The 22 Best Summer Cocktails for a Hot Weather Buzz
A summertime cocktail has a singular purpose: It must make you feel cool in a very literal sense.
The summer of 2020 redefined the summer cocktail. All of the sudden, Old Fashioneds were being batched and served in styrofoam cups out of bar windows. Sometimes, they tasted pretty bad—too much orange, too much ice. Cutesy Capri Sun pouches from the restaurant around the corner hid tequila-spiked concoctions. Sometimes, they tasted damn good! And in the park, insulated Hydro Flasks sloshed out homemade rum punches that, well...they tasted like rum. This year, things are back on track, sort of. You're once again sitting at a bar, where a professional is making you a fancy-pants specialty cocktail with all the works. Outside the bar, you've been left to your own devices (especially in states like New York that put the axe on to-go drinks).
Left to your own devices...sounds like an opportunity for self-improvement within the three-foot radius of a bar cart. When things get hot—and man are they getting hot; too hot—and you'd like nothing better than to drink something cool, there is a squadron of cocktails just begging to get served on an 88-degree day. Margs. Daiqs. LIITs. Anything with rum, tequila, or vodka and a splash of fruit juice, anything with bold flavor. Gather your tools, wipe the dew from your brow, and mix up one of the best summertime cocktails below.
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Margarita
The pinnacle of summertime drinking, a Marg is made correctly with Cointreau and fresh lime juice. Steer clear of mixes.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. silver tequila
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. lime juice
• coarse salt
Directions
Chill a cocktail glass, and then rub its rim with lime juice and dip it in coarse salt. Add tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and ice together in a cocktail shaker. Shake and then strain into the glass over ice.
Gin Rickey
Think a G&T with all the bubbles but sans that tonic sweetness. This highball is a glass of herbal, citrusy refreshment.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 fresh lime
• 6 oz. club soda (top off)
Directions
Squeeze the juice from half a lime into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Drop the lime half in the glass. Pour in the gin, then fill the rest of the glass with club soda. Stir.
Aperol Spritz
This slightly bitter, mostly sweet Italian spritz was first integrated into homo sapien brunch rituals in the year 870 BCE. Probably.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. Aperol
• 3 oz. prosecco
• 2 oz. (or a top off) club soda
• orange slices
Directions
Add Aperol, prosecco, and club soda into a large wine glass over ice. Garnish with fresh orange slices.
Cuba Libre
A Cuba Libre is, simply, a rum and coke with lime. But that lime makes all the difference.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. rum (gold rum is best)
• 1 lime
• Coca-Cola
Directions
Squeeze a lime into a Collins glass. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes. Pour in the rum. Drop in one of the spent lime shells and fill the glass with cold Coca-Cola. Stir briefly.
Caipirinha
Brazil's national cocktail, made with rum's funkier Brazilian cousin, cachaça, will embolden you to either book a trip to Rio or make another Caipirinha. Either is a win.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. cachaça
• 1/2 lime
• 2 tsp. sugar
Directions
Slice the lime into 1/2-inch rounds, cube them, and muddle them in an Old-Fashioned glass with the sugar. Add a couple of ice cubes. Pour in the cachaça. Serve with a stirring rod.
Tequila Sunrise
Chase those cheesy '70s cocktail vibes with this morning-after classic.
Ingredients
• 1 1/2 oz. tequila
• 3 oz. freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tsp. grenadine
Directions
Shake tequila and orange juice well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add grenadine and stir gently, for no longer than is necessary to produce layers of oranges and reds. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
Vodka Lemonade
You could go the cop-out route: Drown some vodka in cheap lemonade and call it a day. But this recipe is worth the effort.
Ingredients
• 24 oz. Simply Lemonade
• 1 c. vodka
• 4 oz. simple syrup*
• club soda
• 4 sprigs fresh peppermint
• 1 lemon, cut into rounds
*Simple Syrup
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 c. fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 c. rhubarb, diced into 1/2-inch bites
Directions
In a pitcher with ice, mix the lemonade with the vodka and simple syrup**. Fill a highball glass (or glasses) to the top with ice. Add vodka lemonade until the glass is three-quarters full. Top off with club soda and stir to mix. Garnish with a lemon round and sprig of mint.
**Simple Syrup Directions
Combine water and sugar in a saucepan over high heat. As the mixture begins to heat up, add your fruit. Bring it to a boil. As soon as the sugar has completely dissolved, remove the mixture from the heat. Let the mixture steep for 30 to 40 minutes. Strain it, leaving only the syrup. Cool to room temperature.
Mojito
Half the joy of a Mojito is in its construction—the picking of mint leaves, the muddling of lime and sugar, the top off of bubbly water. Take your time with this one.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. white rum
• 1/2 oz. lime juice (squeezed fresh)
• 1 tsp. superfine sugar
• 3 mint leaves
• club soda or seltzer
Directions
In a smallish Collins glass, muddle lime juice with 1/2 to 1 tsp. superfine sugar. Add the mint leaves, mushing them against the side of the glass. Fill glass 2/3 with cracked ice and pour in the rum. Pitch in the squeezed-out lime shell and top off with club soda or seltzer.
