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Cocktail

Summer Cocktails That Sizzle

| Jodi Schwarzenbach |

How is it that we are six months into 2025 when it feels like it should just be nearing St. Patrick’s Day?  Do the quickness of the years take on an exponential factor, speeding up so that one day we are packing up the Christmas decorations and in a nanosecond it’s time to don the holiday sweater and put up the tree again?  These are nonsensical yet serious questions from a fellow consumer of time who feels like we are getting robbed of our precious time with daily activities, life, holidays, work, and repeat.  Some days, it is just prudent to sit and relax, have a nice drink and take stock of things. Summer | Visit Sarasota County

June is a great time to take a pause and mark the halfway period with celebrations of graduations, weddings, vacations and having more time with loved ones.  What better way to accentuate an event than offering a tasty cocktail that mimics the warmness of the air, the vibrance of the sunsets, and the fresh and fragrant offerings grown in the summer.  We are here for all the coconut-infused, lime-freshened and pineapple based beverages that light up the night like 4th of July fireworks.  We are bringing you three tasty summer cocktail and one smashing mocktail recipe to fancy up your June summer fun. Fake drinks that don’t taste fake: The rise of the mocktail : NPR. 

From Liquor.com Liquor.com – Cocktail Recipes, Spirits, and Local Bars

Sweet Tea Smash

Ingredients

  • 2 lemon wedges
  • 4 mint leaves
  • 1 ounce George Dickel No. 12 Tennessee whiskey
  • 1 teaspoon Strega
  • 1 ounce unsweetened iced tea
  • 1 teaspoon cane syrup
  • Garnish: mint sprig

Steps

  1. In a shaker, muddle the lemon wedges and mint leaves.
  2. Add the whiskey, Strega, iced tea and cane syrup with ice, and shake until well-chilled.
  3. Strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Summer Lips

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 ounces Lillet Blanc aperitif
  • 1 ounce vodka
  • 1/2 ounce dry curaçao
  • 1/4 ounce aquavit
  • 1/4 ounce chardonnay
  • 1/4 ounce dry vermouth
  • 1 1/2 fl oz green chartreuse
  • 1 dash orange bitters
  • 1 cup, balls melon

Steps

  1. Add the Lillet Blanc, vodka, dry curaçao, aquavit, chardonnay, dry vermouth, green Chartreuse and orange bitters to a mixing glass with ice, and stir until well-chilled.
  2. Strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. If there is leftover, keep it on ice in a small jar or sidecar carafe on ice.
  3. Garnish with a speared honeydew melon ball.
cocktail summer

Summer Bummer

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz orange juice
  • 1/2 oz apple juice
  • 1/2 oz beetroot
  • 2 dashes absinthe

Steps

  1. Combine the vodka, orange juice and apple juice in a mixing tin and stir.
  2. Top with the beetroot shrub and absinthe.

Salty Ginger ale (non-alcoholic)

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 Medjool date, pitted
  • 1 pinch fine sea salt
  • 1 pinch ground cumin
  • 6 ounces ginger ale
  • Garnish: mint sprig
mocktail summer

Steps

  1. Add the lime juice, date, salt, and cumin to a shaker. Let sit for 5 minutes, then muddle until the date is pulverized.
  2. Add ice and shake until well-chilled, then pour unstrained into a tall glass.
  3. Top with ginger ale and stir well to combine.
  4. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Photos courtesy of Liquor.com.

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