Mermaid Lemonade
Serves 4
If you’ve always wanted to be where the people are and love wiggling your toes in the sand, this drink is for you.
Ingredients
- 2 cup ice
- 1/4 cup blue curaçao
- 1 cup white rum
- 2 cups lemonade
- 4 lemon slices
- 8 maraschino cherries
Directions
- Put 1/4 cup ice in each glass, then add a splash of blue curaçao, 1/4 cup rum, and another 1/4 cup ice. (The ice helps with the ombré.) Pour over 1/2 cup lemonade.
- Skewer a lemon slice and 2 maraschino cherries on a paper umbrella or toothpick and garnish drinks before serving.
Courtesy of Delish
Watermelon Sangria
Serves 6
Here’s a grown up take on summer’s favorite seasonal fruit.
Ingredients
- 4 cups cubed watermelon
- 1 750-ml bottle moscato
- 1 cup rum
- Juice of 4 limes
- Zest of 2 limes
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Lime slices, for garnish
Directions
- In a blender combine watermelon, moscato, rum, lime juice and zest, and sugar and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled.
- Garnish glasses with lime slices and serve.
Courtesy of Delish
Mimosa Margaritas
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1/2 cup tequila
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- Lime wedge, for rimming glasses
- Coarse salt, for rimming glasses
- 1 bottle champagne or prosecco
- Orange and lime slices for serving
Directions
- In a pitcher, combine orange juice, tequila, and lime juice and stir to combine.
- Rim with lime and dip in salt. Pour in orange juice mixture and top off with champagne.
- Add sliced oranges and limes to glasses and serve.
Courtesy of Delish
Cuba Libre
Serves 2
You might look at the recipe for this one and think “It can’t be that easy, can it?” Oh yes, it can. A rum and coke with lime. That’s it. That’s the drink.
Ingredients
- 3 oz. spiced rum
- 1 can cola
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2 lime wedges, for garnish
Directions
- To a large liquid measuring cup, add spiced rum, cola, and lime juice and stir. Pour over 2 ice-filled glasses.
- Garnish each glass with lime wedge.
Courtesy of Delish
Pear Mojito
Serves 1
A fresh take on the classic mojito, pear adds a little zing to this one.
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz. dark rum
- .75 oz. lime juice
- .75 oz. simple syrup
- 1 oz. Ambient pear puree
- Fresh mint leaves
- Club soda
Directions
- In a highball glass, lightly press on mint leaves with muddler.
- Add rest of the ingredients except club soda.
- Add ice and transfer into a shaker and shake.
- Add club soda and pour back in highball glass.
- Garnish with mint leaves.
Courtesy of Esquire
Strawberry Basil Bourbon Lemonade
Serves 8
When life gives you lemons, mix them with bourbon.
Ingredients
- 8 oz. bourbon
- 2 cups strawberries
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 12 basil leaves
- 8 basil sprigs
- Bitters
Directions
Place strawberries into blender and add 2 tbsp of sugar. Add about 1/4 of a cup of water and pulse until pureed.
In a medium saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the puree and 1 3/4 cup of water. Heat until mixture begins to boil. Allow to cool and then strain through a sieve.
In a large pitcher, combine the strawberry syrup, bourbon, 1 cup of water, lemon juice, basil leaves, and a splash of bitters. Stir and then pour into eight glasses with ice.
Garnish each with a basil sprig.
Courtesy of Esquire
Limoncello Collins
Serves 8
Tom’s Italian cousin, Limoncello, is here to freshen up your gin game.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces limoncello
- 12 ounces gin
- 8 ounces fresh lemon juice
- 24 paper–thin lemon slices
- Ice
- 16 ounces chilled club soda
- 8 mint sprigs
Directions
In a pitcher, combine the limoncello, gin and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.
Press 3 thin lemon slices against the inside of each of 8 collins glasses.
Add ice to the glasses. Stir the limoncello mixture and pour it into the glasses.
Stir 2 ounces of club soda into each drink and garnish with a mint sprig.
Rhuby Daiquiri
Serves 1
How does one make a daiquiri both more summery and fancier? Add rhubarb.
Ingredients
Directions
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the lime wedge and shake well.
Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with the lime wedge.
Grapefruit Rhubarb Gin and Tonics
Serves 1
A tart take on a long-time classic.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons rhubarb syrup
- ¼ cup grapefruit juice
- 2 ounces gin
- chilled tonic water
- Rhubarb Syrup
- 1 cup chopped rhubarb
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup sugar
Directions
- In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb with the sugar and water and bring to a simmer over medium heat, cooking until all of the sugar has dissolved and the rhubarb has softened. Puree on high until smooth and chill in refrigerator until cool.
- For each cocktail: In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine 2 tablespoons of the rhubarb syrup, ¼ cup of grapefruit juice and 2 ounces of gin. Shake well and then strain into a glass filled with ice.
- Top with cold tonic water
Courtesy of Heather Christo
Peach Bourbon Arnold Palmer
Serves 1
Ingredients
- 1 whiskey ball
- 1 part lemonade
- 1 part iced tea
- 1 tsp simple syrup
- 1 ounce bourbon
- 1/2 ounce peach liqueur
- 1/2 of 1 peach- sliced
- 1 mint sprig for garnish
Directions
- Pour tea, lemonade, simple syrup, bourbon & peach liqueur over ice ball in a rocks glass
- Stir
- Add several peach slices into drink
- Garnish with mint sprig.
Courtesy of Kleinworth & Co.
Summer is here and it waits for no one! So get your cocktail shakers out and get ready to stay cool for the summer.