The first day of spring is Saturday, March 20. Raise a glass to the change of seasons with one of the refreshing sippers below.
Genever Daisy
Ingredients:
2 oz Bols Genever Original
0.5 oz Bols Maraschino or Orange Curacao
0.25 oz of rich sugar syrup (2 parts sugar: 1 part water)
0.25 oz Lemon juice
Directions:
Shake all ingredients and fine strain into a pre-chilled coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with lemon peel.
Recipe and image courtesy of Bols Genever.
Give It Mahalo You’ve Got
Ingredients:
1 oz. Havana Club Añejo Especial
.5 oz. Rum Java Cacao Rum
.5 oz. Blood Orange Aperitivo
.25 oz. Spytail Black Ginger Rum
.25 oz. Banana Liqueur
.25 oz. Amaretto
.25 oz. Creme de Mure
.25 oz. Allspice Dram
.25 oz. Vanilla Liqueur
1.5 oz. Regatta Bermuda Stone Ginger Beer
Homemade Juice Blend (pineapple, guava, pomegranate, blood orange, lychee, caped gooseberry)
Juice of ½ Lime
6 Drops Dashfire Bay Leaf Bitters
6 Drops Bittermen’s ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters
6 Dashes El Guapo Fuego Bitters
Directions:
Fill a glass with ice. Start dumping stuff in. Garnish like your life depends on it. Stir well. Drink.
Recipe courtesy of Regatta Craft Mixers and Instagram mixologist and cocktail blogger, Jes Gutierrez-Switaj
Smoke Lab Anise
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Smoke Lab Aniseed Vodka
¼ oz. Vermouth
1/3 oz. Fresh lime juice
1/3 oz. Sancha tea honey syrup
1 Egg White
Directions:
In a shaker filled with ice, measure the above ingredients and shake well. Serve strained into a tumbler glass with ice. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and a slice of dehydrated orange.
Recipe courtesy of Smoke Lab Vodka.
Mimosa Sbagliato
Ingredients:
1.5oz Galliano L’Aperitivo
3.5oz Prosecco
Top of Grapefruit juice
Directions:
Build ingredients in an ice filled glass and stir. Garnish with a grapefruit wheel.
Recipe and image courtesy of Galliano.
What’s Up Brock?
Ingredients:
2 parts Brockmans Gin
¾ part apricot liqueur
1 part fresh carrot juice
Fresh coriander leaves
Directions:
Add the Brockmans, apricot liqueur, carrot juice and about 5 fresh torn coriander leaves to a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice cubes.
Garnish with the green carrot stem.
Recipe and photo courtesy of Brockmans Gin.
Rosa Romance
Ingredients:
1 ounce Watershed Distillery Four Peel Gin
2-3 ounces of Rosa Regale
.5 ounces Grand Marnier
Two dashes of orange bitters
Directions:
Combine Watershed Distillery Four Peel Gin, Grand Marnier and two dashes of orange bitters. Top with 2-3 ounces of Rosa Regale.
Recipe and image courtesy of Rosa Regale.
Black Mist
Ingredients:
2 oz. Smoke Lab Aniseed Vodka
2 tsp. dried cranberries
1 Orange wedge squeezed/1 dehydrated orange slice
3 drops orange bitters
Directions:
In a tumbler, pour Smoke Lab Aniseed and dried cranberries and muddle until the flavors are released. Add three drops of orange bitters and squeeze a fresh wedge of orange and drop. Overfill the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with dried cranberries and dehydrated orange.
Recipe courtesy of Smoke Lab Vodka.
Queen of Paradise
Ingredients:
1 oz. Jamaican Rum
1 oz. Dark Rum
1 oz. Passionfruit Liqueur
.5 oz. Blood Orange Liqueur
2 oz. Regatta Ginger Ale
2 oz. Pomegranate Juice
1 oz. Pineapple Juice
.5 oz. Lime Juice
1 Barspoon Orange Blossom Water
1 Barspoon Luxardo Cherry Syrup
Directions:
Combine rums, liqueurs, pomegranate juice and cherry syrup and stir. Separately, combine pineapple juice, lime juice and orange blossom water. Fill a glass with crushed or nugget ice. Pour in rum mixture. Add Regatta Ginger Ale. Add more ice if needed and then float pineapple mixture on top. Garnish with dried fruit, a cherry and a ginger crown. Stir before drinking.
