Recipes for Summer Cocktails

The sun is blazing across the sky, dripping heat. A slight breeze brings only a touch of relief. What could be better now than serving ice cold, thirst-quenching summer cocktails?

Refreshing Recipes for Summer Cocktails

Tequila Sunrise

Ingredients You Will Need:
3 ounces tequila
1 ½ cups orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed
1 ½ ounces grenadine
Maraschino cherries
 
Chill two 12-ounce glasses. Mix together the tequila and orange juice. Pour into glasses filled with ice. Gently add the grenadine. Wait for the grenadine to settle on the bottom of the glasses before serving. Garnish with cherries. Serves two.
 
Mint Juleps

Ingredients You Will Need:
2 cups bourbon
¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves (Do not chop finely)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Mint leaves for garnish
 
Chill four glasses. Bring the chopped mint leaves and water to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Add sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from your stove and let cool. After the syrup is cool, pour the syrup through a strainer. Fill each glass with crushed ice, four ounces of bourbon and ¼ cup of syrup and stir. Garnish with mint leaves and serve. Serves four.
 
Cosmopolitan

Ingredients You Will Need:
6 ounces vodka
1 tablespoon + one teaspoon lime juice, preferably fresh
¼ cup cointreau
¾ cup cranberry juice
 
Fill a shaker with ice. Pour ingredients over the ice and shake vigorously. Strain into cocktail glasses. Serves four.
 
Long Island Ice Tea

Ingredients You Will Need:
1 ounce gin
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce triple sec
½ ounce tequila
2 teaspoons lemon juice, preferably fresh
Cola
 
Shake all of the ingredients except the cola in a mixing glass filled with ice. Strain the iced tea into two ice-filled glasses. Top the beverage with cola per your taste. Serves two.
 
Watermelon Slush Fund

Ingredients You Will Need:
4 cups seedless watermelon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup vodka
2 ounces melon liqueur
2 ounces simple syrup (recipe to follow)

Freeze four martini glasses. Puree the watermelon and pour into ice cube trays. Let freeze for at least four hours. Pop the frozen watermelon cubes from the ice trays into a blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Makes four servings.

Simple Syrup
One part water to one part sugar.

Boil water. Add sugar. Turn down heat to simmer. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a tightly sealed glass jar in your refrigerator.