A complete mocktail pantry guide — sparkling water, sweeteners, citrus, florals, and specialty ingredients for every RLC drink recipe. Plus home carbonation machine recommendations.
Care · Resources
A good mocktail doesn’t start with a recipe. It starts with having the right things in your kitchen. Not a lot of things — just the right ones. Once your pantry has a solid base, most of the drinks on this blog come together in under five minutes without a trip to a specialty store or a long ingredient hunt.
This is the RLC pantry guide — everything we reach for regularly across the Relax, Libation, and Care collections, organized by category and written honestly. No fluff, no unnecessary upgrades. Just the things worth having.
Stock these once and you’ll be ready for almost any recipe on the blog.
01 · Water & Bubbles
The base of most mocktails is water — still or sparkling — and the quality matters more than people expect. A flat, cheap soda water makes a fizzy drink taste thin. A good sparkling water makes it feel intentional.
Fever-Tree Sparkling Water — Our go-to for most recipes. Fine bubbles, clean taste, no mineral edge. Makes a noticeable difference in any sparkling drink.
Find on Amazon →Topo Chico Sparkling Water — Stronger carbonation than Fever-Tree, great for drinks where you want the fizz to really hold. Also works beautifully on its own over ice.
Find on Amazon →Fever-Tree Light Tonic Water — Essential for gin-style mocktails and the Lavender Nest. Less sweet than regular tonic and lets the other flavors come through cleanly.
Find on Amazon →Ginger Beer — Fever-Tree or Bundaberg. Stronger and spicier than ginger ale — the right choice for Moscow Mule-style drinks and anything that needs real ginger warmth.
Find on Amazon →Skip the bottles — make your own sparkling water
If you make mocktails regularly, a home carbonation machine pays for itself quickly — both in cost and in always having sparkling water on hand without carrying bottles home. Here are the two worth considering:
SodaStream Terra — The most popular home carbonation machine for good reason. Simple, reliable, and the CO2 cylinders are easy to exchange at most grocery stores. Makes up to 60 liters per cylinder. A good starting point if you’re new to home carbonation.
Find on Amazon →DrinkMate OmniFizz — Carbonates any cold beverage, not just water — juice, wine, cold brew, whatever you like. More versatile than SodaStream and works with standard CO2 cylinders. Worth considering if you want to experiment beyond plain sparkling water.
Find on Amazon →02 · Sweeteners
The sweetener you use changes the character of a drink more than most people realize. Honey adds warmth. Agave adds neutrality. Simple syrup adds clean sweetness. Having all three on hand means you can adjust any recipe to taste.
Raw Honey — Used in the Midnight Wash, Lavender Cloud, Kalamansi Spark, and more. Adds warmth and depth that plain sugar doesn’t. A local raw honey is ideal but any raw honey works well.
Find on Amazon →Agave Nectar — The easiest sweetener to work with because it dissolves instantly in cold liquid. Neutral flavor that doesn’t compete with other ingredients. Good for any drink where you want sweetness without character.
Find on Amazon →Monin Simple Syrup — Good clean commercial simple syrup. Saves time when you don’t want to make it yourself. Monin also makes lavender, ginger, and rose syrup if you want flavored options without the prep work.
Find on Amazon →Monin Ginger Syrup — Used in the Social Splatter and Kalamansi Spark. Clean commercial option when you don’t want to make ginger syrup from scratch. Monin’s version is reliable and not overly sweet.
Find on Amazon →03 · Citrus & Acids
Fresh citrus is non-negotiable for most of these recipes. Bottled lemon and lime juice works in a pinch but fresh is noticeably better — brighter, more aromatic, and more complex. Keep lemons and limes in your kitchen at all times.
Fresh Lemons & Limes — Buy them weekly. Most recipes use ½ oz to 1 oz of fresh juice which is roughly half a lemon or one lime. Keep them at room temperature — cold citrus is harder to juice.
Yuzu Juice (bottled) — Used in the Social Splatter. Harder to find fresh but bottled yuzu juice is available at Asian grocery stores and online. Yakami Orchard is a reliable brand.
Find on Amazon →Kalamansi Juice (bottled or fresh) — Used in the Kalamansi Spark. Fresh kalamansi from an Asian or Filipino grocery store is best. Bottled concentrate works well — use slightly less than the fresh amount.
Find on Amazon →04 · Florals & Specialty Ingredients
These are the ingredients that make RLC drinks feel distinctive. You don’t need all of them at once — build this section slowly as you try new recipes.
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea — Used in the Butterfly Pea Shift and Blue Butterfly. The color-changing ingredient. Tea bags are the easiest form to work with.
Find on Amazon →Dried Culinary Lavender — Used in the Lavender Nest syrup. Food-grade only — not garden or ornamental lavender.
Find on Amazon →Food-Grade Rose Water — Used in the Spring Petal. Must say food-grade on the label. A little goes an extremely long way — ¼ tsp is enough for a full drink.
Find on Amazon →Tart Cherry Juice (100% unsweetened) — Used in the Midnight Wash. Cheribundi and Dynamic Health are both reliable. Look for it in the juice aisle.
Find on Amazon →Lychee Nectar — Used in the Spring Petal. Asian grocery stores carry it reliably. Look for 100% lychee with no artificial flavors.
Find on Amazon →Natural Vitality Calm (Magnesium Powder, Flavorless) — Used in the Midnight Wash. Dissolves cleanly without affecting taste. Widely available at health food stores and online.
Find on Amazon →05 · Pantry Staples
These are the things you probably already have — but worth keeping consistently stocked if mocktails are a regular part of your routine.
Pure vanilla extract — Used in the Lavender Cloud. Real extract, not imitation. Nielsen-Massey is a reliable brand.
Fine sea salt — Just a pinch in warm drinks rounds everything out. Worth keeping a small separate container just for drinks.
Fresh mint — Garnish for berry drinks and a natural add-in for almost any fruity mocktail. Grows easily in a small pot on a windowsill if you use it often.
Oat milk (unsweetened) — Used in the Lavender Cloud. Oatly Barista froths slightly better. Any unsweetened oat milk works for warm drinks.
Stock these once and you’ll never have to pause a recipe to go to the store. That’s the whole point — removing the friction so the ritual can actually happen.
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