7 Cocktails You Must Try At Home This Summer

With summer kicking in, it’s patio time! The sun and A good cocktail definitely is the ultimate summer treat. Enjoy these amazing cocktails as you sip on it that is sure to impress every guest at your next soiree. 

Here are 7 cocktails you must try this summer, without having to leave the comfort of your home. 

Forget Me Not

The refreshing Blueberry cocktail is great to sip on as you gaze at the ocean and the warm summer sky. This creative style of  cocktail is inspired by Nova Scotia’s heavy export and home grown blueberries. You can jazz up the drink by replacing soda with prosecco. 

Ingredients:

• 1½ oz. Tito’s Handmade Vodka
• ½ oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• ½ oz. fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz. Lavender simple syrup
• 6-8 blueberries
• Soda or prosecco for topping

DIRECTIONS

1. Mash the blueberries with lavender syrup, then add the rest of the ingredients shaking it hard. Just leave the soda to be added towards the end.
2. Strain the drink into a glass full of ice and then topping it with soda or prosecco as desired.
3. You may add a few more blueberries for the garnishing and enjoy!

Martini

Dates to: Late 1800s

The drink originating from the late 1800s has become one of the most popular and widely enjoyed cocktail today.

People have developed their various personal ways to enjoy this drink. Where stirring is the rule, many like shaking it instead. Gin or vodka? Originally made with gin, vodka too has several advocates today. Would you rather garnish with a lemon twist or an olive? Your call. Try this ages old recepie, just how you like it and be prepared to argue and consider its numerous recepies every time you come across a new drinker in your life. 

Ingredients:

• Ice
• 2 1/2 ounces dry gin, Beefeater or the citrusy Tanqueray 10
• 1/2 ounce dry vermouth, such as Dolin
• 1 or 2 dashes of orange bitters
• lemon peel, for garnishing

DIRECTIONS
1. Chill the glass or coupe you plan to use. 
2. Fill ice in your mixing glass, then add the gin, vermouth and bitters to suit your taste. Gently stir for about 20 seconds, then straining the drink into your chilled glass.
3. Use the twist of lemon peel to garnish. 

Old-Fashioned

Another drink dating back to the late 1800s probably is the first, most genre-defining cocktail created.

Often used as a means to use that bad fruit salad at bars and restaurants, good bars often chose to skip using the pile of pineapple and neon cherries that were once very common ingredients to the drink. 

Adding a little twist of citrus for its fragrant oils could be a good idea, finally summing up the recepie. 

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar or 1 cube of sugar
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• Strip of orange or lemon peel
• ice cubes
• 2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the warm water, sugar, and the bitters in your old-fashioned glass.
2. Add the citrus peel, then muddle.
3. Add ice cubes, followed by the rye or bourbon, stirring it to mix well, making sure the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Drop a few more ice cubes as desired and serve.

Margarita

A classic, simple but delicious cocktail originating around the 1930s has its DNA made of citrus, sweetner and ofcourse, spirit.  

Adding some agave syrup enhances the sweetness and flavor of the spirits origin plant. Applying some salt to the rim of your glass is a matter of personal choice. It does very well compliment the tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice.

Ingredients 

• Large salt (optional)
• Lime half (optional),  1 ounce fresh lime juice
• Ice
• 1 3/4 ounces tequila
• 1/2 ounce Cointreau
• 1/4 ounce agave nectar

DIRECTIONS

1. If you are in the mood of having your drink straight, use a cocktail glass. If you prefer it on ice, a rock glass would be a good fit.
2. If you wish to rim the glass with salt, make a small pile of salt in a plate and rub the half lime around the outside of the rim of your glass. Then roll the rim around the salt to get those perfectly salted edges.
3. Add ice a required to your glass.
4. Add lime juice, tequila, Cointreau, agave nectar and ice in the cocktail shaker. Shake well for about 20 seconds, then straining your drink into the glass. Ready to enjoy!

L’Abattoir Avocado

This sipper is surprisingly refreshing, and contains an unconventional cocktail ingredient — avocado

This refreshing and creamy cocktail recipe comes to us from L’Abattoir in Vancouver. A popular choice off their menu, Shahir tasted this drink a few years back and has not stopped thinking about it since. Lucky for us, L’Abattoir let us share their recipe for this delicious and savoury cocktail on The Goods so you can recreate it at home.

attributing it’s high demand to Vancouverites health-conscious lifestyles.

Ingredients

• 1/4 fresh avocado
• 1 tsp sugar
• 45 mL olive and rosemary gin
• 15 Apfelkorn schnapps
• 30 mL fresh lime juice
• 15 mL simple syrup

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour all of your measured ingredients into your cocktail shaker, filling it with ice. 

