Drink Recipes: 10 Awesome Summer Cocktails

I’m going to share some great drink recipes with you today for some awesome summer cocktails. Warm weather has already arrived in South Georgia and in Florida, and that means lazy afternoons by the pool or on the beach. We just returned home from Orlando, and when we weren’t at Disney World, we were enjoying the resort pools and tiki bars. The temperatures were in the eighties, the sun was shining, and the pools were heated, so frozen cocktails were certainly in order. There’s just nothing like soaking up the rays while a frosty cocktail is chilling your hand and cooling you off from the inside, and I was introduced to a new drink that’s my current fave – the Wipeout. I like my summer cocktails to be sweet, fruity, and frozen, bursting with the wonderful flavors of fresh fruits. If your tastes are similar, I think you’ll enjoy these refreshing drink recipes!

Whenever possible, I like to use fresh ingredients in cooking, and I feel the same way about drink recipes. It’s even better when the ingredients are locally grown. Here in the Deep South, we have access to all sorts of fresh produce, and I like to use fresh fruits in my summer cocktail recipes. Sure, you can use premade mixers in your drink recipes, and I’ll admit that some of them are quite tasty – but in my opinion, they can’t beat the taste of fresh ingredients.

When you’re making your summer cocktail recipes with fresh fruit, remember that not all fruits are created equal. You probably know this already from experience. Sometimes you buy fruits like strawberries or peaches that are ripe, sweet, and juicy. At other times, however, the fruits might be under ripe, too firm, and have hardly any sweetness at all. When that’s the case, you might need to add a little more liquid and/or sugar to your summer cocktail recipes in order to get the desired results. For liquids, you can use a little extra fruit juice, ginger ale, or club soda. For sugar, you can use regular granulated white sugar or powdered sugar.

I’ll admit right here and now that I’m not much of a drinker. I like a glass of wine occasionally, but I really don’t care much for the taste of liquors, and I hate beer. I do, however, enjoy the relaxing quality of alcoholic drinks, but I don’t want them to taste like alcoholic drinks. Keep that in mind as you peruse my drink recipes. You might want to make yours stronger by adding more alcohol.

To make frozen cocktails, the amount of ice you use is important. The ice, of course, is what makes the drinks thick and frosty, but if you use too much ice, the flavor of your frozen cocktails will become diluted. If you’re concerned about this, you can always make ice from fruit juices. Just fill a plastic ice tray with the juice of your choice and freeze it. Then just plop a few of the cubes in the blender with the other ingredients. And, by the way, I always add my ice last.

If I don't include specific mixing instructions for these summer cocktail recipes, that means you can just throw all the ingredients into the blender and process them until they're smooth. Of course, if you have a slush machine or a margarita machine, you can make a great big batch at one time.

The Wipeout is one of the best mixed drinks I’ve ever had! In fact, it’s my current favorite. I enjoyed my first Wipeout at a Florida tiki bar, but the bartender wouldn’t share his drink recipes, and I don’t really blame him. I’ve always been good at picking up on flavors and creating copycat recipes for foods and drinks I’ve enjoyed in restaurants and bars, and once I returned home, I was determined to make my own Wipeout. With a little experimenting, I was successful!

This is the best strawberry daiquiri recipe I’ve ever used. Using fresh berries really makes a big difference! I think the ginger ale gives it another level of flavor, too.

4 ounces rum

1 ½ cup fresh strawberries, sliced

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons ginger ale

Sugar, to taste

¾ cup crushed ice

Directions: Place rum, strawberries, lime juice, and ginger ale in blender. Pulse until berries are pureed. Add ice and process to desired consistency.

These are great summer cocktails that a friend of mine makes. He adds another word in the name of these frozen drinks, which I’ve omitted. Pink Panties are basically frozen pink lemonade drinks, so if you like lemonade, you’ll enjoy these drink recipes.

Version #1

1 ½ ounces rum

½ cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 tablespoon ginger ale or Sprite

1 ½ cups crushed ice

Version #2

1 ½ ounces vodka

½ cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 tablespoon grenadine

1 ½ cups crushed ice

I love these frozen drinks! Are you wondering how I came up with the name for these summer cocktails? I’m a Georgia native who visits the Sunshine State every chance I get, which is pretty darn often. In fact, I just returned from a trip to Orlando. My state is famous for its peaches, and Florida is known for its citrus fruits.

