Ultimate Summer Drink Recipes

When the summer sun is relentlessly smothering you, cool off with our Ultimate Summer Drink Recipes! Follow our tips to make the best frozen drink recipes and alcoholic drink recipes for you to beat the heat this summer.

Learn how to mix tropical drink recipes, refreshing teas and alcoholic chillers for your family and friends. You will be more comfortable with a real fruit drink in your hand, and everyone else will appreciate the effort you put forth concocting intricate frozen drink recipes. Just don't let them know how easy it is!

Table of Contents

How To: Apple Citrus Chiller
Lemonade and Tea
Shakes and Smoothies
Alcoholic Drinks

How To: Apple Citrus Chiller

Not too sweet and not too tart, this tangy beverage is a refreshing change. Stir up a batch of this yummy apple citrus chiller and enjoy it at your next picnic or party...or any time at all.

Serves: 10

Preparation Time: 5 min

Ingredients

2 cups light apple juice, chilled
2 cups light orange juice, chilled
2 cups light grapefruit juice, chilled
1/2 cup lime juice, freshly squeezed, chilled
2 12-ounce cans diet ginger ale

Instructions

1. In a large pitcher or punch bowl, combine apple, orange, grapefruit and lime juices.
    
2. Just before serving, pour in ginger ale and stir gently.
    
3. Serve over ice cubes in tall glasses.

Lemonade and Tea

• To extract more juice, poke the skin of the lemon with a fork (without going through the skin). Heat a medium lemon for 20 to 30 seconds.
   
• Roll lemons on the counter before juicing.
   
• When make your own iced tea, use a variety of tea bags for maximum flavor.
   
• Make ice from the drinks they will go into (lemonade, tea, coffee). Then, when you are chilling your beverage, melting ice won't dillute your drink.
   
• Brew a strong piticher of tea or coffee and chill it to make the best iced tea or coffee.

Lavender Pink Lemonade  - This recipe for fresh lemonade is much healthier than most traditional recipes.

Natalia Rose's Green Lemonade  - Raw juices are a great way to bombard your body with lots of veggies.

Lemonade Iced Tea  - Cool down with the best iced tea recipe.

Southern-Style Sweet Tea  - One glass of this southern sweet tea recipe will dissolve your cares away.

Shakes and Smoothies

• When blending smoothie, add more liquid (milk, water) to thin out the smoothy and to mix ingredients. To make thicker smoothies, add a handful of ice cubes, frozen fruit or frozen yogurt.
   
• To make low calorie smoothies, use low fat/fat free diary products or soy milk.
   
• Vanilla or strawberry protein powder can easily be added for additional protein content.
   
• Freeze extra smoothie and blend it again later on when you want to eat it.
   
• If a smoothie is too sweet, substitute frozen cranberries for any fruit in the ingredients.

Summer Fruit Smoothie  - Summertime is the perfect time to drink a yogurt smoothie.

Paradise Fruit Smoothie  - This drink is nice and ripe and a great way to start the day out right.

Amaretto Slushie  - The light fruit-juice concentrates mean it won't pack in a ton of calories, so it's perfect for a hot summer day.

Orange Creamsicle Smoothie  - Simple soothing.

Alcoholic Drinks

• In alcoholic drinks, use absinthe instead of other hard alcohol for a gluten and dairy free drink.
   
• Don't drink everyday. Drink reasonably and sensibly to avoid consuming excessive calories and carbs.
   
• Take a multivitamin with folic acid, a synthetic form of a necessary B Vitamin that is moderately depleted from alochol consumption. This helps reduce the risk of heart disease and some types of cancer.

Lucid Traditional  - This recipe shows how to drink absinthe correctly.

Stars and Stripes  - Blueberries and gingerbeer provide the unique stars and stripes flavor.

Lucid Bloody Mary  - Beat the heat with a bloody mary.