Ring in Spring with These Refreshing Cocktails and Mocktails

Can we all agree that it has felt like the longest winter ever? Even though Spring has started, I’m still waiting for the weather to let up. Maybe a light and airy cocktail or mocktail will help activate the season! Here’s a toast to the warm weather, the fresh air and sunnier days ahead with these refreshing bevies…

The Sunset Rose

Ingredients:

• 3 oz Whispering Angel

• 1.5 oz Belvedere Vodka

• .5 oz Lime Juice

• .25 oz Honey Water

• 3 Blackberries

• Garnish with Mint Sprig

Method: Place Blackberries into shaker and muddle. Add remaining ingredients into shaker except the Rosé. Shake with ice and strain into rocks glass over fresh ice. Top with Rosé and garnish with Mint.

Betty Buzz Grapefruit Thyme Fizz Mocktail

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 Bottle Betty Buzz Sparkling Grapefruit

• Meyer Lemon Juice

• Thyme

METHOD: Bring it all together in a lowball glass over ice. Stir gently and garnish with thyme.

THE VOLCAN SMASH

INGREDIENTS

• 2 oz Volcan Cristalino

• 6 mint leaves ripped in half

• .75 oz lemon juice

• .75 oz honey

• .25 oz lime

METHOD: Garnish with Mint. 

End of Summer Cocktails to Celebrate Labor Day with Friends

How have we already reached Labor Day?! I feel like it was just 4th of July. Well, I am totally a summer girl and I'm having a hard time accepting this, like I do every year. On the bright side, there's fresh and festive cocktails to be made to celebrate Labor Day and beyond with friends. Especially here in SoCal, it may be summer till November. LOL. Here are my 3 faves for celebrating with a group - total crowd pleasers!

Carrot Pineapple Punch

Ingredients: 

2 cups NOLET’S Silver Gin 

2 cups Carrot Juice 

2 cups Pineapple Juice 

1/2 cup Lemon Juice 

1 tsp. Fresh Grated Ginger 

2 cups Ginger Beer 

Directions: 

Mix all ingredients together in a punch bowl and stir gently. Add ice and garnish with edible flowers and citrus wheels. Make ahead: freeze an ice mold adding citrus fruit or edible flowers. Makes 8-10 cocktails.

Sweet Heat Margarita

Ingredients:

2 oz Tanteo® Jalapeño Tequila

1 oz Fresh Lime Juice

¾ oz Agave Nectar

4-5 Raspberries

Tanteo Jalapeño Salt Rim

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice

Shake well and strain into a salt-rimmed, ice-filled Rocks Glass

Garnish with a raspberry or jalapeño slice

Bushwick Punch

Ingredients: 

4½ cups Smoke Tree Rosé

2 cups unsweetened black tea

¾ cup lemon juice

½ cup bourbon

½ cup raw cane sugar syrup

1 cup blueberries

1 lemon sliced

Directions:

Fill a punch bowl with ice

Top with Smoke Tree Rosé, unsweetened black tea, lemon juice, bourbon and raw cane sugar syrup.

Stir to chill and combine ingredients

Top with lemon slices and blueberries

Sweeten Your Day with This Recipe for National Watermelon Day

If there's one fruit of the summer, it is hands down, watermelon! And it just so happens that National Watermelon Day falls on an extremely hot August 3rd. With watermelon in one hand, the only proper thing to do is to have a watermelon cocktail in the other, right? My kind of double fisting! Watermelon and gin is my new favorite combination, and surely one which I know you will love. Here's my recipe for a Silver Watermelon Cooler! 

Silver Watermelon Cooler

Recipe: 

1.5 oz. NOLET’S Silver Gin

.5 oz. Elderflower Liqueur

.5 oz. Lemon Juice

.5 cup Fresh Watermelon

4 Basil Leaves

Directions:

Muddle basil and watermelon in the bottom of a shaker. Add ice and all other ingredients to the shaker. Shake and strain into a goblet. Garnish with a basil leaf.

Buzzing for Bee Pollen | A Superfood Cocktail

What's better than your average cocktail? One that you can actually feel good about when drinking! The latest superfood craze is bee pollen, and it surprisingly it does not have to stop at just being used in smoothies and acai bowls. 

Celebs such as Kourtney Kardashian have confessed their love for the superfood full of amino acids and vitamins. 

For anyone testing out the trend at home, RUFFINO’s Dolce Camomilla, made with RUFFINO Lumina Pinot Grigio, Chamomile, honey, and bee pollen, is a sweet and unique way to toast the summer and impress your friends. Not to mention, the cocktail is absolutely gorgeous! It's the perfect sipper to sit outside with friends and enjoy under the sun.

Here's the recipe! 

BUZZING FOR BEE POLLEN

Ingredients:

6 chamomile tea bags

32 fluid ounces (4 cups) hot water

4 tablespoons honey

3 oz Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio

2 orange slices

3 lemon slices

Sprinkle of bee pollen

Fresh chamomile flowers 

Directions:

Make hot water, pour hot water over tea bags, add honey, add wine, let steep. Then shake in a shaker and pour over ice cubes and top with bee pollen.

All Grown Up Easter Cocktail Basket with Seagram's Escapes

Hip Hop Hooray! Easter is here and that means bring on the sweets, Easter candy and of course yummy Easter cocktails! But, does anyone else feel a little sad now each year now that we are older that we have the fun, elaborate and over the top Easter baskets waiting for us in the morning like we used to? I know I do... (cough cough, Mom!!!). However, that doesn't mean we can't have our own new, improved and age appropriate Easter baskets that we can look forward to! 

This year, my Easter basket is all about colorful and sweet cocktail possibilities with Seagram's Escapes! Now the real holiday fun can begin. This Easter basket is the perfect to present at a fun Easter brunch, a gift to a friend, or even to have as decor and to open and make on Easter Sunday! What a way to ring in the holiday and welcome spring! 

Peter Cotton Candy Tail

Ingredients:

4oz. Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy

2oz. Tequila

1 Handful of Pink Cotton Candy

Dash of Lemonade

Directions:

Pour ingredients over the cotton candy. The cotton candy will melt immediately and mix with your Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy!

 

ACAI A Marshmallow Bunny

Ingredients:

4oz Seagram's Escapes Blueberry Acai Lemonade

2oz Vodka

Splash of Lemon Juice

Garnish with blueberries and purple marshmallow bunnies

Directions:

Soak the marshmallow bunnies a few seconds in the drink before eating!

Sour Peach Bunny Trail

Ingredients:

Seagram’s Escapes Peach Fuzzy Navel

2oz Vodka

Splash of Triple Sec 

8 Orange Sour Gummies

Dash of Lemonade

 Directions: 

Put the Sour Gummies in first and add ingredients on top. Let soak for 5 minutes. 

HAVE A BERRY HOPPY EASTER

Ingredients:

4oz.  Seagram’s Escapes Wild Berries

2oz.  Champagne

Mixed berries for garnish

THE JELLYBEAN DAIQUIRI

Ingredients:

4oz Seagram’s Escapes Strawberry Daiquiri

2oz Vodka

2oz Lemon/Lime soda or Seltzer

Handful of jellybeans - could be sour or regular!

 Directions:

Put the jellybeans in first and add ingredients on top. Let soak for 5 minutes. 

CALYPSO COTTON TAIL

Ingredients:

1 Bottle Seagram’s Escapes Calypso Colada

2oz. Tequila

1 Handful of Blue Cotton Candy

Directions:

Pour ingredients over the cotton candy. The cotton candy will melt immediately and mix with your Seagram’s Escapes Calypso Colada!

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A VERY HAPPY EASTER!