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8 End of Summer Cocktails To Finish The Season With

8 End of Summer Cocktails To Finish The Season With

Don’t let summer end without these killer cocktail recipes

Carina Bartle
By Carina Bartle, VP Sales & Partnerships

Just in time for those end of summer parties, purveyor of all of life’s finest things, luxury publisher Assouline has released a fabulous (in the true sense of the word) new tome fizzing with exciting and refreshing mixes. The 240 page mixologist bible Cocktail Chameleon by award-winning designer, producer and all-round entertaining expert Mark Addison makes good on its promise of “12 classic cocktails, 12 unique variations, 144 signature cocktails.”

What’s more, Addison even understands the value of a good glass. “I like to think of the right glass as a drink’s proper ‘cocktail attire’,” he write, “A specific vessel can really maximise its potential, enhancing the aroma, taste, and appearance. Part tradition, part common sense, and part personal style, your choice of glass should never be incidental. It’s a key element in the presentation of a carefully considered cocktail.”

Now, where to start?

Arnold Palmer (Collins)

Cocktail Chameleon – Assouline – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

1 ½ oz bourbon, 1 ½ oz fresh lemon juice, 1 oz tea syrup, 3 oz club soda (chilled); Garnish: 1 lemon wedge and 1 mint sprig

Yield: 7 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: Bar spoon, cocktail pick

Glassware: 12-oz highball glass

Combine the bourbon, lemon juice and syrup in the glass and stir. Add ice and top with the club soda, to taste. Garnish with the lemon wedge and sprig of mint.

"It turns out Arnold and Tom make a great team. The popular tea-and-lemonade drink, named for the American golfer who favoured it, is reinvented as an irresistible cocktail that is hardly par for the course. It captures the same refreshing quality and easygoing spirit as its two namesakes."

Sangria Flora

Sangria Cocktail Recipes – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

1 bottle (750ml) dry white wine (such as sauvignon blanc), 1 cup elderflower liqueur, 2 oz orange liqueur, 1 lb. mixed green and seedless grapes (thinly sliced crosswise), 10 nectarine slices, 1/2 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 cup raspberries; Garnish: 10 edible flowers, such as nasturtiums, pansies or rose petals

Yield: 70 oz, serves 10

Equipment

Tools: Pitcher

Glassware: Ten 9 oz footed tumblers

Combine all the ingredients in the pitcher, then cover and refrigerate for 4-8 hours. Fill the glasses with ice and divide the sangria and fruit among them. Garnish each cocktail with an edible flower.

"This cocktail has a delightful bouquet, not only from the wine, but also from the elderflower liqueur, which delivers bright notes of honey and quince. Feel free to get creative with the added fruit, as melon and peaches also complement these flavours beautifully. The flower garnish makes a lovely finishing touch."

Versailles (Manhattan)

Manhattan Cocktail Recipe – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

2 oz Old Tom gin, 1/2 oz bianco vermouth, 2 tsp Rose Liqueur, 3 dashes cherry bitters; Garnish: 1 candied pink rose petal

Yield: 3 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: Cocktail shaker, cocktail strainer

Glassware: 8 oz all-purpose wine glass

Fill the shaker with ice and add the ingredients, shaking until well chilled. Strain into the glass over 3 ice cubes and gently float the rose petal on top.

"The rose petal liqueur in this chic cocktail evokes the fragrant rose gardens of Versailles. The accompanying lightly sweet gin and vermouth are also infused with botanicals, imparting a wonderful herbal complexity to this pretty drink."

Fireworks Margarita

Fireworks Margarita Cocktail Recipes – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

Red and blue-coloured salts, plain kosher salt, 1 lime wedge, 3 oz blanco tequila, 3 oz fresh lime juice, 3 oz fresh lemon juice, 3 tbsp simple syrup, 1/2 oz grenadine, 1 1/2 oz orange liqueur, 1 oz blue curaçao; Garnish: 1 lime wheel

Yield: 10 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: 3 small plates, 3 shallow food-storage containers, fork, red and blue straws Glassware: 12 oz insulated pilsner

Method

Spread a thin layer or red salt on a small plate; repeat with blue and kosher salts on remaining two plates. Rub the outer rim of the glass with juice from the lime wedge and roll a third of the rim in each of the salts.

Red mixture: Combine 1 oz tequila, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 tbsp simple syrup, 1/2 oz grenadine, 1/2 oz orange liqueur, and 1 oz cold water in a container.

White mixture: Combine 1 oz tequila, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 tbsp simple syrup, 1 oz orange liqueur, and 1 oz cold water in container.

Blue mixture: Combine 1 oz tequila, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 tbsp simple syrup, 1 oz blue curaçao, and 1 oz cold water in a container.

Freeze containers for 2 hours, breaking up with a fork halfway through.

