can be made non-alcoholic if you’d like), one of which is especially lucky today, so you can raise a glass high, and toast the New Year.

Recipes of the week: 3 New Year’s Coconut Water & Fruit Champagne Recipes

(Each can also be made non-alcoholic)

Coconut Grape Champagne:

Mix 17.5 ounces coconut water and 8 ounces 100% white or red grape juice; refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, fill glass ½ full with juice mixture.  Add 12 grapes to each glass.  Top with champagne or sparkling wine*.

Coconut Water & Strawberry Champagne Cooler:

Mash 12 chopped strawberries in a bowl until mostly mushed. Add 4 tsp agave and 8 chopped mint leaves. Mix well. Transfer to large pitcher and add remaining ingredients 8 ounces vodka, 6 ounces Champagne or sparkling wine, and juice from 1 lime. Mix well and serve using spoon to add strawberries and green to glass.  Optionally, garnish with an additional lime.

Coconut Water Fruit Punch:

Thread 1.5 cups fresh fruit on 4 skewers and freeze for an hour or more.  Meanwhile, mix the 17.5 ounces coconut water and 8 ounces orange or pineapple juice.  Cover and refrigerate until serving time.

To serve, fill glasses about 2/3 full with coconut mixture, add a skewer and top with champagne.

*To make any of these recipes non-alcoholic, either replace champagne with sparkling water OR omit champagne and substitute sparkling juice for any regular juice.

Comments:

We’ve established coconut water as a great hydrator on and off the bike.  It works well with alcohol, too (but not on the bike, of course!).  In fact, by sipping a drink made with coconut water, you may save yourself any post-party hangover, as the electrolytes and fluid can keep you from dehydration-induced symptoms.   But there’s more to these drinks.

If you’re gonna drink a mixed drink, you might as well use real-food ingredients rather than junk, chemical-laden commercial syrups and cheap mixers.  In these drinks we’ve chosen delicious fresh fruits & herbs. And, in the first one, a very special New Year’s Day fruit.

Grapes are a wonderfully nutritious fruit.  In fact, they provide key polyphenol antioxidants that increase nitric oxide, reduce blood pressure, reduce bad cholesterol, reduce oxidative stress and protect the heart.  And, at the New Year, they’re lucky.  Some cultures bring in the New Year by eating 12 grapes at mid-night, to signify luck for 12 months.

As we enter a new year, we wish you nothing but the best in 2013.  Health, love, peace (inside and out), family and friends…after all, these really are the best.  As you ride into 2015, “may the road rise up to meet you” for all 12 months!

Fuel Your Ride.  Nourish Your Body.

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