11 Effortlessly Elegant Summer Gin Cocktails

April 21, 2022 by Michelle Randall

Summer gin cocktails are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser when you’re seeking the perfect drink to match your summertime celebrations. Served ice cold with lots of fruit twists, the best gin cocktails are always made to be super refreshing.

The herbaceous nature of this light-hearted spirit makes a beautiful backdrop for a variety of awesome summer gin drinks. Here are our top picks that you can make easily at home:

1. Apple Dream Cocktail

The Apple Dream truly is dreamy. It comes to the party with oodles of fruity personality, featuring gin, elderflower liqueur, blackberry liqueur, lemon juice and club soda as its main components. Naturally, it’s also as pretty as a picture with a lemon twist and apple slices as garnish, making the most of the summer harvest.

2. Passionfruit Gin Cocktail

The Passionfruit Gin cocktail is one of those summery drinks that always makes a lasting impression thanks to its vacation-ready tropical flavors. Not to mention the fact that it’s super photogenic of course! Listen, we all know that it’s the taste of the cocktail that counts, but if it’s going to look extra amazing in your Instagram selfies, nobody’s going to complain right?

This lovely drink combines dry gin, fresh lemon juice, passion fruit pulp, simple syrup, and club soda to utter perfection. Simply combine the ingredients in a small pitcher or cocktail shaker, mix it up, and serve it up in high ball glasses with lots of ice for optimal enjoyment. Add lemon wedges as an optional garnish if you’re feeling extra fancy. Do you feel like you’re on vacation yet?

3. Gin Martini Cocktail

The Gin Martini is about as classy as it comes. This classic summer gin drink combines vermouth and gin, with bitters as an optional third ingredient. Since there are so few components to the recipe, it’s normally best practice to splash on a top-shelf gin, and serve it icy cold. Easy as!

4. Strawberry Gin Cocktail

The Strawberry Gin cocktail is like a picnic in a glass, featuring gin, sweet fresh strawberries, zingy lime juice, sugar and club soda, with fresh mint sprigs to garnish. This summer gin cocktail recipe is ideal for prepping ahead of your party in a large pitcher, so you can spend the most time with your guests on the day.

Simply mix everything aside from the club soda and ice together in a pitcher and refrigerate overnight. This extra time will actually give the fresh strawberries some more opportunity to impart their color and flavor to the drink!

5. Last Word Cocktail

If you’re looking for a summer gin drink that’s a bit more grown-up, consider the Last Word. It’s ingredients list includes French herbal liqueur, maraschino liqueur, freshly squeezed lime juice and a brandied cherry as a garnish. This prohibition-era flavor profile is super on-trend right now and quite debonair to boot.

6. Strawberry Basil Cocktail

Everyone’s list of go-to gin cocktails for summer should leave room for a Strawberry Basil Gin cocktail in our opinion. It walks the fine line between sweet, tart and earthy due to the inclusion of fragrant early basil along with strawberries, lime juice and a good gin. So lovely, yet easy to make!

7. Mango Gin Cocktail

If you can’t make it to the tropics this summer, but you would really like to lean into that island-style feeling at home, a Mango Gin cocktail is the next best thing. It’s sparkly, fun and fruity in all the best ways, just like any good vacation should be.

This gin cocktail recipe calls for gin, mango juice, lemon juice, bitters, and club soda, with a lemon wedge and dried mango slice as garnish. In short, you’ll find a little piece of tropical paradise in a glass.

Tip: If you’re serving Mexican food but aren’t all that keen on tequila cocktails like margaritas, a Mango Gin could be a great alternative. It pairs well with sour and spicy flavors and adds that little bit of sweetness to the mix.

8. Aviation Cocktail

If you like a gin sour, you’re going to love an Aviation. It’s a little showier, which is perfect for extra special occasions. Sophisticated violet liqueur gives it its trademark violet tinge, alongside the gin, lemon juice, and maraschino liqueur that form the rest of the ingredient line-up.

9. 50/50 Martini Cocktail

Always wanted to try a classy Gin Martini, but weren’t quite up to the straight-up, dry-as-a-bone version? There are ways of easing into it. Case in point, the 50/50 Martini. This version of the popular James Bond drink gives the vermouth and gin equal footing, yielding a cocktail that is not quite as strong, and far less dry as well. Shaken or stirred? You decide.

10. Watermelon Gin Cocktail

Watermelon is the ultimate summery fruit, and the Watermelon Gin is most certainly its cocktail counterpart. This refreshingly vibrant drink combines seedless watermelon, gin, lime juice, and simple syrup for a sweet and zingy serve. No wonder it’s considered one of the best beach cocktails—sea and sand not included!

11. French 75

So bubbly, so dainty… the French 75 is the super cute sister of the Mimosa. Combining gin, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, and sparkling wine, and garnished with a sugar rim and optional maraschino cherry, it’s the drinks equivalent of ultimate Parisian chic.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

So many options, so little time! This versatile spirit provides a fantastic base for a wide variety of refreshing gin drinks that combine gin and tonic, gin and juice, gin fizz with prosecco, and more. There are also many options with fresh fruit and lower-calorie drinks that are less sweet. Our advice? Start from the top of the list of summer gin cocktails shared in this article to find your new favorite.

Summer gin cocktail recipes abound, and with good reason. Gin is light, botanical and pairs well with lots of juices and sodas. This makes for very refreshing summertime drinks. If you’re not quite feeling the gin vibe, you can always consider tequila summer cocktails.

Gin is often thought of as a sophisticated afternoon drink due to the garden party association many people have with gin and tonic. This type of drink is both light in color and flavor and often served long, so it's seen as more appropriate for daytime than a darker spirit, such as bourbon for instance.

The Gin Martini will always remain a true-blue classic. It's been a firm favorite with cocktail lovers for over a century. Tonic water and club soda are also popular mixers for this spirit. The best gin drinks for summer will almost always lean towards the light and refreshing end of the spectrum while winter gin cocktails have deep warming flavors.

If you want to stay within the same flavor profile as a gin and tonic, but want to lighten things up somewhat, we can highly recommend a gin Rickey. This calorie-light cocktail contains gin, club soda and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. So light and lovely! Alternatively, try gin with your favorite fruit juice for a classic G&J, or as a spritz with sparkling wine.