Refreshing Summer Drinks

Mojitos (rum)

Mojito (pronounced mo-HEE-toe) is a traditional Cuban highball that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, sparkling water, and mint.

The original Cuban recipe uses spearmint or yerba buena, a mint variety very popular on the island. Its combination of sweetness, refreshing citrus, and mint flavors is intended to complement the potent kick of the rum, and has made this clear highball a popular summer drink. The cocktail has a relatively low alcohol content (about 10 percent alcohol by volume).

Recipe for Mojitos

Piña Colada (rum)

Invented in a luxury hotel bar in Puerto Rico in the 1950s for wealthy tourists looking for a taste of the Caribbean, the Piña Colada was created when the newly-available Coco López cream of coconut came on the market. Coco López was developed in Puerto Rico in 1948 by Don Ramón López-Irizarry, hence the Puerto Rican connection with the drink.

The piña colada is a classic tropical cocktail made with rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. Frozen Piña Colada are especially refreshing. It may be garnished with a pineapple wedge, a maraschino cherry, or both.

Recipe for Piña Colada

Blue Hawaiian (rum, blue curaçao)

The blue Hawaiian cocktail is a fantastic and fun tropical drink. It's filled with rum, pineapple, coconut and, best of all, it's blue. Blue cocktails are always hard to resist because the color lures you in for a taste of the sweet tropical flavor.

In essence, a blue Hawaiian is a colorful version of the popular piña colada. It simply splits up the coconut and pineapple flavors to allow room for the blue curaçao. The orange-flavored liqueur is responsible for the drink's mesmerizing aquamarine color.

Recipe for Blue Hawaiian

Strawberry Daiquiris (rum)

The Strawberry Daiquiri is a classic summertime drink. The Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice (typically lime juice), and sugar or other sweetener. The daiquiri is one of the six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. In the book, he also suggests some variations.

A Strawberry Daiquiri is made with fresh or frozen sweet strawberries, rum, lime juice, sugar and some ice and can be made frozen. Perfect for summer gatherings and holidays. A refreshingly good, vibrant drink!

Recipe for Strawberry Daiquiris

Mai Tai (rum)

The Mai Tai is one of the most famous Tiki drinks in the world. Composed of rum, orange curaçao, fresh lime juice and orgeat (a nuanced almond syrup), it’s held sway over cocktail enthusiasts and Tiki aficionados for decades. It even enjoyed a star turn in the Elvis film “Blue Hawaii.”

Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron is often credited with inventing the drink at his Trader Vic’s bar in the 1940s, though it’s likely that Donn Beach laid the groundwork for the famous recipe during the 1930s at his Don the Beachcomber bar. The original Trader Vic’s recipe featured Jamaica’s J. Wray & Nephew rum. Once Bergeron ran out of his supply, he moved to blending rums in an attempt to create a similar flavor profile.

While the Mai Tai was created as a way to showcase the flavors of good-quality rum, it took a wrong turn over the decades as bartenders employed bottled juices and mixers. Those yielded neon-colored or overly sweet cocktails. Fortunately, a renewed interest in Tiki cocktails has returned the Mai Tai to prominence as a fresh, balanced, rum-forward cocktail.

Recipe for Mai Tai
Recipe for homemade Orgeat (almond syrup)

Dark 'n' Stormy (rum)

The Dark and Stormy cocktail was not born from the windy blackness of London, nor was it created in a barroom catering to the alcoholic needs of woebegone writers. In fact, it has nothing to do with bad literary tropes and gothic language.

The Dark and Stormy is a drink that came to be in the Caribbean waters, where rum is plentiful and so are sailors. It’s a drink that was spit out by the sea, more or less. It’s a drink with a really cool name.

To make a Dark and Stormy—it has just three ingredients but lots of spice—Gosling’s Black Seal rum is the preferred brand, but really, anything dark and funky will work. Officially speaking, it is frowned upon to liven up your Dark and Stormy with lime juice, but we appreciate a layer of citrus. Just don’t swap in ginger ale for the ginger beer. That would be a crime.

Recipe for Dark 'n' Stormy

Margarita (tequila)

The margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila mixed with orange-flavoured liqueur, such as Triple Sec, and lime or lemon juice, often served with salt on the glass rim. It is the most common tequila-based cocktail in the United States. The drink is served shaken with ice, on the rocks, blended with ice (frozen margarita) or without ice (straight up). Freshly squeezed lime juice is the key ingredient.

Recipe for Frozen Margaritas

Paloma (tequila)

For a refreshing, thirst quenching tequila cocktail, the Paloma (Spanish for "dove") is definitely at the top of the list and it's Mexico's favorite tequila cocktail. It's a light, fruity drink with a great fizz and one of the smoothest tequila drinks out there. A cousin to the margarita, it has the same sweet-and-sour DNA, only a bit bitter and a bit bubbly.

This drink is most commonly prepared by mixing tequila with a grapefruit-flavored soda, such as the Mexican Jarritos brand, and served on the rocks with a lime wedge. Some prefer the salt on the rim of the glass, but others say just throw it in. Others omit it entirely. Don't.

