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![a group of people toast with summer cocktails, wine, and beer](https://corporette.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/best-summer-cocktails.jpg)
What is your favorite summer cocktail, wine, beer, or other libation? Do you drink the same thing year-round, or do sunny, warm days make you think of different drinks?
(Psst: In the past we've talked about keeping alcohol in the office, the best mocktails and other non-alcoholic drinks, jobs that encourage drinking, “overachieving women” and drinking, and (way back when) what to drink at an office cocktail party. What is the drinking situation at your office this summer, readers — lots of cocktail parties for interns and summers, or do you feel like it's been dialed back a bit?)
My Favorite Summer Cocktails
For my $.02… I'm not a huge wine person, but something about spring (and only spring) says rosé to me… but if I'm at a restaurant offering a frosé in the summer, I may indulge. When I'm drinking wine a nice white definitely feels more summery than red. Except for Beaujolais, which for some reason I always associate with “fancy picnic wine,” and maybe Lambrusco or sangria.
In terms of cocktails, I love a dirty gin martini and will drink that year round; ditto for an old-fashioned. But if there's a Bee's Knees on the cocktail menu or another fun drink involving lemon, elderflower, or honey syrup, those will often get me also.
My Favorite Low- and Non-Alcoholic Summer Drinks
As far as other libations go, I've never been a huge fan of lemonade (despite my love for lemon, go figure). I'm more likely to grab a lemonade-flavored seltzer or a kombucha than a lemonade. I have been getting into mocktails in recent years, and I really like some of the lighter nonalcoholic beers from Athletic Brewing or BrewDog, and Clausthaler makes an amazing grapefruit-flavored mocktail if you can find it. (I also like Fever Tree's grapefruit soda.)
When I'm feeling extra fancy, I still love to make the grapefruit-elderflower mocktail I shared in our roundup of 10 great mocktails for Dry January… If I'm OK with having a low alcohol drink I'll sometimes add just a splash of St. Germain to seltzer. We're starting to get into a few of the lower-alcohol things like spiked seltzers, spiked kombucha, and ranch water, but we're just starting because it took me a while to get over my Zima/”wine cooler” memories. I'd love to know if you have favorites.
(I also still make “unicorn juice” — hat tip to the readers for that one!)
Readers, how about you: What are your favorite summer drinks like cocktails, wine, beer, and other libations? (What are your favorite seltzers, readers? I'm pretty loyal to Spindrift, especially since you can often find it on sale in large quantities, but I know that brands like Poland Spring and La Croix have a bunch of fun seasonal flavors also…)
Psst: looking to moderate your drinking?
![portion-controlled wine glasses](https://corporette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/portion-controlled-wine-glasses.jpg)
Pictured above, some ideas on how to moderate your drinking: Caloric Cuvee, [sold out] but similar) and Wine-Trax; all $9-$19 at Amazon. I've also talked about how much I love the beautiful cocktail glasses from The History Company because they're generally smaller!
Stock photo via Stencil.
Frith
Glass of tonic, lots of ice, topped off with Cocchi Americano. Bitter, sweet, easy, low ABV.
JM
I kind of miss wine coolers! Mojitos – laborious but good. Have not made my own ranch water but I like the Dos Equis ones. Homemade sangria. LaCroix – like you say, a low alcohol choice if you add a splash of something. I like some of the special edition Hendricks or the Tanqueray Rangpur mixed and matched with different LaCroix.
Anon
Vinho verde. It’s a Portuguese white wine with a low alcohol content (9%) and a slight fizz. It’s just right for sitting by the pool
Anon
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