2. Shake well untill the avocado blends well with the cocktail. 

3. Strain your drink into a large coupe glass. Enjoy!

Winnie The Pooh

Originating from the city, Winnipeg, this red and yellow cocktail glorifies the city’s cocktail culture. 

This Winnipeg classic is inspired by the city’s most loved wine and honey, forming the colour of everyone’s childhood favourite bear, Winnie The Pooh. 

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Crown Royal Cask 16
• 1 oz. honey syrup
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 5 drops orange flower water
• Egg white
• 1/2 oz. red wine

DIRECTIONS

1. Add all measured ingredients, leaving out the wine to your cocktail shaker. First shake your drink dry, later adding ice.
2. You will have to double strain it, making sure the red wine floats perfectly between the two layers.
3. Garnishing with a cube of raw honeycomb may perfectly compliment the flavours of the drink.

Maple Manhattan

This well-balanced drink is a great representation of the city, Toronto. The city that loves its Maple, may it be in the form of food or sports.

It is a strong drink with a nice balance between its ingredients that does not hit you in the face. 

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Alberta Premium Dark Horse Whisky
• 5 oz. Maple Syrup
• Fee Brothers Cherry Bitters

DIRECTIONS

1. Add the Alberta Premium Dark Horse Whisky, maple syrup and two dashes of Fee Brothers Cherry Bitters, filling it with ice in your mixing glass.
2. Stir well for a minute before you strain it into a rock glass with some ice cubes as preferred.
3. A cinnamon rubbed on the inside of your glass’s rim a few times before being dropped in is a great way to garnish the drink before it is ready to be sipped upon.

Lavender Rosé Slush

A creative and exciting recepie of cocktail that everyone would like to try. The Lavender adds its wonderful smell to the drink. 

Ingredients:

• 1tsp lavender extract
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 bottle Okanagan Crush Pad Narrative Rose
• 2 sprigs of lavender loosely chopped (optional)
• 1 vanilla bean broken into 3 or 1 drop of vanilla extract
• sugar to rim the glasses (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. First making the simple syrup, add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup of water to a small pot. Let it boil, then adding extracts of lavender, vanilla bean (or vanilla extract) and loosely chopped lavender (optional).

2. Cook on a low flame until the mixtures thicken. Turn off the heat and let it sit for a while to further thicken it, also better infusing the flavours. If it does not seem to get to your desired thickness, add some sugar to the syrup and be patient!

3. Upon the cooling of your simple syrup, strain and pour it into a pan. Then add Okanagan Crush Pad Narrative Rose to the pan. Make sure your syrup is cooled to avoid making candy instead. 

4. Freeze pan for about 4-6 hours.

5. Upon freezing, pour sugar into a bowl, wet the rim of the glass you desire and gently dip it in the sugar to get that sugar rim. 

See Also

7 Must-Try Sangria Recipes For This Summer

6. Now ready to serve, scoop out the Lavender Rosé Slush to fill up your glasses! A sprig of lavender for the garnishing. Ready to enjoy! 

Coconut Lemonade

A promotion to your summer’s average lemonade. Taking you by the beach, feet dipped in water, rolled up in sand with not a worry in the world, the drink gives the complete summer vacation feel at the reach of your very home. You can adjust how strong you would like this feeling to get you. 

With a coconut lemonade in my hand, life is good today, it is wonderful today, savour it, for we all drift away one day. 

This is a great recepie for both a cocktail and mocktail for those who prefer a lighter summer feel. But if you are looking for some tipsy time poolside, adding some vodka and shaking it well would be a good idea. 

Ingredients

• 6 organic squeezed lemons
• 1/2 cup simple syrup
• 1/2 can of coconut cream
• 4 cups of Water

Simple Syrup Ingredients:

• Zest from 1 lemon
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

DIRECTIONS

1. Zest the first lemon, then put it aside. 

2. Squeeze the lemon juice in your desired picher. 

3. Now, for the simple syrup, add lemon zest, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water and boil at a low flame until it starts to thicken. Turn down the heat and let it sit for a little bit longer the gain more thickness. 

4. Blend a complete can of coconut cream until turns into a smooth paste.

5. Stir the lemon juice and the 1/2 cup of simple syrup mixture in your pitcher.

6. Then add 1/2 of the blended coconut cream to it. Stir to smoothen. 

7. Add water upto four cups to your pitcher. Make sure to keep checking and stop where your taste buds demand you to do so. 

Let us know about your creative cocktail recepies that everyone must try at home in the comments below!

Featured image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/HjWzkqW1dgI