To serve, pour the red mixture in the bottom of the glass, followed by the white mixtures, and then the blue. Garnish with the lime wheel and serve with the straws.

Anti-Gravity (Martini)

Martini Cocktail Recipes – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

1/2 oz grenadine, red sugar crystals, 2 oz vodka, 1 1/2 oz white cranberry juice, 1/2 oz blue curaçao, 1/2 oz fresh lime juice

Yield: 5 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: Spherical ice mould, paring knife, two 2 oz food syringes, 2 small plates, cocktail shaker

Glassware: 12-oz double old-fashioned

Method

Fill the ice mould with cold water and freeze for 3 hours, until two-thirds of the water in the mould remains liquid.

Remove ice sphere from mould and, using a sharp paring knife, carefully make a hole on the seam just large enough to insert the tip of a food syringe. Insert the tip to drain out the remaining water, then place frozen sphere back in the mould and return to freezer.

Pour the grenadine on one small plate and the sugar crystals on another. Dip the rim of the glass in the grenadine and coat with crystals.

Fill a shaker with ice, add remaining ingredients and shake well. Place in freezer for 20 minutes, bringing close to freezing.

Remove from freezer and shake vigorously, then draw vodka mixture into both syringes.

Remove ice sphere from the freezer and place it, hold facing up, in the prepared glass. Slowly fill the contents of the syringes.

Using a muddler or the handle of a dinner knife, carefully crack open the ice ball, being very careful not to break the glass.

"Inspired by the Academy-award-winning film Gravity, this magnificent drink is a marvel of molecular mixology. It’s encase in a hollow sphere of ice and has an “asteroid” pop rocks rim. When the ice is broken, the liquid flows our like – in director Alfons Cuaron’s own words – “the primordial soup that created all life on earth.”

La Seville (Coffee Cocktail)

Coffee Cocktail Recipes – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

2 oz cold espresso, 2 oz orange vodka, 1 oz orange liqueur; Garnish: 1 orange curl, 1 chocolate-covered orange peel

Yield: 5 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: Cocktail shaker, cocktail strainer

Glassware: 6 oz cocktail glass, chilled for at least 20 minutes

Fill the shaker with ice and add all the ingredients, shaking until well chilled. Strain into the glass and garnish with the orange peels.

"Since the flavours of orange and espresso are both slightly bitter and powerfully aromatic, they complement each other beautifully. This robust cocktail brings them together in a way that comes across as both assertive and very suave. Ideal as an after-dinner drink."

Provence (Champagne Cocktail)

Provence Champagne Cocktail Recipes – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

2 tsp lavender syrup, 2 tsp fresh lemon juice, 1 oz gin (chilled in the freezer), 5 oz brut champagne (chilled); Garnish: Fresh lavender sprig

Yield: 6 1/2 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Glassware: 8 oz flute

Combine the syrup, lemon juice and gin in the flute and top with the champagne. Garnish with the lavender sprig.

"This cocktail is fit for the most elegant occasions and glamorous celebrations, including a royal wedding. The traditional bitters are replaces with the floral complexity of lavender syrup. The distinct flavour and fragrance of lavender are also reputed to have a wonderfully calming effect."

Bloody Geisha

Bloody Mary Cocktail Recipe – Summer Cocktail Recipes – LuxDeco.com Style Guide – Shop Luxury Glassware at LuxDeco.com

Ingredients

1 tsp black sesame seeds, 1 tsp white sesame seeds, 1 lemon wedge, 3 oz dry sake, 3 oz tomato juice, 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 5 dashes of soy sauce, 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, 1 dash Sriracha, 1/2 oz yuzu juice or substitute fresh lemon juice; Garnish: Wasabi salt, 1 cooked and peeled prawn, 1 baby corn, 3 shiitake mushroom slices, 2 snow peas, 3-inch sushi nori strip

Yield: 7 oz, serves 1

Equipment

Bar tools: Small plate, cocktail shaker, cocktail strainer, cocktail spoon, cocktail pick, 2 mixing glasses, bamboo skewer

Glassware: 6 oz cocktail glass, chilled for at least 20 minutes

Method

Spread the black sesame seeds in a thin layer on one half of the small plate and the white sesame seeds on the other half. Rub the outer rim of the glass with the lemon wedge. Dip in the sesame seeds so half of the rim is coated with white seeds and the other half with black seeds.

Fill the cocktail shaker with ice, add the remaining ingredients, stir, and strain into the prepared glass.

Garnish with wasabi salt and a skewer of shrimp, corn, mushrooms, and snow peas wrapped in a nori strip.

"An Asian influence pervades this drink, thanks to an irresistible blend of savoury ingredients. Made from rice, sake has an alcohol content slightly higher than wine and a neutral presence that doesn’t overtake the other powerful flavours. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus that is rarely found fresh in the [west], but the bottled juice is readily available and quite delicious."

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