Five Cheap Cocktails for a Great Summer Do

We might not have had a great summer for UK sport, but there’s still plenty to celebrate – like the fact that we can enjoy the warmth for just a little while longer!

But just because you want to throw a summer bash, it doesn’t mean you have loads of money to do it. We’ve already shown you great deals on garden furniture and barbecue meat, but there’s one more thing every great party needs: yummy drinks.

So we looked around and found these five great cocktail recipes. And if you use own-brand alcohols and mixers, you should find it’s easy to keep the costs low while keeping guests’ spirits high.

These are our picks for five cheap cocktails for a great summer do.

The Berry-licious

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This cocktail is great because it features the very trendy bourbon. Made in Kentucky, bourbon is having a moment here in the UK, so you can get some pretty high-quality stuff without a huge price tag. Plus, you can make one in less than a minute.

Ingredients (for one drink)

1 oz bourbon
4 blueberries
3 oz ginger ale
A fresh basil leaf
Splash of lime juice

Tear the basil into a rocks or a short glass. Add the ice and remaining ingredients and stir.

Cava Sangria

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Sangria’s alway a great option because the fruit juices and fruit pieces help cover up the cheapness of the wine. After all, that’s why the Spanish invented it, right? Well, whatever the drink’s origin, this recipe uses a cheaper bubbly to put a refreshing spin on a classic summer drink.

Ingredients

8 large mint leaves
1 bottle Cava or another sparkling wine, chilled
3/4 cup white grape juice, chilled
1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup orange liqueur

Put the mint leaves in a large pitcher. Muddle them to release the flavours, either by using a muddler or by smashing them against the sides of the pitcher with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the sparkling wine and give it a nice stir, then add in the final ingredients. Serve the whole thing over ice.

The recipe suggests garnishing glasses with raw sugar cane, but straws will work just as well.

The Raspberry Lemonade Cocktail

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Raspberry lemonade is always a crowd favourite on a hot summer’s day, and this one gives it enough of a grown-up twist to make it sophisticated and fun.

Ingredients

12 oz still cloudy lemonade, or more to taste
12 oz raspberry vodka
18 oz soda water
1/8 cup grenadine

In a pitcher, combine the ingredients and stir them well. Adjust the lemonade to taste. Serve it over ice with lemon wedges and couple of raspberries, if you like.

To save even more money, you can make your own raspberry vodka by simply adding raspberries, chopped in half, to a bottle of vodka. Leave it at least a day or until you get the desired flavour, and then strain out the raspberries. Pour the vodka back in the bottle, and it’s ready to go!

The John Daly (or the boozy Arnold Palmer)

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Arnold Palmer was the legendary American golfer who lent his name to a drink that was half iced tea and half still lemonade. John Daly, on the other hand, is the legendary American golfer who loves a stiff drink, a good cigarette and the loudest of outfits. If you’d rather have Daly at your party, then this is the drink for you.

Ingredients (for a small pitcher)

3 cups chilled black tea
2 cups still lemonade, or the juice from 4 lemons mixed with 4 tablespoons of sugar dissolved in about 2 cups of water
10 oz vodka, to taste

Simply pop all the ingredients in a pitcher, give it a stir and adjust to your taste. Serve it over ice, and garnish it with a slice of lemon, if you want.

The Bolshoi Basil

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Basil seems to be a key ingredient this summer, perhaps because its subtle sweetness and warmth add just lift drinks out of the overly sweet, powerfully flavoured trap most summer drinks fall into. This is basically like a Russian mojito, and the basil just tempers the tart edge ever so slightly.

Ingredients

4 parts vodka
3 parts fresh lime juice
3 fresh basil sprigs
2 teaspoons sugar
Soda water

Pop the basil and the sugar in a tall glass. Muddle them together to get release the basil oils. Fill the glass with ice, then add the vodka and the lime juice. Stir it, then top it off with a dash of soda. Add a sprig of basil as a garnish, if you want.
These five cheap cocktails all look as delicious as they look easy to do, so which ones will feature at your next summer party? What else do you think you’ll serve? Let us know in the comments!