Last Sips of Summer

Like any innovative cocktail bar it is good business practice to change your cocktail menu seasonally, adhering to the tastes and flavors of the year’s new mood. But personally, leaving summer is always the hardest part. Nothing personal against fall, but for me it is a season that brings the impending doom of a winter’s cold (and I haven’t even experienced a New York winter yet). So every year, like most, I try and drag out summer and all its glorious givings for as long as I possibly can, and one way to do so is by indulging in refreshing summer cocktails. Listed below are three of Brooklyn’s finest—and my personal favorite—summer cocktails that are on their way out due to this damned seasonal change:

1) French Navy – Hotel Delmano:
Ingredients: lemon, sherry, lavender gin, dash of chocolate bitters
This tasty gin cocktail, created by Sam Anderson, is tart and herbaceous; both flavor qualities, when consumed in tandem, capture the summer sun while going down like a refreshing breeze. Well-mixed, this cocktail comes together even before you take your first sip, with a grapefruit garnish that smells of summer. This is one cocktail that will be sorely missed.

3) The Tickled Pink – Huckleberry Bar:
Ingredients: cucumber-infused Sombra Mezcal, Chinaco tequila, aperol and lime
Agave-based drinks always tend to blend spice and cooling properties that, when brought to my pallet, remind me of summer. This drink made me feel closer to the beach (without actually going there) than any Corona commercial could do. With a delicious and traditional blend of mezcal, tequila and lime, the cucumber infusion and aperol (rhubarb liquor) bring an even more refreshing summertime take to this innovative cocktail.

3) French Compromise – The Counting Room:
Ingredients: orange-infused gin, lemon, prosecco
This is a bar I’ve previously reviewed, but the French Compromise was not a drink I had tried until I went back during my hunt for summertime cocktails. And, I don’t know what it is about the French (this being the second item with ‘French‘ in the title), but this summer sip is a tasty agave cocktail that brings your taste buds to the beach. The drink marries citrus and effervescence in a beautiful manner that is both stimulating and affordable. Myself, like many, are still reeling off of the middle month’s spending spree on drinks and trinkets, but The Counting Room remains to be a location for safe spending.

Nonetheless, there will always be the classic summery and thirst quenching spirits like the mojito, the Pimm’s Cup, the mint julep and my personal favorite, the always simple and delicious gin and tonic with lemon and a fernet float. In the coming weeks you’ll have to prepare your taste buds for something warmer, but for now continue to consume and indulge in the season that most of us aren’t ready to let go of.

Summer, you will be missed.

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