Take Your Shoes Off & Have a Drink!
I’m an outside, barefoot, walk around the yard, drinker. After a hot day pulling weeds, or washing the car, or driving around to dry-cleaners and crowded malls, there’s nothing I love more than pouring a fatty around sundown and hanging in my yard. Sprinkler’s on; neighbors stroll over; you have the night (or at least a couple hours) ahead of you. Something cold in a glass, and I’m all set. Here are a few delightful warm-weather drinks that will be perfect on the balcony or while wandering your lands.
Mi Amor
It all can’t be margaritas when you pour from a bottle of tequila, and while we have some very good tequila recipes on site, I found the Mi Amor to be an excellent tequila cocktail, and one you could proudly pour now that the weather’s warm. You build this drink in a double rocks glass, so there’s no shakers or pitchers to clean at the end of the night. Leave the fixings out on the counter, or patio table, and you can make them as your guests make their appearances. Rich, frothy, tangy and spicy, this cocktail goes with food, or can hang on its own as just a straight up drink.
Here we go –
- 2 oz tequila
- 1/2 oz creme de cassis
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- ginger beer to fill
In a fat rocks glass that’s filled with ice, pour tequila, cassis, lime juice, then stir. Fill with ginger beer & garnish with a lime wedge. Prepare to make more.
Chipotle Cherry Margarita
It’s a fun drink that has a lot more going for it then I’d have thought …until I made one. This is a great drink to make if you’re not expecting a large crowd. Sitting next to a bowl of fresh salsa & chips, this cocktail begs to be made and sipped, say around 5pm, on a warm night when you’re able to blend and not feel rushed. Cherries are starting to hit, and I love ’em, so this bumped to the top of my try-list after reading about it in a cooking magazine. A combination of tart & smoky, this is a good snack drink but not one I’d lean on if I had to keep making them for a gathering. If you’re a fan of the hot-sauce, try this one. You’ll need to pit a bag of cherries.
Here we go –
- 1 cup pitted cherries
- 2 1/2 oz tequila
- 1/4 simple syrup
- 1 -2 (depending on your taste) tsp of chipotle hot sauce (I use TX Pete’s)
- cup ice
- smoked salt, if you can find it…but coarse salt will work
Blend everything but the salt in a blender. Rim a margarita or large wine glass with the salt. Fill glass & garnish with a couple cherries or a slice of hot pepper.
Grapefruit Margarita
I love lime juice, but let’s face it, it gets kind of overused in warm weather cocktails. A simple solution which truly changes the flavor and vibe of a drink is to substitute grapefruit juice. Here’s a quick ‘n easy recipe for a bastardized margarita I love!
Here we go – (she’s a big one)
- 3 oz tequila
- 2 oz Grand Marnier
- 2 oz fresh lime juice
- 6 oz fresh grapefruit juice (pink is best)
- 1 oz+ simple syrup (to taste … I like ’em kinda sour)
Grapefruit wedges & coarse salt on the rim as garnish. Mix one up in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Pour into one of those giant margarita glasses that take up too much room in your kitchen cabinet.
The Paloma
Another wonderful use for the grapefruit hiding out in your bottom refrigerator drawer, the Paloma cocktail is extremely popular south of the border. Be carefu, ’cause you’ll wanna drink them like a cold beer in the summer. Yet another gulp-able cocktail that drinks well with grilled food.
- Here we go –
- 1/4 cup grapefruit juice
- 1/4 cup tequila
- 1/2 oz lime juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- club soda to fill
Rim a hi-ball with a grapefruit wedge, then rim w/ coarse salt. Pour 1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice w/ ½ oz lime juice & 1 tsp sugar, stir till sugar is dissolved. Add 1/4 cup good tequila, stir again. Fill glass up with cracked ice, then fill with club-soda. Stir again, throw a wedge of grapefruit on the rim and enjoy.
Kentucky Blizzard
I tripped over this one while perusing MadeMan.com & quickly figured it was worth a try. The cocktail kind of goes against my “classic” intuitions, but … the ingredients are all old-school, and I was thirsty. Thirst more than quenched, I sipped my next and found the drink to solidly hold its own against the 85 degree night and was easily able to compliment the Sammy Davis Jr. I had on the phonograph. Bourbon’s a good pal of mine, and he didn’t at all mind putting on some cranberry socks for the evening. Try it and trust me, this is a great patio cocktail.
Here we go –
- 1 1/2 oz bourbon
- 1 ½ oz cranberry juice
- 1/2 oz lime juice
- 1/2 oz grenadine
- tsp. sugar
Shake with crushed ice until ice-cold in a shaker, pour into a double-old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a slice of orange.