Long Island Iced Tea
A little-known fact about LIITs: They don't always taste like the water sopped up by a mop from the bar floor after last call. Make this recipe and you'll understand.
Ingredients
• 1/2 oz. vodka
• 1/2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. white rum
• 1/2 oz. silver tequila
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. simple syrup
• 3/4 oz. Mexican Coke
Directions
Shake ingredients (except Mexican Coke), then strain into a Collins glass over crushed ice. Top with Coke and garnish with a lemon twist.
Negroni
The bittersweet Negroni is arguably an any-season drink, but if you'd like to amp up the summertime attitude, try the tequila-based Negroni riff, the Rosita.
Ingredients
• 1 oz. London dry gin
• 1 oz. Campari
• 1 oz. vermouth rosso
Directions
Add the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker. Stir well with cracked ice. Strain into a glass over cubed ice. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.
Piña Colada
This recipe makes one decadent Piña Colada, but we're betting you'll want to multiply it for a full pitcher.
Ingredients
• 2 1/2 oz. rum
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. coconut cream
• ice
Directions
Start with the rum in a blender. Then combine with unsweetened pineapple juice (you can sub in 3 ounces crushed or whole pineapple), and coconut cream. Blend on high with a cup or so of crushed ice, or 5 or 6 ice cubes. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish with whatever you've got.
Salty Dog
Get your vitamin C and your electrolytes in one gulp of this vodka-grapefruit cocktail.
Ingredients
• 1 oz. gin or vodka
• 1 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
• kosher salt
Directions
Wet the rim of a glass and dip it in salt. Add liquor and grapefruit juice over crushed ice in the glass, then stir.
Mai Tai
This tiki bar classic is all ocean waves and tropical sun.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. orange curaçao
• 1/2 oz. orgeat syrup
• 1/8 oz. rock candy syrup
Directions
Shake ingredients with cracked ice in a chilled cocktail shaker. Pour unstrained into a large Collins glass (or tiki mug). Garnish with half a lime shell and a sprig of mint.
Mint Julep
Kentucky's finest demands some showmanship on the bartender's part. Good thing showmanship is what the Derby's all about.
Ingredients
• 3 oz. bourbon
• 5-6 mint leaves
• 1 tsp. sugar
Directions
Place mint leaves in the bottom of a pre-chilled, dry pewter cup. Add sugar and crush slightly with a muddler. Pack glass with finely cracked ice, then pour a generous 3 ounces of Kentucky bourbon over the ice. Stir briskly until the glass frosts. Add more ice and stir again before serving. Stick a few sprigs of mint into the ice to get the aroma.
Painkiller
There isn't an existential malady a fruity, frothy Painkiller won't cure. Temporarily, of course.
Ingredients
• 3 oz. dark or gold rum
• 2 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. coconut cream
Directions
Shake ingredients well with ice in cocktail shaker. Strain into a hurricane glass over fresh ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg.
Sangria
This here is a precise Sangria recipe, but feel free to go with the "kitchen sink" method.
Ingredients
• 1 bottle red table wine
• 1/2 c. brandy
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 1/2 c. pomegranate juice
• 2 c. sparkling water
• 1/4 c. simple syrup
• orange slices
• apple slices
• blackberries
• pomegranate seeds
Directions
Stir all of the ingredients together in a pitcher. Put the pitcher in the refrigerator and let stand overnight. Pour sangria into glasses. Garnish with an orange wedge.
Rum Runner
All of the rums. All of the fruits. One cocktail.
Ingredients
• 1 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. dark rum
• 1 oz. banana liqueur
• 1 oz. blackberry liqueur
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• splash of grenadine
Directions
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish with fresh fruit.
Daiquiri
A Daiquiri is best when it's simple—just three ingredients shaken and strained into a coupe.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. white rum
• 1/2 tsp. superfine sugar
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
Directions
Squeeze the lime into your shaker, stir in the sugar, and then add the rum. Shake well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Paloma
Crisp and tart, the Paloma is a tequila-based ringer in the summer cocktail category.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. tequila
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• pinch of salt
• grapefruit soda
Directions
Combine the tequila (reposado, preferably), lime juice, and salt in a tall glass. Add ice, top off with grapefruit soda, and stir.
Hurricane
Bring a bit of New Orleans nightlife home with this recipe.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. dark rum
• 1 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
• orange slices
• maraschino cherries
Directions
Combine rum, passion fruit syrup, and lemon juice with ice in a shaker. Shake until frosty. Pour into a hurricane glass filled with more ice cubes. Garnish with orange slices and maraschino cherries.
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