Whether you’re throwing a mini cocktail party to celebrate Phase 2 or just hanging out with a bunch of friends on Zoom, these cocktail recipes are easy to make without the need to spend a fortune.
And if you’re planning to start a home bar, do not think about what bottles or liquors you should buy, but rather ask yourself what you like to drink. If you start with a cocktail you like, get those ingredients so you can make that cocktail, then do that for another cocktail and see where they overlap.
Enough chatter, let’s get started! Here are 7 refreshing cocktail recipes that require no more than five ingredients and there’s no need for any special equipment!
1. Lemon Drop
This is a cocktail for any occasion and it’s perfect to serve as a pre-dinner drink or an after-work refreshment if you aren’t keen on beer. All you need is a bottle of Vodka, lemonade and a chilled glass! So if you have plenty of lemons left in your pantry, now you know what you can do with it besides turning them all into lemonade. Plus, this is definitely instagrammable.
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 50ml of vodka
- 50ml of lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- Lemonade
How to Make
- Wet the rim of a glass and roll it in the sugar
- Mix the vodka and the lemon juice together in the glass
- Top it up with lemonade.
2. Woo Woo
Still have bottles of vodkas left at home and you’re in the mood for something sweet? Try Woo Woo, a delicious summer concoction of cranberry juice and peach schnapps with a kick of vodka!
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 25ml of vodka
- 25ml of peach schnapps
- 50ml of cranberry juice.
- ¼ cup of ice cubes
How to Make
- Pour peach schnapps, vodka and cranberry juice into the glass of your choice
- Stir and enjoy!
3. Tequila Sunrise
This never goes out of style. Tequila Sunrise is probably the first fancy drink you had when you reached the legal age of patronising the club. It’s supposedly a poolside drink with its origin in Arizona.
A bartender at the famous Arizona Biltmore came up with it in the 1930s at the request of a frequent guest asking for a refreshing drink to be enjoyed by the poolside. The concoction turned out to resemble sunrise in a glass and that’s how the drink was named after. For the cocktail aficionados, you’d be quick to point out that there is actually two variations of Tequila Sunrise. The original recipe introduced in the 1930s doesn’t involve the use of grenadine for its deep red tint instead it uses creme de Cassis (blackcurrant alcohol) which provides a higher alcohol content, along with tequila, soda water and lime juice.
The recipe here is based on the modernised version created in the early 1970s by two bartenders in the California-based Trident Restaurant that feature three primary ingredients: tequila, orange juice, and grenadine.
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 50ml of tequila
- 25ml of grenadine
- 175ml of orange juice
- 1/2 cup of ice cubes
- 1 orange slice for garnish
How to Make
- Mix the tequila and orange juice together
- Pour into a glass over ice
- Slowly pour in the grenadine into the glass, allowing it to settle at the bottom of the glass.
- Garnish with an orange slice
4. Strawberry Mojito
Strawberry Mojito is refreshing with a pretty colour to boot!
Fun fact: The original Mojito was created as an antidote to curb disease on the island of Cuba.
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 9 to 10 Strawberries (Sliced them into halves)
- Half a lime (cut into 4 pieces)
- 5 fresh mint leaves
- 1 Tablespoon of sugar
- 50ml golden rum (Captain Morgan’s spiced or Havana Club should do)
- Sparkling water
How to Make
- Add strawberries, lime and sugar into a glass and mash them together with a spoon.
- Pour rum over, top up with sparkling water and stir.
- Garnish with remaining mint leaves and sliced strawberries. Your Strawberry Mojito is now ready!
5. Long Island Iced Tea
Despite looking like a harmless non-alcoholic iced tea, Long Island Iced Tea is notorious for its high alcohol concentration (approx. 22%) per serving, using just a small amount of soda as a mixer. And as with all cocktail histories, the origin of Long Island Iced Tea is often disputed in America, although you probably won’t remember it anyway when you had too much Long Island Iced Tea.
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 25ml of light rum
- 25ml of vodka
- 25ml of gin
- 25ml of tequila
- 25ml of lime juice
- Coke
- 1/2 cup of ice cubes
How to Make
- Pour vodka, rum, gin, tequila into a glass and mix with lime juice.
- Add ice cubes and a splash of coke. Told you it’s easy to make!
6. Mimosa
Light, fizzy, and pack a punch! This is a perfect festive drink! The concoction is named after the mimosa flower, a bright orange blossom native to southern Mexico and Central and South America. Legend has it that it was created by a French bartender in Ritz Hotel Paris in 1925.
You can also use Champagne instead of Sparkling wine too.
Ingredients (1 serving)
- 100ml Sparkling wine
- 50ml Orange Juice
- 1 orange wedge for garnish
- Ice cubes
How to Make
- Pour the orange juice into a glass with a couple of ice cubes.
- Fill to the top with chilled champagne. Stir slowly and garnish with an orange wedge. Enjoy!
7. Purple Haze
Vodka is an absolute bar staple. Here’s another pretty instagrammable cocktail to make with just three ingredients: Vodka, orange juice and blackberry schnapps!
Ingredients (1 serving)
50ml of vodka
50ml of blackcurrant schnapps
20ml of orange juice
1/2 cup of glass cubes
1 slice of lemon
How to Make
- Mix vodka and orange juice in a glass.
- Add blackcurrant schnapps and ice cubes.
- Garnish with a lemon slice. Your Purple Haze is ready!
