Cool Summer Drinks

Coat the rim of a chilled glass with smoked sea salt and garnish this slushie with fresh basil and peach chunks on a decorative pick.

Sangria is usually made with red wine, but white just says summer, doesn't it? Choose an affordable light and dry variety, such as Spanish Albariño, Portuguese Vinho Verde or Sauvignon Blanc. 

"Garnish with a pineapple leaf, an umbrella, a lounge chair, the sun and a pool," say the founders of Mean Mule, the KC distillery that concocted this crazy-easy summer drink.

Using the best chocolate and ice cream you can find ensures a super rich shake. You won't want more than a small glass!

You can make this Indian-inspired smoothie with fresh mango, but unless you score a really ripe fresh one, you'll get better flavor using canned or frozen. (And they're much easier to work with!))

Refreshing, zingy and just a little flamboyant, the fruity lemonade at Bramble Cafe at Elderslie Farm is a summer favorite. If you like, add a splash of vodka to the glass for a patio cocktail.

The fastest way to downgrade a margarita (or any drink) isn't cheap tequila; it's bottled lime juice. Dig out that squeezer and pull up your sleeves. It's worth it.

Fresh lime and ginger take watermelon's flavor up a notch. Make this icy treat when you'll be home all day. It's super easy, but you need to scrape it a few times over the course of a few hours.

You might associate it with college-era bar-hopping, but blue curaçao is actually more than 100 years old. Its orange flavor plays nicely with lemonade in this citrusy slushie.

Imagine a refreshing cross between a bloody mary and a beer. That's a michelada. Our version is inspired by the TJ Red Michelada served at Taco Joint in Chicago.

Made by blending dates into a vanilla milkshake, date shakes are a roadside icon in Palm Springs, California.

We raided both the fruit bowl and the liquor cabinet for this sparkling make-ahead party drink, marrying citrus and stone fruits with brandy, orange liqueur and rose wine. (You can use either a sweet wine, such as White Zinfandel, or a more dry variety, like a French or Spanish import.)

Garnish this twist on a classic tequila cocktail with some fringe: Peel a wide strip of grapefruit peel with a vegetable peeler, then snip along its length. Groovy!

Mixology doesn't get any easier than this! Whip out this easy version of a classic Mexican cocktail for Cinco de Mayo, or just your average Taco Tuesday. The recipe comes from Kansas City's Mean Mule Distilling Co.

This lemonade calls for less sugar than most recipes and tastes just enough like cream soda to make you smile. The recipe comes from The Watkins Company, a 151-year-old spice and extract company in Minnesota.

Puree berries, peaches or mangoes to make vibrant "syrups" for swirling with ice cream and sparkling water. (Or skip the ice cream to make refreshing fresh-fruit sodas.)

Cucumber and grapefruit juice combine for ultimate refreshment in this happy hour cocktail. Jalapeño adds just a hint of heat.

Gin can be dry, piney, aromatic or any other style a distiller chooses. Go for a floral-tasting gin for this fruity slushie.

Once you have the method down, you can improvise aguas frescas with almost any soft fruit.

Drink this thick, ultra-rich shake through an oversized straw or employ a spoon to eat it like ice cream.

Made of lemon and fistfuls of fresh mint, limonana is a favorite drink in Israel, where you can often buy it as a slush. This version isn't blended with ice but it's just as refreshing on a hot day.

Canned apricot nectar is the easy, fruity sweetener in this refreshing summer sipper.

Make this slushie with a big, bold red wine, like a Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel. It will have better color and a more well-rounded flavor than with a lighter red.

Think of this recipe as a flexible formula for making boozy, fruity milk shakes. Substitute black raspberry or peach cooler, or make with lime sherbet and lime wine cooler.

A little bit of honey sweetens a refreshing mixture of pineapple or orange juice blended with strawberries, mango and banana.

Garden flavor infuses this refreshing make-ahead white wine cocktail.

If you like piña coladas, you'll know that rimming the glass with chili seasoning is a rebel's move. Feel free to revert to a classic maraschino cherry garnish.

David Fries, an amateur barbecue competitor from the Twin Cities, loves to serve this refreshing and subtly spicy margarita at family cookouts.

Traditionally, this sweet drink is made by soaking rice (and sometimes blanched almonds, too) overnight in water, then pureeing and straining the mixture. We kept the seductively sweet, authentic taste, but skipped the drawn-out process. Our shortcut version uses purchased rice milk, and we could barely tell it apart from the real deal in side-by-side tests.

Using Darjeeling tea imparts floral notes beyond what you find in ordinary black tea, which makes it a more interesting base for this refreshing, honey-laced drink. Keep the punch virgin, or add a tablespoon of vodka, gin or bourbon to each glass.

Have you heard of limoncello? You can make the classic Italian liqueur with almost any citrus fruit. (Only lime doesn't work.) Serve the chilled liqueur with sparkling water, sip it chilled alongside chocolate truffles or try drizzling it over strawberries for a boozy pound cake topper.

It's no wonder people love smoothies. Not only are they great-tasting, but they're good for you, too. Try this one with a sliced strawberry garnish. 

Perfect for entertaining, this dessert-in-a-glass can be made with mixed berries rather than just raspberries, if you prefer. 

The coffee-chocolate blend in this drink is refreshingly cool, especially when topped with scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. The amounts we give will make about 10 individual floats.

This quick-and-easy blender drink, from the Michigan Cherry Committee, combines cherries, milk, yogurt, blueberries or raspberries, juice concentrate, honey and vanilla.

Here's a take on a summer staple, lemonade. Combine homemade lemon syrup with watermelon juice and serve with fun Kiwi Cubes or Watermelon Cubes (or with regular ice cubes). You can also use the watermelon-lemonade mix as the base for a Watermelon Martini.

Brew this refreshing drink with green, ginkgo or ginseng tea mixed with honey. When the liquid cools, stir in your choice of fruit juices, such as orange or tangerine and lemon or lime. Add assorted fresh fruit and plain or flavored sparkling water just before serving.

Cucumbers add a fresh take to a traditional summer-cocktail favorite. Just blend with tequila and triple sec and serve in a salt-rimmed glass and garnish with a lime, if you'd like.

Mix mint syrup with fresh lemon and lime juice for this zesty lemonade alternative. Our recipe also tells you how to use the blend to make Fizzy Frisky Whiskey.

This fizzy pink drink is a kid-friendly, real-fruit alternative to bottled pop. For an adults-only version, add two tablespoons of rum, tequila or citrus-infused vodka to each serving or 1 to 1 1/4 cups to the batch.

Choose from peaches or strawberries and rum or orange juice for this chiller. Then rev up your blender. Our recipe includes variations with and without alcohol.

Blend spiced coffee with chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla or coffee ice cream for a smooth drink that's served like a milk shake. Garnish with whipped cream, chocolate curls, a sprinkle of cocoa powder or a chocolate-covered espresso bean.