Alcoholic drinks can be a sneaky source of KJ's, sugar, and even salt †” but not when you mix your own. Start to create a few healthier & lighter alternatives for those warm summer afternoons and long lunches. Gain confidence when mixing your own and impress friends and family. Our recipe & tips are courtesy of Alexx Stuart, of Real Food & Low Tox Living fame. Alexx is a cocktail queen turned real food guru/whole-foodist, and is incredibly passionate about helping people, eat better. She'd love nothing more than to effect positive and serious change in your lives, for the betterment of you and your family. Through her blog, she provides numerous recipes, shocking revelations about everyday products, and great tips on how to live a fabulous, low tox life. Luckily for us, she has given up her time to provide us with a wonderful cocktail recipe (with mocktail variation) that'll kick start your festive mood.

A light summer mojito

One of the joys of being a cocktail queen turned wholefood-ist, is that I delight in making the drinks we might have, a little less challenging for the body to process. Alcohol, sugar and fructose all give the liver a huge great whack of a job to do in one go, so overly fruity, juice laden, liqueur laden drinks with sugar syrups AND alcohol, are a definite no - better to have a glass of champagne! My solution for cocktails is to stick to spirit based drinks, with fresh citrus and herbs, some berries and low fructose syrups or stevia for sweetness. Try this one, and tell me you don't love it every bit as much as the original.

What you'll need, per drink 1 small lime, cut into 1/8th chunks 30ml quality light rum - I use Mt Gay or Havana Club Anejo Blanco. Both gorgeous. 1 tablespoon rice malt syrup or coconut syrup, thinned in a mug, with 1 tablespoon boiling hot water handful of mint sparkling mineral water What to do Put your lime chunks into the bottom of a sturdy tumbler. Crush them with a rolling pin or muddler if you have, to extract the juice Add your rum, syrup and mint and give a stir with a few cubes of ice,glass half full. Then add ice all the way to the top and 100ml mineral water. Stir through again, and garnish with a big sprig of mint, as pictured! Variations To make a non alcoholic version of this, omit the rum and add another half lime and another teaspoon or 2 of rice malt syrup or coconut nectar. Keep all the rest the same. To make a berry vanilla version (YUM ALERT!) Make a little compote stash of blueberries, with 1 cup blueberries, 5 drops stevia and half a teaspoon vanilla bean powder, or 1 vanilla bean opened and scraped into the pan. Bubble until the berries are mushie and then cool, so you have at hand when the mood hits. Use 1 tablespoon per cocktail. Great for the mocktail version too! Delicious, lighter drinks. Happier bodies. Lots of good festive season fun. Alexx xx