Why You Will Love These

Nine months is a long time to drink plain water. These ten are the ones worth the extra two minutes: cold fruit, sharp citrus, fresh ginger, a little fizz, and in a couple of cases something creamy enough to count as a snack. Every one is alcohol-free and caffeine-free as written, and every one is good enough to want in a real glass instead of whatever plastic cup somebody hands you.

One thing before the recipes. What you should and should not drink while pregnant is a conversation for your doctor or midwife, not for a drinks blog. Ginger, hibiscus and turmeric all come up in that conversation regularly, and your history is not mine to guess at. This page is about flavor. Take the ingredient list to your next appointment and let the person who knows your chart make the call.

The List

1. Ginger Lemonade Sparkler

Grate 1 tablespoon fresh ginger into a glass, add juice of half a lemon, 1 tablespoon honey, and top with sparkling water. Fresh ginger carries a heat that the powdered jar never gets near, and the lemon keeps the whole thing sharp rather than syrupy. Grate it instead of slicing it: the fine shreds give up far more flavor in a cold drink than coins do. Keep a pitcher in the fridge.

Tall glass of sparkling ginger lemonade with ice and a lemon wheel on a white marble counter
Grate the ginger, do not slice it. Fine shreds give a cold drink far more to work with.

2. Watermelon Mint Agua Fresca

Blend 3 cups seedless watermelon with lime and 1 tablespoon honey. Strain and serve over ice. Straining is the step everyone skips, and it is the whole difference between a smoothie and something that drinks like a cooler. Ripe summer watermelon is already sweet enough that the honey is more of a rounding-off than a sweetener, so taste before you add it.

Glass of bright pink watermelon agua fresca with fresh mint and ice on a sunny kitchen counter
Blend, strain, pour over ice. Three steps and it tastes like the middle of August.

3. Cucumber Lime Cooler

Blend half a cucumber with 1 tablespoon honey and juice of 1 lime. Strain over ice and top with sparkling water. Cucumber tastes like cold water that decided to have an opinion, and the lime gives it just enough edge to hold your attention. Barely sweet, very cold, and it works as an all-day sipper in a way most fruit drinks do not.

Clear glass of pale green cucumber lime cooler with ice and a lime wedge
Mild, cold, and just interesting enough to replace another glass of plain water.

4. Mango Lassi

Blend 1 cup mango chunks with 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey, and a pinch of cardamom. The cardamom is what makes this taste like a restaurant lassi instead of a fruit smoothie, and a pinch really does mean a pinch. Use frozen mango if fresh is out of season; the drink comes out thicker and colder and you can skip the ice entirely. This is as much a snack as a drink.

Creamy golden mango lassi in a short glass with a small bowl of mango chunks nearby
More snack than drink, which some afternoons is exactly the point.

5. Berry Coconut Water Refresher

Muddle a handful of mixed berries in a glass. Add coconut water and ice. That is it. Coconut water on its own is faintly sweet and a little savory, which is why it needs the berries: they bring the tartness and a color worth looking at. Frozen berries work well here and double as ice cubes. No blender, no strainer, nothing to wash up afterwards.

Glass of berry coconut water with muddled berries and ice cubes
Three ingredients, no blender, no straining, nothing to clean.

6. Peach Ginger Fizz

Blend 1 ripe peach with 1 teaspoon grated ginger and 1 tablespoon honey. Strain into a glass, add ice, and top with sparkling water. Ripe peach and fresh ginger is a better pairing than either one usually gets credit for: the peach rounds off the ginger heat, the ginger stops the peach going flat and jammy. A hard peach will not work here, so wait for one that gives under your thumb. See our full peach ginger fizz recipe.

Fizzy peach ginger drink in a tall glass with bubbles rising and a peach slice on the rim
Ripe peach, fresh ginger, cold bubbles. That is the entire idea.

7. Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade

Combine 2 tablespoons elderflower cordial with juice of half a lemon and sparkling water in a champagne flute. Elderflower is floral without being perfumey, and the lemon keeps it from tipping over into sweet. This is the drink for baby showers and date nights, when you want something that reads as celebratory from across the room.

Sparkling elderflower lemonade in a champagne flute with tiny bubbles and soft light
Put this in a champagne flute and nobody at the baby shower will feel sorry for you.

8. Strawberry Basil Lemonade

Muddle 4 strawberries with 1 tablespoon honey. Add juice of half a lemon, ice, and cold water. Basil leaves go beside the glass. Bruised basil turns bitter within minutes, so tear a leaf, set it on the rim, and let the aroma do the work rather than muddling it into the drink. Strawberries at the soft, almost-too-ripe stage are the ones you want. This tastes like a fancy spa drink.

Pink strawberry basil lemonade in a glass with fresh strawberry slices and basil leaves beside it
Strawberry and lemon, with the basil sitting beside the glass where it belongs.

9. Hibiscus Iced Tea

Brew hibiscus tea and chill. Sweeten with honey to taste. Hibiscus is a flower rather than a tea leaf, so there is no caffeine in it, and it brews to a deep red with a cranberry-like tartness that holds up over ice without going watery. Sweeten it while it is still warm or the honey will sit at the bottom of the glass. Hibiscus is one of the ingredients on this page worth raising with your midwife or doctor before you make a habit of it.

Deep red hibiscus iced tea in a clear glass with ice cubes and a lemon wedge
Cranberry-like tartness, deep red in the glass, and not a tea leaf in sight.

10. Golden Milk Cooler

Blend 1 cup cold oat milk with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1 tablespoon honey, and a crack of black pepper. Serve over ice. Warm spice in a cold drink sounds wrong until you try it: the oat milk keeps it creamy without being heavy, and the pepper stops the turmeric tasting dusty. Blend it rather than stirring, or the turmeric settles into a stripe at the bottom of the glass.

Iced golden milk cooler in a glass with a warm yellow hue and black pepper flecks
Warm spices, cold oat milk, and the color doing half the work.

Which One to Make

When you want something cold and plain. Cucumber lime cooler, watermelon agua fresca, berry coconut water. Nothing sweet, nothing heavy, and all three keep in the fridge for a day without falling apart.

When you want a bit of a bite to it. Ginger lemonade sparkler, peach ginger fizz, golden milk cooler. Fresh ginger and warm spice, for when flat sweetness is not what you are after.

When somebody is handing out glasses of something. Sparkling elderflower lemonade, hibiscus iced tea, strawberry basil lemonade. Any of these in a proper glass and nobody asks a second question.

When you want it to count as a snack. Mango lassi. Yogurt, fruit, cardamom, and enough substance to carry you through to dinner.

What Is Actually In These

  • Alcohol-free. Nothing on this list is made with a spirit, a wine, or a liqueur.
  • Caffeine-free. None of these is brewed from a black, green or white tea leaf, which is where the caffeine in most iced teas comes from. Hibiscus is a flower, not a tea leaf.
  • Sweetened with honey or whole fruit, never a bottled syrup or a sweetener packet.
  • One dairy recipe (the mango lassi) and one made on oat milk (the golden milk cooler). The other eight are dairy-free as written.
  • Built on fresh fruit rather than bottled juice. If you swap in store-bought juice to save time, read the label first, and if any single ingredient here is one you have been told to watch, leave it out. Most of these survive a substitution without complaining.