Recipe for Paloma (tequila, lime juice, grapefruit soda or substitute grapefruit juice and club soda)

Gin & Tonic (gin)

A gin and tonic is a highball cocktail made with gin and tonic water poured over ice. It is usually garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. The amount of gin varies according to taste. Suggested ratios of gin to tonic are between 1:1 and 1:3.

Recipe for Gin & Tonic

Gin Rickey (gin)

This highball is a classic summertime cooler that consists of gin (usually), fresh lime juice and seltzer on the rocks in a highball glass. It is a good alternative to a Gin & Tonic which uses tonic in place of the seltzer. Since 2008 the rickey has enjoyed a resurgence with the revival of classic cocktails.

Recipe for Gin Rickey

Bramble Cocktail (gin, crème de mûre liqueur, a blackberry liqueur)

The Bramble is one of those cocktails that feels like a century-old classic. It looks the part, and every good barkeep knows how to make one. But the drink wasn’t created until 1984, when Dick Bradsell (whose resume also includes the Espresso Martini) mixed this modern-classic at Fred’s Club in London’s Soho neighborhood.

It’s one of that decade’s best success stories, standing apart from the era’s provocatively named drinks that eschewed fresh ingredients in favor of bottled, neon-hued mixers. The Bramble was named for the bush that blackberries grow on and was inspired by the fresh berries that Bradsell used to pick as a child on the Isle of Wight. After receiving some creme de mure (a blackberry liqueur) for the bar, he began experimenting and came on a combination of gin, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and creme de mure that was part Gin Sour, part Singapore Sling. He shook up the ingredients and strained them over crushed ice to tame the sweetness.

Recipe for Bramble Cocktail
Recipe for Homemade Blackberry Liqueur

Greyhound (vodka)

Grapefruit cocktails cannot get any easier than the popular greyhound. Seriously, if you can mix a rum & coke, you've got this! This is one of the simplest mixed drink recipes you will find and it's extremely popular.

What's so great about vodka and grapefruit? It's tart and refreshing. There's no need for soda because the grapefruit juice brings its own spark into the mix. It is a fantastic alternative to the heavier screwdriver (vodka and orange juice) as well and can work for any time of day and any occasion.

Recipe for Greyhound

Blue Lagoon (vodka, blue curaçao)

Everything you need to know about the Blue Lagoon is right in the name. Tall, refreshing and bluer than the bluest Caribbean sky, the cocktail turns vodka, blue curaçao and lemonade into a drink you’ll want to dive into. Vodka provides a sturdy base, while the blue curaçao—a Caribbean liqueur made using the dried peel of the Laraha citrus fruit and then colored blue—adds sweet, zesty notes. The lemonade lengthens the drink, lends additional tartness and keeps the beverage quaffable.

It’s believed that the Blue Lagoon was created by Andy MacElhone, the son of famed bartender Harry MacElhone, at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1960s or early 1970s. So, the drink predates the 1980 movie of the same name.

Recipe for Blue Lagoon

Sea Breeze (vodka)

A classic Sea Breeze cocktail is sweet, sour, and super easy to make with only 3 ingredients: vodka, cranberry juice, and grapefruit juice. The Sea Breeze dates back to the 1950’s, but gained traction in the ’70’s and then its popularity boomed in the ’80s. It’s the perfect summer drink for relaxing by the pool or at the beach!

Recipe for Sea Breeze

Moscow Mule (vodka)

Recipe for Moscow Mule

Rum Punch (rum)

Recipe for Rum Punch

Navy Grog (rum)

Recipe for Navy Grog

Ruby Relaxer (vodka, coconut rum, Peachtree Schnapps)

Recipe for Ruby Relaxer

Midori® Sour (Midori® melon liqueur)

The Midori Sour is an emblem of 1970s excess: sweet, bright and just about what you’d expect from a cocktail whose chief ingredient celebrated its debut at NYC’s Studio 54. Most versions disguise the melon flavors of the Midori (a Japanese liqueur) made from Yubari and muskmelons) with corn syrup–rich sour mix. Mixed with fresh-squeezed fruit juices and topped with soda water, brings the drink dancing into the 21st century.

Recently, some bartenders like Chaim Dauermann of NYC’s Up & Up have started including craft versions of the Disco Era cocktail on their menus, proving that the bright and bubbly drink still has a lot to offer to the cocktailing world.

Recipe for Midori® Sour

Pimm's No. 1 Cup (Pimm's No.1)

The liqueur featured in this drink is Pimm's No. 1, a gin-based spirit with the flavor of fruit and spice that originated at the Oyster Bar in London. Adding a mixer as subtle as lemonade enhances its character and turns it into a refreshing summer drink that has long been a favorite in the United Kingdom.

Traditionally, drinks in the category known as "cups" were always garnished with a mix of seasonal fruit. Traditionally, a sparkling lemonade is used in the drink. In the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and some other English-speaking countries, lemonade is a commercially produced, lemon-flavored, carbonated, sweetened soft drink (similar to lemon-lime sodas in North America without the lime). You can achieve this a number of ways. Carbonating a still lemonade directly or simply using sparkling water (seltzer or club soda) as a portion of the water while mixing lemonade are two easy options. Ginger ale or lemon-lime soda are occasionally used to replace the lemonade, though to make a proper Pimm's Cup, there should be some lemonade left in the drink.