Herbs, botanicals and aroma

Mint's aroma lives in oils held in the surface of the leaf. A firm press releases them. Grinding the leaf apart releases chlorophyll and tannins instead, which is why over-muddled mint tastes green and bitter and looks like lawn clippings in the glass.

The test is visual: bruised mint stays intact and darkens slightly; destroyed mint is in pieces. Basil is even more delicate and browns almost immediately once torn, so it should go in last.

For a garnish sprig, slap it once between your palms before planting it in the drink. That single motion releases far more aroma than the sprig sitting there decoratively.

Expressing a twist — squeezing a strip of peel skin-side down over the drink's surface — sprays a fine mist of citrus oil across it. That oil is aromatic and almost sugar-free, which makes it one of the few ways to make an alcohol-free drink smell richer without making it taste sweeter.

Cut peel with as little white pith as possible for aroma, or deliberately include pith when you want bitterness — the same fruit gives you two different tools.

Cucumber is unusual: it reads as fresh and slightly savoury without contributing sweetness or acidity at all, which makes it the most useful ingredient in the whole alcohol-free repertoire for drinks that need to taste grown-up. Slice it thickly and muddle gently, or leave long ribbons in the glass.

The broader principle is that savoury and aromatic ingredients — cucumber, celery, herbs, tea, pepper — are underused in alcohol-free drinking precisely because the default assumption is that a non-alcoholic drink should taste of fruit. It shouldn't necessarily.