15 Spring Cocktails to Make This Season

Fleur de Paradis cocktail — Fleur de Paradis Image:
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April showers bring May flowers…and a reason to shake up your cocktail rotation with fresh, light flavors and ingredients. Take your pick of pretty floral drinks and frothy egg-white concoctions, plus plenty of cocktails that make the most of the season’s produce like strawberries, rhubarb, and even snap peas.

Fresh Berry Delicious

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Drinks pro Charlotte Voisey’s creation lives up to its straightforward name, thanks to a combination of raspberry vodka, blood-orange liqueur, muddled strawberries, lemon juice, and honey syrup. The Spanish liqueur Licor 43 adds an herbaceous foil to the drink’s brightness and sweetness.

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Lavender Honey Cream

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This botanical-forward drink starts with Square One, a rye spirit infused with the essence of chamomile, lemon verbena, lavender, and citrus peels. Lavender honey syrup adds additional floral flavor, while heavy cream and an egg white produce a luscious, frothy texture.

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French 75

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This drink is much more delightful than its namesake, the 75-millimeter field gun used by the French during World War I. Gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup are topped with Champagne for a festively fizzy cocktail that’s easy to drink any time of year or day.

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Strawberry Pisco Sour

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The classic Pisco Sour—made with the grape-distilled South American spirit, lime juice, an egg white, and sugar—is hard to improve upon. This delicious version from bar star Naren Young adds a seasonal twist by swapping a strawberry-rosewater syrup for the traditional simple.

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Continue to 5 of 15 below.
Aviation

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This classic gin drink dates back to the turn of the 20th century, but it was revived at the height of the craft cocktail boom in 2007, when the importer Haus Alpenz brought crème de violette back to the United States after a long absence. The floral liqueur gives the drink its signature hue and plays with botanical gin, bittersweet maraschino liqueur, and tart lemon juice to yield equally vibrant flavors.

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Lemon Drop

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If you’ve only had a Lemon Drop in the form of a shot with bottled sour mix, try the sugar-rimmed 1970s classic in its original form with freshly squeezed lemon juice: Vodka, triple sec, and simple syrup also go into the shaker for a lip-smacking mix of sweet and tart.

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Scarlet Glow

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A homemade hibiscus syrup is the secret to this drink’s floral flavor and, well, scarlet glow. Bar pro and distiller Allen Katz combines the syrup with pisco, yellow Chartreuse, and grapefruit juice to produce a bright and complex cocktail.

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Green Giant

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Spring produce plays a starring role in this savory-sweet cocktail. Bartender Tom Macy muddles sugar snap pea pods and tarragon with simple syrup, then shakes the mixture with Old Tom gin, dry vermouth, and lemon juice.

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Continue to 9 of 15 below.
Rye House Spring Beer Cocktail

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Sweet, fruity, sour, and spicy: This unique beer cocktail has it all. Bar pros Jim Kearns and Lynnette Marrerro invented the drink at New York City’s now-shuttered Rye House, where they topped a mixture of genever, applejack, loganberry liqueur, lime juice, and ginger syrup with lager.

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El Chapo

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Nashville bartender Ben Clemons infuses a bottle of Aperol with fresh strawberries to create a component of this fruity, refreshing cocktail. Infusion aside, making the drink is easy: Just combine the Aperol with gin and grapefruit beer. You can use the remaining liqueur to experiment with other recipes.

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Spring's First Bloom

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This floral and herbaceous take on a Gin Sour from Voisey combines gin, St-Germain liqueur, lemon juice, lemongrass-infused syrup, and lavender bitters. Shaking the mixture with an egg white lends the cocktail its silky texture and frothy head—the perfect base for a garnish that nods to the drink’s name.

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Bunny Mary

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Mix up your brunch-time Bloody Mary with this spicy carrot-juice-fueled variation from bartender Rob Krueger. Aquavit lends its herbaceous notes to a mix of honey syrup, lemon juice, caper brine, and hot sauce, but if you don’t have the Scandinavian spirit on hand, vodka will do in a pinch.

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Continue to 13 of 15 below.
Spring Fever

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This fruity floral cocktail from New York City drinks pro Jamie Steinberg earns its name with strawberries, elderflower syrup, lemon juice, and rhubarb bitters, topped with sparkling rosé wine. It’s exactly what you’ll want to be sipping on the first day of patio season.

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Gin Fizz

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This classic cocktail first appeared in the 1876 edition of The Bar-tenders Guide by Jerry Thomas, and its simple appeal has lived on. As refreshing as a Tom Collins and as silky-smooth as a Gin Sour, it sees gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup shaken with an egg white and topped with club soda.

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Fleur de Paradis

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New York City bartender Kenta Goto combines Plymouth gin, St-Germain, grapefruit and lemon juices, simple syrup, and orange bitters for a citrusy and gently floral cocktail that’s as pretty as its eponymous flower. A Champagne topper and a pansy garnish render it perfect for Mother's Day, but it’s a lovely addition to any brunch.

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15 Cocktails to Make This Spring

Step into the season with fresh, bright drinks.