Top Thirst-Quenching Summer Cocktails to Make at Home

Armed with our weapons of choice; Elements 8 Rum, Tokiwa Shochu, Tuaca Brandy and Whitley Neill Gin - we got to work on mixing up some very refreshing summer tipples. Our 'Ginny-Pig' Nadine and 'Brandy Snapper' Danielle, got to work on four cocktails to report back to you - they are kind ladies!


WHITLEY NEILL GIN

First on our cocktail list was the King Solomon’s Cooler made with Whitley Neill gin. Fragrant and delicate, it’s a must-try for gin lovers – don’t be fooled by the old cliché that gin makes you cry!

How to make it:
40ml Whitley Neill Gin
50ml pressed English apple juice
Traditional lemonade
Lime & lemon wedge

Squeeze a wedge of lemon & one wedge of lime into a tall glass. Add ice, Whitley Neill Gin & apple juice. Top with lemonade.

We started off with what sounded like a very refreshing cocktail – Nadine free-poured the lemonade and we all got stuck in.

Nadine is a frequent cocktail drinker, with gin-based drinks being top of her list, so this was an instant favorite. Although she had never had anything like it before, she would definitely make it again and offered some good advice - always use fresh limes, as cordial is too syrupy.

Danielle was cautious of the cocktail, not being a fan of gin in general, but she said:

“You can't really taste the gin - it is way too easy to drink, I could easily be duped into drinking too much of this! It could all end in tears...”

Nadine gives the King Solomon’s Cooler a 4 out of 5 rating. Good start!

Whitely Neill is made in England but inspired by Africa, and it gives 5% of its profits to TREE-AID, which supports African communities – an even better excuse to drink it! Treat yourself to a 70cl bottle here for £24.25.

TUACA BRANDY

Next up was the very summery Tuaca Colada, made with Tuaca, which is an Italian brandy-based spirit with citrus and vanilla flavours that you can expect to see popping up behind the UK’s bars over the coming months.

How to make it:
60ml Tuaca
15ml Coco López (coconut cream or milk)
Pineapple flesh
20ml lime juice

The instructions to this sound simple but it was the most time consuming cocktail to make. You blend all ingredients and serve in a fresh scooped out pineapple.

And to be honest it looks the best by far! As soon as Nadine picked up the heavy 'glass' she felt like she was on holiday in Grenada. She said:

“The coconut takes the edge off it, and Tuaca is really nice - I would have expected the main ingredient to be rum.”

Although it was decided that if we spotted a fella drinking this we would not be impressed by his Del Boy impression...

Another very strong 4 out of 5 was the outcome!

Fancy trying out this cocktail for yourself? Pick up a bottle of the highly-recommended Tuaca for £18.75 here – or even better, enter our competition to win two bottles of Tuaca plus a cocktail making kit here!

ELEMENTS 8 RUM

A Platinum Daiquiri was the next cocktail on the list, made with Elements 8 Platinum Rum. Made in St Lucia, Elements 8 is one of the best rums on the market and is aged for 4 years to allow the flavours, including dark chocolate and honeyed raisins (really!) to balance.

How to make it:
50ml Elements 8 Platinum Rum
15ml Lime Juice
5ml Sirop de Gomme (sugar syrup)

On to a more simple recipe. Place all ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake hard over cubed ice. Double strain into a chilled Riedel Martini glass and garnish with a lime wedge.


Nadine's immediate reaction was that she was pleasantly surprised and would order it on a night out. After a few more sips and a ponder, she decided:

“It's very sharp and refreshing as the lime is the overriding flavour.”

A Platinum Daiquiri is a great alternative to a Mojito, and we could imagine media types enjoying this a little bit too much!

Nadine rated the Platinum Daquiri 3 out of 5.

If you’re a rum lover, we definitely recommend that you test out Elements 8 – you can buy a bottle here for £30.99.

TOKIWA SHOCHU

With 500 years of history, shochu is a Japanese rice spirit and can be served with hot water, neat over ice or even poured on sushi! It’s clean, subtle and quite sweet. We used Tokiwa shochu, which has just launched in the UK, to make a Shogatini.

How to make it:
50ml Tokiwa Shochu
50ml Gin (we used Whitley Neill)
10ml sugar syrup
5ml lemon juice
1-2 slices of fresh ginger
4-5 crushed mint leaves

For this one you put the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

This cocktail sparked the most interest as none of us were familiar with Tokiwa Shochu or a Shogatini cocktail (‘Shoga’ translates as 'ginger'). The thought of it initially brought back bad memories of drinking rice wine in Italy, so of course we asked Nadine to drink it straight! Surprisingly she really enjoyed it, saying:

“It’s really nice over ice - like drinking whiskey but no way near as overpowering.”

But after mixing all the ingredients together, Nadine pulls a face and says;

“I don't like that at all, the flavours don't go well. But saying that, I don't like mint, so I wasn't expecting to enjoy it.”

On that note, we passed the cocktail over to seasoned drinker Liz Moores who said:

“It smells lovely - fragrant and floral - and you can really taste the mint and ginger. It's strong though - two of those and you would be away!”

Nadine gave the Shogatini just 1.5 out of 5, but enjoyed Tokiwa more on its own.



Overall, the Whitley’s Gin-based King Solomon’s Cooler came out on top - Nadine even gave it an extra half point after we had polished off the remanding drinks! - with the Tuaca-based Colada a close second.

Get imaginative this summer when the sun comes out – taking a bottle of any of these spirits to a BBQ will get you guaranteed kudos, and all of the four cocktails we tried definitely beat a lukewarm glass of Pimms with all that weird foliage in it.

Bottoms up – let’s hope the weather lasts!