Whether its 20 below outside or 90 degrees, these cool drinks will take you to a relaxing place. Here are our favorite summer drink recipe ideas.
1. Lavender-Infused Lemonade
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups water
1/4 cup dried lavender
4 cups fresh lemon juice (from 16 to 20 lemons)
Ice, for serving
Lemon slices and fresh lavender sprigs, for garnish
DIRECTIONS:
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Stir in lavender. Remove from heat, and let stand for 10 minutes. Strain, discarding lavender. Let cool. Stir in lemon juice. (Lemonade can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.) Serve over ice, and garnish with lemon slices and fresh lavender sprigs.
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2. Papaya Strawberry Banana Drink
Ingredients:
1 cup sliced papaya
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 banana
ice cubes
Directions:
Peel the papaya and remove the seeds. Cut into slices. Cut banana into big chunks.
Put everything into a blender and mix thoroughly. Add ice cubes until your drink has the desired consistency. If needed, add sugar.
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3. Homemade Peach Iced Tea
Ingredients:
6 medium-large size peaches (or 9 small size peaches)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp. loose green or black tea leaves or 4 tea bags
7 cups water, divided
split vanilla beans, for garnish
Directions:
Peel, pit and slice peaches.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds.
Bring 3 cups of water and the sugar to a boil in a medium size pan.
Add the sliced peaches and the vanilla bean (including the seeds), and allow mixture to simmer over medium-low heat for about 30 – 40 minutes.
Remove the vanilla bean.
Pour the peaches and sugar/water into a blender and puree until smooth.
Strain the peach puree through a sieve into a bowl (or a pitcher).
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add the tea, and steep according to the package instructions.
Remove the tea bags, (or strain to remove the tea leaves).
Add the tea to the pitcher (or bowl) with the peach puree, and stir well to combine.
Refrigerate the iced tea until cold.
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4. Coconut Grove
1 1/2 oz Coconut Rum
1 oz Creme de Bananes
1 oz White Rum
4 oz Pineapple Juice
1 tsp Lemon Juice
Shake and strain into an ice-filled collins glass. Garnish with slices of pineapple and lemon.
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5. Strawberry Slushie
Ingredients for 2 portions
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Directions
Process all the ingredients except the maple syrup in a blender until the ice has turned to slush.
Usually I taste it first and depending on the kind of strawberries you use, it may already be sweet enough. As I said before, I never use sugar, but my family insists on it.
Therefore I take off one glass for me and then add the maple syrup and blend again. Start with very little syrup, you can always add more if it’s not yet sweet enough.
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6. Peach Berry Vodka Smoothie
Ingredients:
6 cherries
6 strawberries
6 raspberries
1/2 cup lemon lime soda
1 peach (peeled, pitted, sliced)
12 grapes (green or red)
1 banana
3 1/2 oz. vodka
chopped ice, if desired
Directions:
Add the prepared fruit to the blender, and chop for a few seconds.
Pour in the lemon lime soda and the vodka, and ice (if desired), and blend until smooth.
Serves 2.
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7. Beet Lemonade
MAKES 8 CUPS
INGREDIENTS
1 small beet, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup lemon juice (approximately 5 lemons)
1/2 cup sugar
6 cups water, divided
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Attach the shredding blade to a food processor and shred the beet chunks (you should end up with about 1 cup of shredded beets). Scoop shredded beets into a bowl and set aside. Remove food processor bowl from base and rinse out; replace the clean bowl onto the food processor and insert the regular processor blade. Add shredded beets, lemon juice, sugar and 1 cup of water and process until smooth.
2. Strain beet mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. (You should end up with about 2 cups of liquid.) Transfer liquid into a pitcher and dilute with remaining five cups of water. Taste and adjust sugar or water levels to taste, and refrigerate before serving.
2. Strain beet mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. (You should end up with about 2 cups of liquid.) Transfer liquid into a pitcher and dilute with remaining five cups of water. Taste and adjust sugar or water levels to taste, and refrigerate before serving.
