After a long, muddy, and mostly quarantined spring, we’re scrambling to get out in the summer sunshine. In Maine, our outdoor options abound. We can walk in the woods, dip our toes in the sand, catch a tailwind on the high seas, swing in a hammock, or chill in a solo Adirondack chair in a shady spot.
Regardless of how you enjoy your own time in the sun, alone or in pairs, summer is also a great season for casual (socially distanced, if necessary) entertaining. What’s more laid back than a pretty pitcher of summertime cocktails? Since this is Edible Maine’s inaugural women’s issue, we’re focusing on summertime sippers that are well-crafted for a girls’ night gathering.
Here are four perfectly balanced, pitcher-perfect cocktails for summer using gin, white rum, and white wine. We encourage you to try them at home. If you are interested in experimenting behind the bar yourself, we can also offer a bit of advice.
The first step in creating any cocktail is tasting the spirit you want to use. Is it herbaceous like gin? Neutral like vodka? Sweet and toasty like rum? Fruiting like white wine? Once you have a handle on how the base spirit tastes naked, you can begin adding other elements to build the cocktail. First add something sour (like lemon or lime juice) and then add something sweet (often a simple syrup or a sweet liquor) until you hit the balance you like.
When you’ve got the formula for one drink down, you can scale it up to make a pitcher. Take note, though, that pitcher proportions may vary slightly from individual portions because they tend to sit in ice longer. If you will be outdoors on a warm day or in direct sunlight, add a greater proportion of the cocktail ingredients to the ice in the pitcher since they will likely become diluted as the evening progresses.
The recipes for the simple syrups used in these recipes will yield a single pitcher of the respective cocktails. But they can be doubled or tripled easily. Any remaining simple syrup can be kept in the refrigerator for three months or in the freezer for six.
