August in Texas does not ask whether you want a cold drink, it simply removes the option. So here are 24 cool drinks to serve this summer, and almost none of them need more than a jar, some ice and five minutes of your attention. Real lemonade from actual lemons, sun tea brewed on the porch by the sun itself, green smoothies for the mornings you are pretending to be good, and a run of mason jar cocktails for the evenings you are not. The frozen Crown Royal Apple slushie is mine, and I will admit I ate a fair number of the Jolly Ranchers before they made it into the blender. Everything here scales up for a crowd and most of it can be mixed ahead, poured over ice and carried outside before the condensation even starts.
1. Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade
Fresh raspberries and freshly squeezed lemons, topped with sparkling water so it fizzes instead of sitting flat in the glass. Bottled lemon juice that has been on a shelf for months will not taste like this and there is no point pretending otherwise. It is sweet against tart in the right proportion, and the color is that clear ruby pink that makes people ask what it is. Make a pitcher for the porch, or run the best lemonade stand on the block.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking Classy.
2. Herbal Tea Lemonade
A homemade version of the Starbucks shaken passion tea lemonade, for a fraction of the price. Steep two tea bags in roughly two cups of hot water, then top the bottle up with more water and chill. Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion is the blogger’s favorite pairing, with Tazo Passion and Vanilla Rooibos Parfait close behind. Fill a glass with ice, half tea and half lemonade, and adjust until it tastes the way you like it.
Get the full tutorial at Whipperberry.
3. Fresh Real Lemonade
Three ingredients, five minutes, and about six cups of lemonade. That is the whole recipe. Use fresh lemons or fresh frozen lemon juice, and take the sugar anywhere between half and three quarters of a cup depending on whether you like it tart or sweet. It doubles and triples without complaint for a party, and it keeps in the refrigerator for several days if anyone shows that kind of restraint. Everyone should have this one memorized.
Get the full tutorial at A Pretty Life In The Suburbs.
4. Fresh Mint Iced Coffee
Iced coffee spiked with a fresh mint vanilla simple syrup, which sounds fancy and takes about as long as boiling sugar water. Mint syrup is a workhorse worth keeping in the refrigerator anyway, because it also goes into juleps and mojitos, so the leftovers never go to waste. Cold coffee, a pour of syrup, cream, ice, done. It is a Monday morning fix dressed up enough to serve to someone else at brunch.
Get the full tutorial at How Sweet Eats.
5. Cucumber Tropical Green Smoothie
A cup of pineapple, half a cup of mango, half a cucumber with the skin left on, three quarters of a cup of almond milk and a handful of spinach. Optional vanilla protein powder if you want it to hold you until lunch. Frozen mango makes it thicker, and frozen pineapple thicker still, while canned pineapple works fine when neither is around. Drink it immediately, because green smoothies separate and nobody enjoys the second glass.
Get the full tutorial at With Salt and Wit.
6. Crown Royal Apple Rancher Slushie
This one is mine, and it is the coldest thing on the list. Green Jolly Ranchers, green apple Gatorade and Crown Royal Apple go into the blender and come out as a frozen green slushie with a proper kick. I will confess to eating a good number of the Jolly Ranchers while I unwrapped them. No special equipment, no technique, and it batches up for a crowd in one go, which is why it lives on my counter all August.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
7. Banana Mango Smoothie
Cubed ripe mango and banana, five minutes start to finish, and two servings out of a single blender jar. It came out of a Cooking Light magazine years ago and has stayed in rotation since, which is usually the sign of a recipe worth keeping. Breakfast when you are running late, or a mid afternoon snack that is not a cookie. Use fruit that is properly ripe, because an underripe mango will make it taste like nothing at all.
Get the full tutorial at Wishes and Dishes.
8. Raspberry Sun Tea
Five tea bags in a two quart pitcher of water, left in the sun for one to two hours or in the shade for five, which is the whole brewing method. Then raspberries mashed with a tablespoon of honey go in the bottom of the glass, a slice of lemon on top, and the tea over ice. The post also shows how to drill a straw hole in a mason jar lid with a quarter inch bit, turning a dollar jar into a six dollar tumbler.
Get the full tutorial at A Duck's Oven.
9. Chamomile And Honey Tea
Fresh chamomile flowers rather than dried, steeped in a jar and sweetened with honey. The whole post came out of a two year hunt for fresh chamomile that ended with a friend of the writer’s mother handing over an enormous bunch from a vegetable patch. Fresh flowers taste gentler and more apple like than anything in a tea bag. Served cold in a glass jar with the blossoms still floating in it, it is the prettiest drink on this list.
Get the full tutorial at She Who Eats.
10. Bourbon Peach Sweet Tea
Two ounces of bourbon, two ounces of peach preserves, an ounce of fresh lemon juice and a dash of Aperol, shaken hard over ice and topped with a generous pour of sweet tea. Preserves instead of fresh peaches is the clever part, because it sweetens and flavors in one move and works in any month. Garnish with a sprig of thyme and a lemon round. Southern in the best sense, and dangerously easy to drink on a hot porch.
Get the full tutorial at Host The Toast.
11. Sonic Cherry Limeade Copycat
Three ingredients and no measuring cups. A two liter of Sprite, a twelve ounce can of frozen limeade concentrate and a small jar of maraschino cherries with all of the syrup tipped in. Stir slowly so the Sprite does not go flat, pour over ice and add a lime wedge. Diet Sprite works if you want it lighter. It was developed by someone living two or three hours from the nearest Sonic, which is the kind of motivation that produces results.
Get the full tutorial at Classy Clutter.