Recipe courtesy of Regatta Craft Mixers and Instagram mixologist and cocktail blogger, Jes Gutierrez-Switaj
Pineapple Ginger Spritz
Ingredients:
1 ounce pineapple ginger juice
1 ½ ounce Italian bitter aperitif, such as Aperol
Chilled Mezza di Mezzacorona Brut, to top (about 3 ounces per cocktail)
Directions:
For the pineapple ginger juice, add 2 medium knobs peeled ginger root (about 2 inches total) and 1 cup fresh pineapple juice to a blender, then blend on high speed just until the ginger root is liquified. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and store in the refrigerator until ready for use (one cup will make 8 cocktails). For each cocktail, pour 1 ounce of the pineapple ginger juice and 1.5 ounces of Aperol into a chilled rocks glass filled with ice, then carefully top with the chilled prosecco. Optional: Garnish with an orange slice and fresh herbs, such as mint, rosemary, and thyme.
Recipe and image courtesy of Mezza di Mezzacorona
Brockmans Purple Spring
Ingredients:
2 parts Brockmans Gin
1 ¾ parts beetroot juice
4 parts wild berry cider
Directions:
Add the Brockmans and beetroot juice to a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a stemmed Copa glass (bowl glass) filled with ice. Top with the berry cider and give it a gentle stir. Garnish with a very thin slice of dehydrated beetroot and edible flowers such as violas for a touch of Spring.
Recipe and photo courtesy of Brockmans Gin.
Garden to Glass
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Dobel Diamante Tequila
½ oz. Garden Syrup
3 Cucumber Slices
1 oz. Lime Juice
2 oz. Q Grapefruit Soda
Directions:
Muddle cucumbers and syrup. Add tequila and lime juice to tin. Shake, strain over fresh ice. Top with grapefruit soda.
Recipe and photo courtesy of American Social.
Koko Chanel
Ingredients:
1 oz tanqueray Gin
.5 oz lillet blanc
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz strawberry purée
.75 oz coconut rose syrup
Prosecco
Rose water mist
Directions:
Combine the gin, lillet blanc, lemon juice, strawberry purée and coconut rose syrup. Served in a champagne glass and topped with prosecco, garnished with a rose water mist.
Recipe courtesy of Papi Steak. Photo Credit: Moris Moreno.
Mediterranean Mule
Ingredients:
.75 oz. Lime Juice
.5 oz. Liber & Co. Ginger
.5 oz. Liber & Co. Orgeat
.25 oz. Galliano L’Autentico
1.5 oz. Rosemary-Thyme Vodka*
1-2 oz. Soda Water
1 Thyme Sprig
1 Oregano Sprig
Directions:
*ROSEMARY-THYME VODKA INGREDIENTS:
-1 Rosemary Sprig
-2 Thyme Sprigs
-1 bottle vodka
*ROSEMARY-THYME VODKA PROCEDURE:
1. Add rosemary and thyme to bottle of preferred vodka
2. Let sit out at room temperature overnight
3. The next day, strain out any herb remnants
COCKTAIL PROCEDURE:
1. Combine all ingredients, excluding the soda water, in a shaker.
2. Add ice, shake until cold.
3. Add soda to shaker, and strain over fresh ice in a glass.
4. Garnish with thyme and oregano sprig
Photo and recipe courtesy of Aba.
The Entertainer
Ingredients:
50 ml Pure Scot Virgin Oak
10 ml orgeat
15 ml grapefruit juice
10 ml fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Shake and double strain into Champagne flute or small cocktail glass, top with a splash of soda and garnish with grapefruit peel.