Easy Summer Cocktails

I have always been intimidated by cocktail making. You have to do MATH, and understand RATIOS, right?? A little bit of this and a little bit of that doesn’t work, and you know, that’s my style. But then COVID-19 happened– you heard of that, right? Instead of starting a sourdough culture, I focused on learning a true life skill–how to make easy summer cocktails. It was born out of necessity; we started offering cocktail kits in our Madison trEats collaboration bags. I had to test and photograph the brilliant recipes created by team member Amy Kruger. And I began to do live Instagram demos with local partners which including cocktail making. I discovered that I can in fact make a great cocktail. And sometimes I still add a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. Because the other thing I have learned during this pandemic is that you have to work with what you have, and who you are. Here are a few of our favorite easy and refreshing summer cocktails for you to try! What’s your go-to summer cocktail?

SUMMER COCKTAILS

Bourbon Sparkling Wine Cocktail 

1 oz Bittermilk Smoked Honey Whiskey Sour Mix
1 oz Bourbon (we love J. Henry small batch Bourbon)
4 oz Matic Wines’ Pet-Nat Mea or similar (We get ours from Square Wine!)
Lemon slice for garnish

Pour the Bittermilk Sour Mix and bourbon into a glass, and fill with ice. Top your drink off with sparkling wine. Stir, garnish and enjoy. 

Bourbon Maple Tonic

10 mint leaves, plus a sprig or two for a garnish
1 T maple syrup
1.5 oz bourbon
4 oz tonic water (We use Top Note Tonic)

Place 10 mint leaves in the bottom of a sturdy glass and muddle just to bruise the leaves and release their oils. Add the maple syrup and bourbon. Fill the glass with ice and top with tonic water. Stir and add a sprig of mint as garnish. 

Blueberry Ginger Kombucha Sour

2 T sugar for the glass rim
3-4 blueberries
3 lime wedges 
1T ginger simple syrup
2T lime juice
2 oz vodka
3 oz Blueberry Basil Kombucha (We got this from Rude Brew!)

Prepare your glass:

Spread the sugar onto a small plate. Using a lime wedge, coat the rim of your glass with juice. Dip the rim into the plated sugar. Muddle a lime wedge and the blueberries in the bottom of the glass.
In a cocktail shaker, place the ginger syrup, lime juice and vodka. Fill the shaker 3/4 full with ice, seal tightly and shake. Pour the contents of the shaker into your glass and add ice. Top with Kombucha and stir. Use your final lime wedge as a garnish. 

Kombucha Mocktail: Prepare glass by sugaring the rim. Muddle a lime wedge and three to four berries in the bottom of your glass. In the shaker, put 2 T ginger syrup, 2T lime juice, 2oz prepared tea (a white tea or something floral – I used Tulsi Telepa Tea by Four Elements, it was all I had) add a couple drops of saline into the shaker before you seal it and give it a shake. Once shaken, Pour into your glass, add 3oz kombucha stir and serve.

Ginger Radler

One part beer (pilsner is best)
One part ginger beer (we LOVE Top Note Tonic.)
Squeeze of lemon juice
Pour into a chilled glass, garnish with lemon. Easy Peasy!

Lavender Chill Fizz⠀ – recipe courtesy of Nessalla Kombucha⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

1 part Grapefruit juice we like ( Just Pik’t ) BTW we searched high and low for their website and everything if anyone knows any online presence of them let us know!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 part Butterfly effect Kombucha⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 part Sparkle! Ginger Lime ( local awesome fizzy water from @wiscopop )⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Sprig lavender leaves for flavor and aroma⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Lightly rim the glass with crushed himalayan salt can use agave to make it stick. Spank lavender leaves and lightly muddle on the bottom of the glass. 
Add ice. We like to use one big ice ball
Pour over ice: 1 part of each of the liquids. Start with the grapefruit juice. Then layer the CBD kombucha and last layer of Sparkle! Fizzy water from @wiscopop.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Add lavender sprig for garnish. Enjoy slowly. 

All recipes developed by Amy Kruger unless otherwise noted.