6 healthy antioxidant cocktails

Source: Best Health Magazine, Summer 2009

We asked mixologist Wendy McGuinness, 27, of Chambar Belgian Restaurant in Vancouver, to share her favourite healthy cocktails’just in time for patio season. ‘My customers are always looking for a great cocktail,’ says McGuinness. ‘For me that means using fresh ingredients and not an overkill of sugar and artificial flavours.’ At Chambar she has created several tea-infusion drink recipes and works with fresh herbs, fruits and even vegetables.

Here are six recipes’made with a variety of antioxidant-rich in’gredients including kiwifruit, blackberries and red bell peppers, as well as spices such as sumac, thyme and cinnamon’to help combat the effects of cell-damaging free radicals. (Cocktails containing alcohol are marked with a star.) Each recipe makes one drink (except Moroccan Sunshine, which makes a jug), and most of the ingredients are easy to find. But you might want to invest in a wooden muddle (used to mash ingredients), a fine strainer (available at cooking stores), a shot glass and a shaker’according to McGuinness, these are the must-have tools of any mixologist.

‘ The Okarito*
‘ Il Pompelmo*
‘ Moroccan Sunshine
‘ La Belle Capsicum*
‘ Grapes of Life
‘ Elixir de Vie

This article was originally titled "Drink to Your Health," in the Summer 2009 issue of Best Health. Subscribe today to get the full Best Health experience’and never miss an issue!’and make sure to check out what’s new in the latest issue of Best Health.