The best summer time Spanish cocktails

When I was contacted by Diageo whilst in Spain asking if I would be interested in writing a blog about my favourite cocktails… whilst I was making a cocktail… my instant answer was obviously YES!

In May I had a week in a gorgeous Travelopo villa with family and friends. After two and a half weeks of travelling across Guatemala and Belize it was great to have a week in one place and in luxury. This week was all about relaxing and cocktail drinking by the villa’s pool.

We decided to get creative with our cocktail making and turned it into a bit of a competition. Each creating our own unique drink, some based on a more traditional cocktail, others going all out adding whatever we could find.

Despite loving being creative and trying something different, my favourites of the holiday were still Gin and Tonic and traditional Spanish Sangria.

Here are my recipes and directions of my favourite summer sunshine drinks… the directions are most important!

Summertime Spanish Gin and Tonics

I was never a fan of Gin and Tonic, tonic water is my least favourite fizzy drink and so gin and tonic just never really did it for me. That was until I visited Spain and was offered the most delicious G&T I have ever tasted. All of a sudden this tart, sour drink had turned into a mouth-watering, refreshing cocktail and I was instantly hooked. Having watched my Spanish friend take his time making the drink, I realised it was all about the mixing and the glass it was drunk out of… obviously the better quality gin and tonic makes a HUGE difference too.

 

Ingredients

• Gin
• Tonic water
• Ice
• Lemon (preferably fresh from your garden)

Directions

1. Place the ice in a tall wide wine glass or tumbler and spin to cool the glass
2. Squeeze a small amount of fresh lemon in and spin again
3. Add gin (I would say about 1 part gin to 3 parts tonic) and spin again
4. Fill with chilled tonic water.
5. Add a slice of lemon in the glass
6. Drink… slowly in the sunshine, preferably by a pool

Homemade Spanish Sangria

You can’t visit Spain and not drink Sangria. Their signature drink, you can buy cartons for 1 euro in the supermarket… or you can go slightly more upmarket and make your own at home.

Ingredients

• Red wine
• Orange juice
• Lemonade
• Fresh orange
• Ice
• Mint

Wine in Spain can be really cheap, you can pick up a bottle for 2-3 euros in the supermarket so freshly made Sangria won’t be much more than the cartons you can buy ready made… but they will be a lot tastier.

Directions

1. Mix together 2 parts red wine to one part lemonade and one part orange juice – stir well
2. Add ice, slice of orange juice and a sprig of mint to garnish.

Easy peasy… For a more detailed recipe see the full details and loads more cocktail ideas on thebar.com.

We made all kinds of random concoctions whilst in Mallorca. Limoncello and rum featured a lot, but my favourites were still the classics above.

Do you have any summer cocktail ideas?