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8. Virgin Pina Colada
Ingredients:
Original recipe makes 2 drinks
1 cup ice
1 1/4 cups pineapple juice
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons white sugar
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PREP
2 mins
READY IN
2 mins Directions
In an electric blender, blend ice, pineapple juice, milk, cream, and sugar. Blend until smooth.
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9. Strawberry Blond Recipe with Ginger Ale
Ingredients:
1 oz strawberry liqueur
Ginger ale
1 teaspoon sugar
1 whole strawberry
Directions:
Put a thin rim of sugar around a chilled cocktail glass. Then put crushed ice into glass. Pour strawberry liqueur over ice, add Ginger Ale to fill. Add strawberry for decoration.
You can vary the amount of strawberry liqueur depending on how much alcohol you like in your Strawberry cocktail. You could even substitute the strawberry liquer with strawberry syrup, it’ll taste just as well and is a nice non-alcoholic drink.
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10. Caribbean Breeze
Drink Type: Cocktail
Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. Peach Schnapps (more Peach Schnapps drinks)
1 1/2 oz. Coconut Rum (more Coconut Rum drinks)
1 1/2 oz. Midori (more Midori drinks)
Pineapple Juice (more Pineapple Juice drinks)
1 splash(es) Cranberry Juice (more Cranberry Juice drinks)
Instructions:
Pour in order in a highball glass to get the full effect of the colors. Peach schnapps first, then coconut rum, then Midori melon, fill with pineapple juice and save a little room for a splash or 2 of cranberry juice.
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11. Holiday Strawberry Punch
Ingredients:
– 1 cup sugar
– 1/2 cup water
– 2 cups Strawberry wine
– 2 cups orange juice
– 1/2 cup lemon juice
– 1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, crushed
– 1 quart seltzer
Directions:
For Kids substitute the Strawberry wine with Strawberry juice.
Mix sugar with water and boil to make syrup. Let cool down. Combine syrup with strawberry wine, juices, and crushed strawberries. Chill. Just before serving, pour into punch bowl and slowly add seltzer.
12 servings
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12. Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri Recipe
Ingredients:
– 1 oz fresh lime juice
– 3 oz fresh strawberries (you can also use frozen strawberries or strawberry syrup)
– 1 teaspoon sugar
– Cracked ice
Directions:
Fill lime juice, strawberries, and sugar into a blender. Blend until smooth, then add the cracked ice and blend again until smooth.
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with whole strawberry or mince leave.
Serve with a straw.
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13. Pink Paradise
Drink Type: Cocktail
Ingredients
1 1/2 oz. Coconut Rum (more Coconut Rum drinks)
1 oz. Amaretto (more Amaretto drinks)
3 oz. Cranberry Juice (more Cranberry Juice drinks)
1 1/2 oz. Pineapple Juice (more Pineapple Juice drinks)
Instructions
Pour into a parfait glass and garnish with a pineapple wedge and a cherry.
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14. Strawberry-Pineapple Punch
Ingredients:
– 2 – 10 oz pkg. frozen sliced strawberries in syrup
– 1/2 c Sugar
– 1 Bottle rose wine
– 1 (6 oz.) can frozen lemonade concentrate
– 1 cup Pineapple juice
– 28 oz club soda
– Ice or Ice Ring
Directions:
For kids substitute the wine with strawberry or lemon juice
In a punch bowl, combine strawberries, sugar and 2 cups rose wine. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
Just before serving, add frozen lemonade concentrate and pineapple juice. Stir until lemonade is thawed. Add remaining wine, club soda and ice.
Makes 24 servings.
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15. Strawberry Passion
Ingredients:
6 fresh strawberries
1 cup fresh pineapple
large handful of grapes
sugar
Serves 2
Directions:
Remove the skin from pineapple and cube it.
Process the pineapple, grapes and berries in a blender. If the consistency is too thick for your liking, add some water.
Add sugar if necessary.
