Sometimes the best salve for the soul is gathering with our favorite people. A magical way to connect with others is through celebration, and Shondaland’s Let’s Party! Summer Fun, Food, and Beverages series is your personal guide to creatively entertaining and communing this season. Cheers!
The weather is hot, and you’re feeling lazy, but people are coming over, so why not just throw a few hard seltzers into an ice bucket and call it a day? Well, because your friends deserve a bit more effort than fizzy booze from a can.
Kaitlyn Stewart, a bartender and consultant from Vancouver, Canada, who was crowned the World Class Bartender of the Year in 2017 by Diageo, says it’s totally possible to keep cocktails super-simple while still adding a few special touches to ensure that your guests know you care.
“It’s all about the experience,” says Stewart. “It’s that personal touch and that care. There’s amazing [ready-to-drink beverages] out there, but it’s great when you welcome someone into your home and tailor something to their taste.”
Making cocktails should be akin to cooking, explains Scottsdale, Arizona-based bartender and cocktail educator Elissa Dunn. “It’s romantic in that way,” she says, “and gets your creative juices going.” Dunn adds, “You can have a really complex cocktail with only two ingredients.”
Take it higher
For minimal effort and maximum taste, Dunn first points to the highball, which is simultaneously refreshing and sophisticated: a spirit of some sort topped with soda, served in a tall glass filled with ice. Classic highballs include the Cuba Libre (rum and cola), whiskey soda, gin and tonic, and newer favorites like Ranch Water. (See recipe below.) The huge selection of spirits and mixers available makes for nearly endless possibilities.
“If you like doing a gin and tonic, you have many flavors of gin to play with,” Dunn advises. “You can find gins from all over the world that taste completely different.” She notes that there are gins that taste like flowers, herbs, spices, cucumber, seawater, berries, and, of course, traditional juniper and citrus. There are also nonalcoholic gins and renditions that change color in the glass. And that’s just one spirit. Other options include a smoky mezcal, caramelly rum, oaky whiskey, and fruity vodka.
After selecting a spirit, choose from the astonishing variety of high-quality tonic waters, ginger ales, and other refreshing mixers on the market. “You can get a variety pack of tonic water, a big bottle of gin, and a bunch of garnishes,” Dunn suggests, “then go, ‘Okay, people. Let’s play.’”
When you have only a few ingredients on hand, it’s best to serve the highest quality possible. As Stewart says, “When you think about all the work that goes into creating a good spirit, why would you want to throw away all that beauty and effort with a cheap generic mixer?”
Make it bubbly
The highball isn’t the only effervescent possibility for summertime sipping. The other popular and stress-free drink to create when temperatures are high is the spritz: a base of wine with other layers of flavor.
“I love spritzes,” says Washington, D.C.-based bartender Lauren Paylor O’Brien, who was inducted into the Tales of the Cocktail Dame Hall of Fame in 2021. “I like a lower-ABV serve, so I utilize wine a lot or a homemade cordial. I like having my friends bring their own homemade cordials over and setting things up so everyone can enjoy what they like.”
Cordials are alcohol-free syrups made with a bit of acid for freshness. Some of the most popular flavors include lime, elderflower, and raspberry. They make for a yummy addition when smoothly topped with soda.
Traditionally, spritzes are made with either still, fortified, sparkling, or aromatized wine. The classic Aperol spritz — officially known as the Spritz Veneziano — combines the Italian bittersweet aperitif with prosecco and soda water, but you could use almost any wine you prefer.
“Spritzes are so easy, and there are so many options,” says Dunn. “With just two simple ingredients, champagne or soda and a vermouth or liqueur, you can create so many different drinks.”
Batch it up
For an elevated craft cocktail experience that won’t trap you behind the bar all night, concoct a big batch ahead of time, and serve cocktails from a pitcher, drink dispenser, or punch bowl.
“I like to utilize punches as a base for entertaining,” Paylor O’Brien says. “Everything we do in food and beverage is based on a foundation of making our guests feel welcome and being hospitable. One way to do that is providing alternatives, like a punch with alcohol or without alcohol.”
Punch traditionally comprises five ingredients: a spirit, sugar, citrus, spice, and water (which could include juice, tea, or soda). Leave out the spirits, and you have something special to serve guests who aren’t drinking alcohol; you can always offer your other guests alcohol to add.
“Punches and stuff like that are great,” Dunn says. “I don’t want to say you can throw anything in there and it will work, but you kinda can. As long as you have enough booze, enough citrus, and enough sweetener, it will work.”
Give it a makeover
One of the most aesthetically pleasing ways to make a drink special without much work is through glassware, garnishes, and other accoutrements. Think: pretty cocktail napkins, vintage glassware, ornamental cocktail picks, and beautiful cut-glass pitchers.
Garnishes themselves can add both visual interest and aromatics to a drink. “I think that garnishes really come into play when it comes to entertaining,” Dunn says. Float lemon slices in a bowl of punch, or add dehydrated citrus wheels, fresh herbs, or edible flowers to a cocktail glass for a wow factor.
That’s the secret of the uber-trendy Spanish gin tonic: It’s just a G&T served in a big wine glass called a copa de balon, then garnished with an array of botanicals, such as juniper berries, lemon wheels, grapefruit peel, and sprigs of rosemary or thyme. Simple but impressive.
“You can get a lot of complexity from easy recipes,” Stewart says. “Some of my favorite cocktails are the most simple ones. I love these drinks where you let the ingredients shine.”
Ranch Water
Prep time: 5 minutes. Yield: serves 1.
The margarita’s lighter, more refreshing sibling, this highball from West Texas is best made with extra-bubbly Topo-Chico mineral water. Unaged blanco tequila will add a clean, herbaceous note to the drink; reposado tequila — which has been “rested” in oak for two to 12 months — has additional complexity and offers notes of vanilla and caramel.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces tequila, either blanco or reposado
- 1½ ounces lime juice
- Optional: ½ ounce orange liqueur or agave syrup
- 3 to 4 ounces sparkling water, preferably Topo-Chico
- 1 lime wheel
Instructions
Combine tequila, lime juice, and optional liqueur or syrup in a highball glass, then fill the glass with ice and top with bubbly water. Garnish with a lime wheel.
Rosé Spritz
Elegant, refreshing, and not too boozy, the classic Aperol spritz is the drink of summer. Centered around the bittersweet Italian aperitif Aperol, this rendition makes it prettier with pink bubbles and garden-fresh garnishes.
Prep time: 2 minutes. Yield: serves 1.
Ingredients
- 1 ounce Aperol
- ½ ounce grapefruit juice
- 3 ounces sparkling rosé wine
- 2 ounces soda water
Instructions
Gently mix all the ingredients (except garnish) in a large wine glass filled with ice. Garnish as you like with a slice of grapefruit peel, a sprig of fresh herbs, and/or an edible flower or two.
Joanne Sasvari is a Vancouver-based writer and author of Vancouver Eats, The Wickaninnish Cookbook, and Island Eats who has contributed to the Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail, and Los Angeles Times. Follow her on Twitter @joannesasvari.
