Sun-kissed Sips
10 refreshing summer cocktail recipes
Serves two
This Cuban cocktail dates to the late 1800s and was popularized by its association with Ernest Hemingway. The classic Daiquiri is traditionally served up or on the rocks, rather than frozen. But structurally speaking, when made right, there’s little to separate the blended Frozen Daiquiri from its traditional formulation. The result is still a tart, subtly sweet take on the classic rum sour template.
When making frozen drinks in a traditional blender, a good rule of thumb is a 3/4 cup of ice for every standard 4 ounces of other liquid ingredients, when creating a drink in the classic 2-1-1 golden ratio sour template (meaning 2 ounces of spirit to 1 ounce of lemon/lime juice and 1 ounce of simple syrup, for a single serving).
Frozen Daiquiri
Ingredients
4 ounces white rum
2 ounces lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 ounces simple syrup
Garnish: 2 lime wheels
Steps
Add all ingredients into a blender with a cup and a half of ice.
Pulse until mixed.
Divide between two coupes or Margarita glasses and garnish each with a lime wheel.
Serves ONE
The Pimm’s Cup started as a health drink in 1840s London. Take a swig, and you’ll see why—its blend of mid-proof spirit with lemon, ginger and fruit is as revitalizing as cocktails can be. And its charms are especially effective on a hot day.
The slow-sipping summer cocktail is the preferred vehicle for its eponymous liqueur, Pimm’s No. 1, a gin-based digestif created in the 1800s by a London bar owner named James Pimm. Combined with ginger ale, lemon juice, cucumber and a medley of fruit garnishes, the drink was a welcome relief from the Southern heat. The first Pimm’s Bar opened in 1971 on the hallowed tennis grounds, and it’s still enjoyed today by the pitcher.
PIMM’s CUP
Ingredients
2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1
1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
Ginger ale, to top
Garnish: cucumber slice
Garnish: mint sprig
Garnish: strawberry
Garnish: lemon wheel (optional)
Garnish: orange wheel (optional)
Steps
Add Pimm’s No. 1 and lemon juice into a highball glass over ice, then top with ginger ale and stir briefly to combine.
Garnish with a cucumber slice, mint sprig, skewered strawberry and optional lemon and orange wheels.
Serves ONE
Cocktails are often evocative of their eras, and this spiced riff on the Tiki favorite Test Pilot indeed took flight during the Jet Age.
This Tiki cocktail hews fairly closely to its predecessor, but calls for the addition of a cinnamon syrup, which lends spice notes to the classic. It omits the Cointreau entirely, as the cinnamon syrup helps to sweeten the drink, and it also adds grapefruit juice to the lime.
As is the case with the Test Pilot, it continues the Tiki tradition of blending rums, another legacy of Donn Beach, combining two overproof rums and a milder gold rum. Lime and grapefruit juices brighten the mix, and falernum, a spiced almond syrup that adds richness to many Tiki drinks, also goes into the blender. Dashes of absinthe and Angostura bitters, meanwhile, lend complexity and round out the drink’s flavors without overpowering them.
Ingredients
1 ounce overproof Jamaican rum
3/4 ounce overproof demerara rum
3/4 ounce gold rum
1/2 ounce grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce cinnamon syrup
1/2 ounce falernum
1 dash absinthe
1 dash Angostura bitters
Garnish: maraschino cherry (and more, if desired)
Steps
Add all ingredients into a blender with a cup of crushed ice and blend on high until combined but not smooth, about 5 seconds.
Pour into a double old fashioned glass.
Garnish as desired.
Serves ONE
When compared to more oddball combinations of esoteric cocktail ingredients, it’s not hard to see why the Pepino works well.
The interplay between fresh lime juice and agave nectar works to accentuate the two primary elements of tequila’s profile—its citrus overtones as well as the spirit’s earthier aspects. Meanwhile, cucumber is muddled alongside jalapeño pepper, leveraging the classic combination of cooling and spice, rather than leaning on a single note of either. Finally, the spicy-salty rim acts to reawaken the taste buds with each sip, so the Pepino remains engaging through to the final sip, rather than fatiguing halfway through the glass.
EL PEPINO
Ingredients
2 1/4-inch wheels cucumber
2 1/4-inch wheels fresh jalapeño
1 1/2 ounces blanco tequila
3/4 ounce agave syrup
1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
Garnish: Chili-salt rim (or Tajín) and cucumber slice
Steps
Add cucumber, jalapeño, and tequila to a shaker.
Muddle for 10 seconds until fully pulverized.
Add agave syrup and lime juice, then fill shaker with ice and shake for 15–20 seconds until wellchilled.
Double-strain through a fine mesh strainer into Tajín-rimmed rocks glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with remaining cucumber slice.
Serves ONE
In their book Spritz: Italy’s Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau draw inspiration from the lighter side of the cocktail spectrum.
The combination works by presenting an alternative to more popularly known Italian spritzes, like the Aperol Spritz, which uses bitter red liqueur as their base. By opting for a floral base of elderflower, it allows the natural lemon and citrus notes found typically in prosecco to display more prominently. The mint then takes the task of providing the nose and finish on the drink, which skews cooler and creates the effect of a cleaner tasting spritz than its bitter-based counterparts with flavors that don’t overstay their welcome.
Hugo Spritz
Ingredients
1/2 ounce St-Germain
1 sprig mint
4 ounces prosecco, chilled
1 ounce soda water, chilled
Garnish: mint sprig
Garnish: lemon wheel
Steps
Add the St. Germain and mint sprig into a wine glass. Gently muddle and let sit for 3 minutes.
Add ice, the prosecco and the soda water and stir briefly and gently to combine.
Garnish with a mint sprig and a lemon wheel.