2 ounces rum or vodka

1 large ripe peach, peeled and diced

1 ripe orange, peeled, seeded, and diced

½ cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

Sugar, to taste

1 ½ cups crushed ice

Directions: Add rum, peach, and orange to blender and puree. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

These delicious frozen cocktails combine the flavors of watermelon and raspberries, which is a great duo. The melon is sweet, and the berries are tart. If you find that your raspberries are a little too tart, just add more sugar!

3 cups watermelon pulp, seeds removed

1 cup fresh raspberries

4 ounces rum

¼ cup lime juice

Sugar, to taste

½ cup crushed ice

Directions: Place melon pulp in freezer until slushy. Add to blender.

Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

This is a new twist on an old southern favorite. Use fresh mint leaves – not mint extract or flavoring. You can find fresh mint in the produce section of most supermarkets.

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

Small bunch fresh mint leaves

8 ounces Kentucky bourbon

½ cup lime juice

3 cups crushed ice

green food coloring (optional)

Mint leaves or lime slice, for garnish

Directions: Bring sugar and water to a full boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Bruise mint leaves by crushing and add to hot syrup. Cover and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Strain syrup into blender.

Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Pour frozen mint juleps into glasses and garnish with mint leaves.

Some pals and I went through a banana daiquiri phase a couple of decades ago. We referred to our daiquiri making as “ice cream socials,” and we did get pretty social after drinking a few.

3 ounces rum

¼ cup lime juice

1 large ripe banana, peeled and sliced

1 scoop soft vanilla ice cream

1 ½ cups crushed ice

Sugar, to taste

This refreshing frozen cocktail includes the tropical flavors of coconut, pineapple, and orange. Where does the orange flavor come in? It comes from the blue curacao, which is made from the peels of laraha fruits. Laraha was developed using orange trees. For a more distinct orange flavor, you can use orange juice in place of the ginger ale, but I find that the ginger ale gives the drink a really refreshing twist.

1 ounce coconut rum

1 ounce blue curacao

¼ cup pineapple juice

¼ cup ginger ale

1 cup crushed ice

If someone would keep me supplied with these frozen drinks and reserve me a quiet place in the sand, I could easily become a beach bum!

½ cup orange juice

½ cup lemon juice

½ cup lime juice

½ cup pink grapefruit juice

½ cup peach schnapps

2/3 cup rum

Sugar, to taste

1-2 cups crushed ice (optional)

Directions: Combine orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, and grapefruit juice and freeze in ice tray until slushy. Place frozen juice cubes in blender and add peach schnapps and rum. Taste for sugar. For thicker frozen cocktails, add regular crushed ice. Process until smooth.

After a few of these summer cocktails, you’ll be saying “Arrrrr” and be ready to loot and pillage! Adjust the amount of sugar, according to how tart you want your drinks.

2 ounces coconut rum

2 ounces pineapple juice

2 ounces lemon juice

1 tablespoon grenadine

Pinch ground ginger

Sugar, to taste

1 cup crushed ice

With a few good frozen drink recipes and a slush machine, you can be your own bartender! Check out the models above. I'm getting one for my birthday. Frozen drink machines make concocting summer cocktails quick and easy for practically anyone. They’re big hits at pool parties, summer cookouts, and any warm weather get-together. Sometimes you’ll find a slush machine referred to as a margarita machine, but don’t let that confuse you. A margarita machine can be used to make practically any frozen cocktails – pina coladas, daiquiris, frozen mudslides, creamsicles, and more. Of course, the frozen drinks don’t have to contain alcohol, so a slush machine will be a big hit with the kids, too. A good slush or margarita machine will shave or grind the ice to just the right consistency for cocktails, and it won’t leave chunks of ice in the drinks like a blender often does. Most of these machines also have easy-to-use spouts for serving. Many of the frozen drink machines also make a large quantity at the time, so you can serve several people from a single batch. Try my drink recipes for summer cocktails with a slush machine for some amazing results!