"summer cocktails" news and stories

When I was a waiter at a pizza place about 20 years ago, I'd often have customers come in and order a strawberry dikery. Yeah, that's how they pronounced it. I wanted to punch them in the face, but it was usually a woman who said it and my mom raised me to be nicer than that.

Today is National Daiquiri Day, so I thought I'd take this Thursday Happy Hour post to point you to some recipes around the web. Like this one over at Recipezaar. Or maybe this one for a Lime Daiquiri at AllRecipes. And, of course, a recipe for a Strawberry Daiquiri at Vegetarian Fun. A few recipes, actually.

I've seen a dozen different recipes for this drink. Almost all of them feature Midori and a harder liquor, but a lot of them don't go beyond that and a little pineapple juice.

But this recipe at DrinksMixer.com goes a bit further. The midori is there, but is adds a lot of fruit to the mix: peach schnapps, creme de bananes, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. I've seen recipes that include Malibu rum or vodka, but it looks like the schnapps is taking that role in this particular recipe.

Well, there's two words I never thought I'd see in the same name of a drink, "hickory" and "lemonade."

This drink over at AOL Food seems to combine the best of a summer barbecue and the refreshing offerings at a kid's lemonade stand! Not sure how easy it is to get smoked cherries where you are (I never heard of them before this, except when describing wine), but it's a main ingredient. Recipe after the jump.

You surf around the web long enough and you see that there are "theme" drink days for any ocassion. I haven't found one for Arbor Day yet, but I'm sure it's out there.

Associated Content has a list of Memorial Day drinks. I'm not sure what makes them special for today (other than the fact that most of them are summer-ish), but they sound interesting. The Colorado Bulldog combines vodka, coffee-flavored liqueur, cola, and light cream, while the Aqua Pearl features soursop (guanabana) juice, gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, blue curacao, and angostura bitters. There's one called Bees Knees II, which sounds like a horror sequel.

After the jump, the full recipe for another drink, the Lunar Lemon Quencher.

To be filed in the "If you mention, just one more time, how bloody hot you are I am going to tip this glass of pimms over your head".

Hot Passion

• 1 shot Passoa
• 1 shot Vodka
• 3 shots Cranberry Juice
• 3 Shots Orange Juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass.

Niagara Falls

• 1 shot Vodka
• 1 shot Grand Marnier
• ½ shot Fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 shot sugar syrup
• Top Up With Ginger Ale

Shake first four ingredients with ice and strain into a glass. Top up with the ale and stir gently.

Summer Breeze

• 2 shots Vodka
• ½ shot Elderflower Cordial
• Top Up With 2/3 Cranberry Juice and 1/3 Cloudy Apple Juice

Pour ingrdients into ice filled glass. Lovely.

God, I'm hot.