Summer, summer, summer-time! This summer we’ve pulled together the most refreshing, and most delicious, selection of recipes to celebrate the warmest months of the year with your favourite people.
You’ll find a mix of classic cocktails and Candra original recipes to suit every taste, occasion and complexity. What more can we say?
Keep cool and carry on mixing!
01. Aperol Spritz
No summer selection is complete without this bitter, sweet, dry and refreshing iconic serve. You can order one anywhere these days, and now you can make one perfectly at home too!
02. Bramble
A true modern classic. Crisp and dry but with a blast of fruit. The Bramble is a gin sour laced with rich blackberry liqueur, yes please!
This version has a little trick up its sleeve too, using an empty Fords Gin bottle. You simply fill the Fords Gin bottle with gin, lemon, water and sugar to the lines marked on the bottle, then keep it in the fridge to chill. When ready to serve, you simply shake the bottle, pour the mixture into a glass, add crushed ice, a splash of blackberry liqueur, then garnish and enjoy!
03. Caipiriñha
Another crushed ice brain freezer, the Caipiriñha used to be a mainstay of most cocktail menus, but has dropped off into somewhat obscurity in recent years. However, this blast of ice-cold sweet, sour, boozy simplicity is delicious and well overdue a comeback!
Go get your muddler out the back of the cupboard and get to work!
04. Barbie Girl Frozé
Although we wrote this recipe in honor of the summer’s most eagerly awaited movie, don’t be fooled, this is no gimmick recipe. Rose wine, red bitter aperitivo, St.Germain elderflower liqueur, fresh pink grapefruit all blended together with ice and strawberries. No joke, it IS deliciously refreshing.
05. Piña Colada
One of the original summer holiday delights. Rum, pineapple, coconut, blended together into a deliciously thick experience that transports you instantly to the beach, wherever you are.
06. Tinto de Verano
Imagine yourself in the dry heat of the South of Spain. This is what you need to thrive. Sweetened or not, this is one of the absolute simplest and most delicious ways to stay cool in the summer.
07. Watermelon Mule
Watermelon, a fruit that is to summer what mulled wine is to winter. The simple and delicious Mule formula is given a Candra makeover with fresh watermelon. You’re welcome!
08. Perfect Lady
The White Lady gets a fruity twist with the use of peach liqueur. A bright and refreshing little drink that also has the texture of drinking a fluffy boozy cloud!
09. Manzanita Spritz(ish)
The Spritz is a specific style of drink, but these days it’s more of a loose style of refreshingly effervescent cocktail. With this recipe we’re also helping to break the rules of the Spritz, but it’s worth it! This one uses Bacanora, the agave spirit of Sonora in mexico. So, if you like Tequila or Mezcal and you enjoy a Spritz, this is a recipe you need to explore!
10. Frozen Strawberry Margarita
Does it spark joy?1 Yes, yes it does! Always and forever. A delicious twist on the Margarita that’s perfect for hot summer days. Don’t like strawberries? Just replace them with your preferred berry or fruit and get your blender fired up!
11. Rebujito
To survive the heat and intensity of the festival tents of Southern Spain, this simple and refreshing cocktail is drunk by the jug while dancing non-stop. Imagine a more carbonated Mojito made with Sherry and you’re pretty close to the delights of the Rebujito!
12. Skinny Margarita
A low sugar Candra Margarita mix that you don’t drink because it’s ‘skinny’ but because it’ll be your new favourite Margarita mix.
13. French Spritz
Aperitif wine, bubbles, cucumber and elderflower. Could it be more summery? No, probably not!
14. Rickey / Ranch Water
An old classic cocktail that was literally designed for summer! No sugar is used in this recipe in an attempt to help keep the body cool during the intense and humid summer heat of Washington DC. Incredibly simple to make, lower in strength too, it’s a perfect option for summer.
Ranch Water, a much more recent invention, takes the same formula of spirit, lime and sparkling waterbut is made straight into the water bottle and is traditionally made using tequila and Topo Chico.
15. Mayflower Punch
Punch is cool again! Thanks to bars bringing this large format style of drink back into the mainstream and proving that not only can Punch be delicious, it has a great and important history that even predates the cocktail.
Although there’s a little bit of work to do here, you’re only making and balancing one drink for your whole party. So go ahead and work smarter not harder!
16. Mojito
The cool, fresh notes of mint are combined with fresh citrus and rum all folded together with crushed ice to create a brain freezingly delicious experience to cool you on even the hottest of days.
17. Royal Bitter Spritz
One more Spritz riff for your consideration. This is another recipe that looks like it might be sweet and sickly, but it’s actually a refreshing, dry and bitter glass of bubbles that also has a delightful fruity character that’ll put a smile on anyone’s face!
As always, don’t forget to show us what you made by tagging us!
@Candra_Drinks #MakeBetterDrinks #CandraDrinks
