Summer Cocktail Favorites From the Gardenuity Team

When your office is full of gardens with fresh peppers, tomatoes, basil, thyme, mint, and rosemary in abundance and ready to be harvested you can’t help but want to experiment with cocktails and mocktails. Some of these experiments have become Friday afternoon favorites when customers, colleagues and vendors stop by to say hello.

So over the next few weeks we will share some of our favorite garden inspired cocktail discoveries. From classics with a twist to our frozen cocktail popsicles, these recipes are seasonal favorites and fun to share.

This has been the season for some amusing, simple, and complicated mixology experiments. The team loves using fresh harvests with every trial and quite honestly the mistakes are almost just as fun and enjoyable.

Margarita

Doug Platts, the Gardenuity COO loves combining fresh pineapple juice with jalapenos for a refreshing Pineapple, Jalapeno Garden Fresh Margarita.

The Margarita ranks as America’s favorite cocktail and is among the most popular in the world.  Every summer season starts off with Cinco de Mayo, but Doug doesn’t just enjoy margaritas in the summer, it is a year round favorite. “It is the perfect go to cocktail and mixes perfectly with almost any herb from my garden” Doug Platts.  “Ease of preparation and versatility play a large part in why it’s a favorite. It works shaken, frozen, and on the rocks with basil, peppers, mint, and mango – whatever you want,” Platts says.

This summer the Pineapple and Jalapeno Margarita has become a Platt house favorite.

Greyhound

Brunch is so much better with friends and a great batch cocktail. The Rosemary Greyhound Cocktail is tasty, matches with Ina’s Egg Benedicts, Martha’s French Toast with Grand Marnier and Bobby Flays Chimichanga Breakfast Burritos with Avocado-Tomato-Watercress Salsa and best of all it is easy to batch making hosting a brunch gathering even easier. Chilled grapefruit juice with a splash of Grey Goose and fresh rosemary will quickly update any brunch. Inspired by the classic Grey Hound drink, this recipe brings the original to the next-level.  This adult’s only sipper is every better when served over crushed ice.

Martini

Donna, the Gardenuity CEO thinks experimenting with various martinis is fun.  The summer of 2021 favorite- Jalapeño & Rosemary Martini. This Rosemary Martini is refreshing and sophisticated. It’s cool, crisp, and stars the always popular rosemary. Take one sip and you will be hooked, the heat from the jalapeno combined with really cold vodka is the perfect combination. Great for summer but works anytime.

The martini has stood the test of time, is a power play in famous movies, and can be made with vodka or gin, whatever is your preference. Martinis are classics, they give you the impression you are living in a Hollywood film and it seems natural to be listening to someone tinker on a grand piano while you sip this ephemeral cocktail. The classic martini is getting extra attention with people to taste testing twists on the classic like the Vesper Martini, French Martini, or Lemon Drop Martini. 

Boozy Popsicles, Team Favorite

Hot summer days, long afternoons are the perfect time to enjoy a Boozy Popsicle. Long a summer staple, Popsicles and “Poptails” aka Boozy Popsicles are one of the great gifts of summer. Popsicles for long have been considered a kid’s summer treat, but over the past few years, these frozen treats on a stick have found their way to happy hours across the country.  

These cocktails (and popsicles) are great ways to spend the summer’s end while relaxing. So take some time, relax, and enjoy the final half of summer – you deserve it.