boozy (or not) mint lemonade

Summer is in full swing, it’s going at full tilt, it's turned up to 11 and it’s hot. All I want to do is lie in a hammock, at a lake, but I don’t have a hammock or a lake particularly handy. Instead I have reoriented my whole life around finding and consuming cool drinks. My main motivation, my primary reason for being is cool drinks. Life has become a just a series of obstacles between me and my next cool drink. Lemonade is the quintessential, the platonic, the ur-summertime quaff. This sweet-tart minty lemonade is even more refreshing, even more summery and cooling than the standard version. 

You can feel perfectly free to booze this up or not. Just about anything you have handy would be delightful, vodka, gin or especially tequila turn this into a very fortifying little cocktail in a hurry.

boozy (or not) mint lemonade:

• ½ cup sugar

• 3 cups water

• 1 large bunch mint, about 2 cups

• 1 cup lemon juice

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Add ½ the mint and lightly crush with a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.

Stir together lemon juice, cooled syrup and most remaining mint (leaving a few stems for garnish if you like). Serve ice cold, with mint for garnish, with or without a spirit boost. Do your best to find a hammock.

grapefruit & gin slush

I love a slushy drink, like a blended margarita or a julep. They are so festive and vacationy and they have just a hint of childish nostalgia for slurpees. But I always feel like they are a bit too much bother with all that blending, and I get anxious that I won’t get the slushy texture right. This one comes together with a perfect slushiness and the tart grapefruit goes wonderfully with herbaceous gin.

Make sure to peel the grapefruit really well, otherwise you will be chewing on a lot of roughage with your cocktail.

grapefruit & gin slush:

• 2 cups grapefruit sorbet
• 1 pink grapefruit
• 4 ounces gin

Peel grapefruit, removing as much with pith as possible. Roughly chop and freeze in a zip-top bag until frozen solid.

Combine sorbet, frozen grapefruit and gin in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Serves 4.

amaretto & sour cherry sour

I hate maraschino cherries. They are too sweet and rubbery and I can't understand why anyone would ever use them as a cocktail garnish. I recently found a way better cherry garnish: sour cherries in light syrup. They come in a jar and they don't have a very sweet syrup, so the cherries retain some tartness and still taste like actually cherries, instead of nasty, gummy sugar balls. I have also used them in pies and as a cake filling, mixed with some other fresh fruit and they are always delicious. 

In these cocktails, I used the juice the cherries are packed in, as well as the cherries for garnish. The tartness from the cherries and lemon is perfect against the near cloying sweetness of amaretto. Excellent for a festive cocktail party or for ringing in the new year. You can easily multiply the recipe to make a pitcher for a bigger crowd (or a thirstier crowd). 

amaretto sour cherry sour

serves 4

• 4 ounces amaretto 
• 2 ounces lemon juice 
• 3 ounces sour cherry juice
• 5 dashes bitters
• sour cherries for garnish 

Shake everything but the cherries in a cocktail shaker with ice and pour into four glasses with an ice cube in each. Garnish with a skewer of cherries. 

Cheers!

quince gin fizz

Quince is a funny little fruit. It looks like a knobby, furry little pear and it's very hard and sour when raw. Cooking transforms it into a rosy-pink little gem with a citrusy-appley sort of taste. And the syrup it makes it so lovely and glowingly pink.

It also has slightly poisonous seeds that can give off hydrogen cyanide when ingested, so that's fun! Quince is like a really low risk fruit version of fugu fish. Don't worry though, you need to eat a lot of quince seeds to harm you. I think it's a good metaphor-fruit for a New Years Eve cocktail; about transforming something odd and a bit difficult into something lovely and slightly thrilling. Because all cocktails are elaborate metaphors about your life right? 

Anyway, happy new year! I hope you have a wonderful and quince-like 2017. 

quince gin fizz:

• gin
• limes
• quince syrup (recipe below)
• soda water
• mint sprigs for garnish

For each drink: 

Peel a strip of lime peel over a glass, aiming to catch the oils that spray out in the glass. Give it a squeeze to get a bit more oil into the glass. 

Combine 1 ounce gin, 1/2 ounce lime juice and 1/2 ounce syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into the glass. Top up with soda water and garnish with mint. 

quince syrup: 

• 4 quinces, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup sugar 
• 2 tbs lime juice
• 2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a small pan and simmer on low heat for two hours, until syrup thickens slightly and turns a lovely, jewelled rose colour. Store in refrigerator. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert