5 Boozy Vegan Cocktail Recipes to Try This Summer

After spending the whole of last year in lockdown, many of us have become accustomed to creating our own drinks to make up for a lack of carefully crafted cocktails in our favorite bars with fancy mixers and additions.

All that practice is going to pay off when we host BBQs this summer!

But not all of the drinks we’ve learnt to shake up will be suitable for your vegan party guests. Some mixers and tonics are unsuitable for a vegan diet, so we’ve decided to create a vegan cocktail recipe guide using high-quality mixers that boost flavors.

The number of vegans jumped by 40% last year in the UK alone, with more people opting for a plant-based diet across the world. Even if you don’t follow a strict vegan diet but a flexitarian one, it is nice to have vegan options where possible.

Roughly 1.5 million people in Britain have followed a more plant-based diet after Veganuary 2021. Reports estimate this has saved two million animal's lives.

We are becoming increasingly conscious of what we are putting into our bodies and the impact the animal industry has on the environment. Veganism was once considered a niche fringe movement – herbivores had to scour health food stores for plant-based food.

Now, there are more vegan food and drink products available than ever before. Check out how you can serve up drinks to suit every taste while avoiding animal-based products.

1. Refreshing grapefruit paloma

^{Source: Shutterstock, by apolonia}

Grapefruit can be an acquired taste but in a cocktail it is refreshing and light with a little fizz – perfect for summer.

Mixing this drink also creates a beautiful light pink hue that looks brilliant in the sun. Similar to a margarita cocktail, the paloma is a popular drink in Mexico.

Ingredients:

• 45ml tequila
• Fentimans soda water
• 60ml squeezed grapefruit juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Kosher salt
• Cubed or crushed ice

Method:

1. Run a wedge of grapefruit around the rim of a margarita glass and then dip in salt. Fill the glass with ice to keep it cool.
2. Mix and stir the grapefruit juice with the sugar and then add the juice and tequila to a cocktail shaker filled half with ice. Shake the cocktail shaker vigorously.
3. Pour into the margarita glass and top off with soda water to taste. Stir and garnish with a slice of grapefruit.

2. Strawberry lemonade

^{Source: Shutterstock, by Regesha Iryna}

Full of fruity flavor with the perfect kick of alcohol, this cocktail might go down just a little bit too easily. The Fentimans Victorian Lemonade has the juice of one and a half lemons in each bottle and is botanically brewed for a unique kick – it is certainly more than just your typical lemonade, which makes this drink extra special.

Ingredients:

• 35ml berry vodka
• Fentimans Victorian Lemonade
• Dash of sugar syrup
• 2 strawberries, diced
• Fresh mint
• Lemon wedge

Method:

1. Muddle the strawberries in the sugar syrup. Then, add mint and vodka and stir.
2. Add ice and top up with Fentimans Victorian Lemonade. Garnish with mint, lemon, and strawberries.

If you want to remove bits, shake all the ingredients apart from the lemonade in a cocktail shaker and strain into the glass.

3. Indian summer cup

^{Source: Shutterstock, by New Africa}

Having a few people over? Impress them with this aromatic, sweet cocktail that they can help themselves to. Packed with many different flavors, this drink is sure to get the party started.

Ingredients:

• 1-liter bottle London dry gin
• 1-liter bottle of vegan-friendly sweet vermouth
• 240ml elderflower liqueur
• 240ml peach liqueur
• 710ml lemon syrup
• 460ml apple juice
• 1000ml chilled tonic water
• 460ml chilled sparkling water
• Ice
• 1 sliced green apple
• 2 sliced peaches
• 6 long and thin cucumber slices
• 30g torn mint leaves

Method:

1. In a large bowl, combine the gin, vermouth, elderflower, peach liqueurs, lemon syrup, and apple juice. Refrigerate for about four hours until it is chilled.
2. When chilled, stir in the tonic water and sparkling water.
3. Add ice and garnish with the apple, peaches, cucumber, and mint leaves.

4. Black cherry bourbon cola

^{Source: Shutterstock, by Marie Sonmez Photography}

Sweet, simple, and popular with everyone. It's well known that cola and cherries go well together. Just add bourbon and you've created the perfect summer drink for later in the day.

The bonus is that if cola makes it that little bit too sweet for you, Fentimans Ginger Beer or Fentimans soda water can make for the ideal mixer to change up the flavors.

Ingredients:

• 30ml bourbon
• 15ml cherry brandy
• 3 black cherries, pitted
• 1/4 a lime, juiced (and a wedge to garnish with)
• Chilled Fentimans Curiosity Cola
• Ginger beer and soda water, optional

Method:

1. Muddle the cherries and then mix in a cocktail shaker with the cherries, bourbon, brandy, lime juice, and ice.
2. Strain the cocktail over a glass with ice in.
3. Top up with cola (and ginger beer and soda water, if desired, to taste) and serve with a wedge of lime.

5. Raspberry mojito

^{Source: Shutterstock, by Rimma Bondarenko}

Everyone loves a mojito, and the best thing about this recipe is that you can simply change the fruit for different flavors.

Easy to drink and very refreshing, this cocktail is one of the easiest to make.

Ingredients:

• 60ml white rum 
• Sparkly Raspberry Soda Water 
• 5 raspberries 
• 1 lime, freshly squeezed 
• 1 tsp sugar 
• Small handful of mint leaves 
• Ice 

Method:

• Muddle the raspberries, mint, and sugar together in the juice that you have freshly squeezed from the lime.
• Pour the cocktail over ice into a tall glass. 
• Add the rum while stirring with a spoon. Top up with soda water to taste and serve with mint.

Celebrate summer right with our vegan cocktail recipes, using the finest mixers and tonic that complement the spirits and give them a kick of flavor.