M&S Low Alcohol Lime Mohito

How could this go wrong? Lime Mohito is a much-loved cocktail and the punch of lime and mint should nicely compensate for the lack of the extra body that the alcohol would give. And you can always rely on M&S to focus on the flavour and not be cowardly about hitting us with big bold flavours. We loved the intense zing of lime in this, balancing on the edge of sourness and sharpness with all the confidence of a tightrope walker. It’s good to see there’s a full 8% lime juice in this as well as lime extract. Bafflingly, there’s no mint mentioned in the ingredients and yet I’d swear there’s a perfectly executed mint flavour running through the lime and adding the bland note that pairs with the acidity so well. The ingredients list cucumber extract – could the cool greenness of that be offering a simulacrum of mint? There’s also cinnamon, pink peppercorns and sarsaparilla, which I can’t taste but perhaps contribute to the interest.

And yet. And yet. I’d love to give this high marks, because we all need an alc-free mohito but we tasted this against M&S’s alcohol-laden mohito and it confirmed for us the fact that this is a fabulous grown-up and punchy soft drink – but it hasn’t found the right ingredients to echo the rum in the mohito. I’d drink it at a summer picnic with great pleasure if I were offered it as a lime soda with mint. But if I was given this as a mohito, I’d be disappointed.