12. Smashed Raspberry Lemonade Cocktail
Muddle a handful of raspberries with a sprinkle of raw sugar until the fruit looks like jam, then add two ounces of triple sec, two of limoncello and the juice of two lemons. Ice, a top of club soda, a quick stir. Garnish with berries and lemon slices. It serves one, which makes it easy to scale by the guest, and the muddled raspberry step alone will improve an ordinary glass of lemonade if you skip the liquor entirely.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.
13. Individual White Berry Lemon Sangrias
Sangria divided into jars before the party rather than ladled out of a pitcher, so nobody has to fish for the good fruit while everyone watches. Strawberries, blackberries and lemon in white wine, with the ice and the carbonated top added to each jar at the last minute. It is a variation on the writer’s white strawberry lemon sangria, and the whole idea arrived while she was chilling a test batch in a jar. Light, faintly pink and very easy.
Get the full tutorial at Kitchen Treaty.
14. Mango Mojito
Muddled mango and fresh mint with white rum, mango rum, simple syrup and club soda. Everything depends on the fruit, and the ripeness test is useful: a mango should give about as much as a ripe avocado when you press it, and color tells you nothing because varieties differ. Store ripe ones in the refrigerator and leave the stubborn ones on the counter. Sweet, tropical and exactly the right thing on a long weekend.
Get the full tutorial at Spicy Southern Kitchen.
15. Cherry Beergaritas
A margarita made with beer, and the ingredient list is four items long: cherry soda, frozen limeade concentrate, Corona and tequila. Pour it all into a large pitcher, stir, salt the rims if you like, garnish with lime. Diet cherry soda keeps the calories down without hurting the flavor. It sounds strange written out and it converts people at the first sip, which is why it turns up at every barbecue the blogger hosts.
Get the full tutorial at Fake Ginger.
16. Strawberry Moonshine Julep
Moonshine, also called white whiskey, standing in for bourbon in a mint julep. Two teaspoons of sugar, three mint leaves and two large strawberries cut into quarter inch pieces go in the shaker to macerate for up to ten minutes, then two ounces of moonshine and half an ounce of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard with ice for a full minute. Pour into a mason jar, top up with ice and garnish with a mint sprig. Five minutes plus the macerating.
Get the full tutorial at Saveur.
17. Low Cal Margarita In A Jar
One hundred and fifteen calories, which for a margarita is something close to a miracle. A packet of sugar free lemonade mix, six ounces of diet lemon lime soda, one shot of tequila and an ounce of lime juice, mixed and poured over ice. Use the pink lemonade mix if you want it pink. Batch a few in jars on ice for a party and shake each one before drinking, because the mix settles out while it sits.
Get the full tutorial at It All Started With Paint.
18. Blueberry Basil Margarita
Blueberries, basil leaves, agave nectar and lime juice muddled together, then strained through a small sieve so you press out the juice and leave the pulp behind. That straining step is what makes it look like the photograph instead of a purple slush. Tequila and triple sec go in after, and the rim gets wiped with lime and dipped in flaked sea salt. Frozen blueberries work, as long as you defrost them first.
Get the full tutorial at Supergolden Bakes.
19. Strawberry Coconut Margarita
A blended strawberry margarita with coconut milk stirred into the idea, which turns it creamy and slightly tropical instead of sharp. It starts from a bottled golden margarita mix that already has the alcohol in it, so the ingredient list is short and the blender does everything. Frozen strawberries, ice, coconut milk, blend. It is gluten free and dairy free, which matters if you are pouring for a crowd with a mixed set of requirements.
Get the full tutorial at A Table Defloured.
20. Pellegrino And Lime With Blueberry Ice
Barely a recipe and one of the most useful drinks here. Fill a jar with crushed ice or frozen blueberries or both, pour cold San Pellegrino over the top, squeeze in fresh lime and drop in a mint leaf. No sugar, no calories, no artificial color, and the frozen berries chill it while slowly staining the water a pale blue. This is the one to hand to guests who are not drinking, so they get something as pretty as everyone else.
Get the full tutorial at The Inspired Room.
21. Watermelon Lemonade
Fresh lemon juice, squeezed and strained, plus watermelon that gets a quick blend and a strain of its own, then sugar only if the fruit needs it. Straining both is what keeps it clean and drinkable rather than pulpy. Garnish with lemon slices, mint and a wedge of watermelon on the rim. Made with a good melon it is the best thing on a hot afternoon, and it carried one person through a seven mile hike, which is a decent endorsement.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking Classy.
22. Mint Limeade Fizz
Make a rich simple syrup first, one cup of sugar dissolved into half a cup of water, boiled and cooled. Then a cup of fresh lime juice, which is five to nine limes depending on how generous they are, four cups of carbonated water, lime zest, thin lime wedges and about twenty mint leaves sliced thin. Use a quarter to half a cup of syrup depending on how tart you like it. Serve over crushed ice, which is the correct choice.
Get the full tutorial at Honest and Tasty.
23. Frosted Lemonade
Lemonade blended with vanilla ice cream, which is the entire idea and a very good one. A cup of fresh lemon juice, half a cup of sugar and two and a half cups of water make the lemonade, chilled at least an hour, then a cup of it goes into the blender with two cups of vanilla ice cream. Serves two, takes five minutes. Tart, creamy and cold enough to count as dessert, which nobody is going to complain about.
Get the full tutorial at Frugal Mom Eh.
24. Almond Butter Smoothie
Canned coconut milk shaken before opening, a quarter cup of almond butter, ten small dates, a teaspoon of vanilla paste and two cups of ice. Blend everything except the ice first, then add the ice and run it until smooth. The dates do the sweetening, so taste before adding anything else. Canned coconut milk rather than the carton is what makes it thick. A scoop of vanilla protein powder turns it into a post workout drink.
Get the full tutorial at With Salt and Wit.
