Put the Kettle On—We’re Making Cocktails
Memorial Day Weekend now shrinks in the rear view mirror. June looms in the windshield—we’ll meet it on Sunday. Summer is here.
The season of flip-flops and bikinis, of vacations and al fresco dining, porches and patios, compels us outside. It’s a social season, too. More dinner parties and picnics. More group bike rides.
We look for the ice-dense coolers packed with beer, canned wine and kombucha. Our first goal for swanning into the back yard party full of laughing friends is gripping something cold and delicious.
Bonus points if the shindig offers cocktails and mocktails.
Margaritas, sure. Mock cosmopolitans, go for it. But maybe it’s time to startle guests with bright, unexpected flavors. Serve them drinks they’ve never sipped before.
Feature tea as a cocktail star
Here’s a grand starting point: tea. The beverage’s stylistic capaciousness incorporates nearly flavor on Earth: fruity, grassy, forest floor, herbal, floral and so on. It doesn’t offer much on the blue cheese front—probably a good thing.
With tea as a base, drink has room to roam. In addition to the spirit’s fire—if you’re incorporating liquor—the beverage can involve many of the other usual participants. Something sour, like citrus. A simple syrup. Perhaps some spice, or smoke. Really—whatever you like.
With that, we turn to three recipes for your summer of entertaining, and just savoring the taste of a solid post-work drink. All of them can be made mocktail-style with the elimination of the spirits. For the Lemon Sonata Drop, which has orange liqueur, you might want to make an orange simple syrup. Plenty of recipes for that online.
Cheers to the summer of 2025, friends!
Summer Tea Cocktails: Lemon Sonata Drop
The Lemon Drop cocktail has only been around since the 1970s, when the San Francisco bar Henry Africa’s came up with the concoction—a reference to a sweet and sour candy of the same name—to attract women imbibers. Not sure why a lemony drink would draw women with particular ardor, but that was the thinking. Fast forward 50 years, and the cocktail now stands as a bar standard. It’s refreshing, palate-cleansing and serves as a wonderful aperitif—it activates the salivary glands (all of that mouth-puckering lemon) and stokes our hunger.
Our Lemon Sonata tea offers quite the lemon punch. But it also contains ginger, pineapple, apple, basil, blackberry leaves and moringa leaves. For our outstanding cocktail, the Lemon Sonata Drop, the ingredients all come together beautifully.
🍋 Lemon Sonata Drop
A floral, citrusy riff on the classic Lemon Drop—zippier, deeper, a little mysterious.
Ingredients
- 2 oz vodka (citrus vodka if you’re feeling extra)
- 2 oz brewed Lemon Sonata Tea (strong, cooled)
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- ½ oz triple sec or orange liqueur
- ½ oz honey syrup (1:1 honey + warm water)
- Sugar rim + lemon twist (optional)
Method
- Shake all ingredients with ice until chilled and a bit frothy.
- Strain into a sugar-rimmed coupe glass.
- Garnish with a lemon twist.
Optional touch: Add a single drop of orange blossom water for an extra lift.
Summer Tea Cocktails: Colibri Glow
No summer gathering in Colorado feels complete without at least a nod (if not a deep bow) to our proud neighbor to the south—Mexico. Margaritas rank as many people’s favorite cocktail, for darn good reason. We love them too. For our Colibri Glow, we stick with tequila, but instead of the margarita’s heavy lime base, we tap our Colibri Tea, a special blend crafted by one of our employees with Mexican heritage. With its bright hibiscus, orange peel, cinnamon, ginger and peppermint, this style of tea is popular all over Mexico. It’s gorgeous! And so is this refreshing summer tea cocktail.
🌺 Colibri Glow
A tart, deep-pink cocktail with the electric hum of hibiscus and lime.
Ingredients
- 2 oz blanco tequila or mezcal (if you want smoke)
- 2 oz brewed Colibri Hibiscus Tea (chilled and strong)
- ¾ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz agave nectar
- Dash of chili tincture or a thin slice of jalapeño (optional)
- Lime wheel or hibiscus flower for garnish
Method
- Shake everything with ice.
- Strain into a chilled rocks glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish.
Optional: A little Tajín on the rim.
Summer Tea Cocktails: Smoky Lapsang Souchong Old Fashioned
It’s been around since the middle of the 19th century. And the Old Fashioned still stands as an exemplary cocktail. Trends come and go. The Old Fashioned landed, and never left. It’s simple in its ingredients—just whiskey, sugar, bitters and accoutrements like a lemon peel or muddled orange and cherry. That straightforward list of ingredients, though, yields one heckuva special drink, as long as it’s been made properly.
Our Smoky Lapsang Souchong Old Fashioned honors the classic, and adds a twist. We think smoky flavors work well with whiskey drinks in general—including the Old Fashioned. So we added Lapsang Souchong, a famous Chinese black tea with a pronounced smoke kick, to the cocktail. We think this elixir would be pure ambrosia on a summer evening before a bonfire.
🔥 Smoky Souchong Old Fashioned
Robust. Brooding. A drink to savor.
Ingredients
- 2 oz rye or bourbon
- 1 oz brewed Lapsang Souchong Tea (very strong, cooled)
- ¼ oz maple syrup (or rich demerara syrup)
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 dash orange bitters
- Orange peel + optional cherry
Method
- Stir all ingredients with ice until silky and cold.
- Strain into a rocks glass with one big cube.
- Express the orange peel over the top, then drop it in.