One might imagine that the Paper Plane, considering the drink’s ubiquity among bartenders and at cocktail bars, were a storied classic. However, it was only invented in 2008. The inventor: Sam Ross, an award-winning bartender and the co-owner of Attaboy and Diamond Reef in New York City.
When making the Paper Plane, Ross likes to use a slightly higher-proof bourbon—one in the 43% to 46% ABV range—as heft adds body. He also warns not to overshake the drink: You want it cold, but not watery.
Bourbon and lemon juice are mainstays in most home bars. Aperol, as the backbone of the popular Aperol Spritz, is easy to come by. Amaro Nonino is a friendly, bittersweet ingredient that adds a unique element to the cocktail. This liqueur is made from a base of grappa and includes notes of botanicals, alpine herbs and orange peel.
Paper Plane
Ingredients
3/4 ounce bourbon
3/4 ounce Aperol
3/4 ounce Amaro Nonino Quintessentia
3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
Paper plane for garnish
Steps
Add the bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and lemon juice into a shaker with ice and shake until wellchilled.
Strain into a coupe glass.
Add the paper plane for a unique garnish.
Serves ONE
Named for a Central American bird, this fruity, tropical cocktail became the national drink of Nicaragua in 2006 following a nationwide cocktail competition. The creator of this winning recipe, Dr. Edmundo Miranda Saenz, teamed up with a few family members to perfect his submission to the competition, El Trago Nacional, which was backed by iconic Nicaraguan rum producer Flor de Caña.
The original El Macuá recipe calls for white rum, but if you prefer to use a rum with some age on it, this can bring a new level of complexity to the drink. Any quality guava juice will work when making El Macuá at home, though you’ll want to stick with freshlysqueezed orange and lemon juices for best results.
El Macuá
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white or aged rum
1 ounce guava juice
1 ounce orange juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/3 ounce simple syrup
Garnish: orange slice
Garnish: candied cherry
Steps
Add the rum, guava juice, orange juice, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with an orange slice and a candied cherry.
Serves ONE
The recipe comes from Duggan McDonnell, a San Francisco bartender and the author of “Drinking the Devil’s Acre: A Love Letter from San Francisco and Her Cocktails.” He begins by muddling the blackberries and basil in a shaker, releasing the former’s juices and the latter’s sweet herbal qualities. This step not only provides a punch of fresh flavor, but it also produces the drink’s bright-red color.
Choose your favorite tequila for this cocktail, but make sure you select a blanco rather than a reposado or añejo. The dry, peppery, earthy profile of an unaged blanco props up the drink with a solid backbone and merges well with the sweet berries and tart lime.
Black Widow
Ingredients
3 basil leaves
2 blackberries
1 1/2 ounces blanco tequila
1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 teaspoon agave nectar
Garnish: basil leaf
Garnish: blackberry
Steps
In a shaker, muddle the basil leaves and blackberries.
Add the tequila, lime juice and agave nectar with ice, and shake until well-chilled.
Strain into a stemless cocktail glass over fresh ice.
Garnish with a basil leaf and a blackberry on a skewer.
Few cocktails evoke such a sense of time and place—or earn such strong reactions—as the Miami Vice.
Let’s get this out of the way: The Miami Vice is not meant to be a serious drink. It’s also delicious, because Strawberry Daiquiris are delicious, and Piña Coladas are delicious. Both use flavor profiles that complement each other, so of course they taste great in a glass together.
When it comes to flavor pairings in both the culinary and drinks world, there’s an old saying, “What grows together goes together.” This is particularly true in the world of tropical fruits, where it’s easy to mix and match produce while always finding a winning combination. Strawberry, pineapple, coconut, lime, and sugar cane-based spirits are all naturally complementary, and you can get away with a lot of tweaking by changing ratios or substituting other similar fruits to taste.
MIAMI
VICE Serves ONE
Ingredients
2 ounces rum, divided
1 cup strawberries, chopped
1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce simple syrup
2 ounces cream of coconut
2 ounces pineapple juice
Garnish: pineapple slice
Steps
In a blender, add 1 ounce of the rum, strawberries, lime juice, simple syrup and 1 cup crushed ice and blend until smooth.
Pour into a hurricane glass and set in the freezer.
Wash and dry the blender thoroughly.
In the clean blender jar, add the remaining 1 ounce of rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice and 1 cup crushed ice and blend until smooth.
Pour into the hurricane glass that already contains the Strawberry Daiquiri, creating a layered effect.
Garnish with a pineapple slice.
Serves ONE
The Irish Maid is similar to a Whiskey Smash, which calls for muddling lemon wedges in a shaker before combining the remaining ingredients: whiskey, sugar and mint. The Irish Maid, though, calls for muddling cucumber slices to release their fresh juices before shaking the remaining ingredients—St-Germain elderflower liqueur, citrus and simple syrup—with ice and straining the contents into a rocks glass.
The cocktail is floral and refreshing. With its burst of aromatics and the cooling touch of cucumber, it makes a convincing case for whiskey as a summer drink.
Irish Maid
Ingredients
2 slices cucumber, cut into quarter-inch slices
2 ounces Irish whiskey
1/2 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur
3/4 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
3/4 ounce simple syrup
Garnish: cucumber slice
Steps
Muddle the cucumber slices in a shaker.
Add the Irish whiskey, St-Germain, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Fine-strain into a chilled rocks glass over fresh ice.
Garnish with a cucumber slice.
References
Recipes taken from
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Images from https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/ slice-pineapple-white-background_32044296. htm?query=pineapple+slice&epik=dj0yJnU9Q1NmbU54NHNlcHJFTUVDY0xNaHZxWGpJRUxUNXZHV0EmcD0wJm49X25pQ2dZcFRvVU5JSlh4RUpuY2hJZyZ0PUFBQUFBR1pGZVU0
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