Occasion
Summer cocktails
Hot weather changes what a good cocktail actually needs to do — refresh you, not just intoxicate you. Summer drinks lean hard on citrus, soda and plenty of ice, keeping alcohol content moderate and sweetness in check so the drink stays drinkable glass after glass rather than turning cloying after the first sip in the sun.
What summer drinks have in common
Measured across the 83 recipes on this page, compared with the rest of the site.
- Strength
- Noticeably lighter than average — a median of 9% in the glass against 18% across the rest of the site.
- Citrus
- 73% use fresh citrus, against 47% elsewhere — buy limes and lemons before anything else.
- Difficulty
- 81% are rated easy, against 48% across the rest of the catalogue.
- Alcohol-free and low-alcohol
- 33% of this list is alcohol-free or low in alcohol, so there is something to serve everyone without making a separate drink.
83 summer cocktails
Garden Highball
Alcohol-free botanical spirit, tonic, cucumber and mint — a crisp, herbal highball for the garden.
Ginger Lime Fizz
Ginger beer, lime and soda over ice with mint — a spicy, fizzy CocktailHQ original.
Espresso Tonic
Chilled tonic water over ice with a fresh double espresso poured on top — bittersweet, fizzy and cold.
Three Dots and a Dash
Dark and gold rum shaken with citrus, falernum and allspice dram — a spiced tiki classic named for its Morse-code cherry garnish.
Kombucha Mule
Ginger kombucha and lime over ice — a tangy, faintly funky alcohol-free take on the Moscow Mule format.
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Muddled cucumber and mint lengthened with lime and soda — a cool, green, alcohol-free highball.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Queen's Park Swizzle
Rum, lime, mint and sugar swizzled through crushed ice, with a float of Angostura on top.
Virgin Sunrise
Orange juice and grenadine, layered so the colour bleeds from red to gold — the Tequila Sunrise without the tequila.
Virgin Sea Breeze
Cranberry and grapefruit over ice — the Sea Breeze's dry, tart half, which was always the interesting part.
Lime Rickey
Lime, a little sugar and soda water — three ingredients, and the driest long drink on the site.
Raspberry Shrub Soda
Raspberry shrub lengthened with soda — sweet, sharp and genuinely complex, with vinegar doing the work alcohol usually does.