Image via Complex Original
Today is the longest day of the year. The summer solstice marks the official change in season where you’re (hopefully) granted Summer Fridays at work and longer lunches outside your pale office walls. Whether you spend the day kicking back at the beach or sweltering in the city with the sun beating down on you like Floyd Mayweather, the season calls for liquid refreshments. Ice. Juice. And most importantly, booze. In Iceland, they celebrate the 24 hours of daylight with huge bonfires, rolling naked in the dew, and Iceland’s first vodka, Reyka. There are plenty of very fine summer spirits out there, but none that are more pure and versatile than vodka. Savory, sweet, and all points in between, there’s a vodka cocktail for every summertime jam. Here are ten of the best—just don’t drink them all at once. Labor Day is still a long way off, son.
Reykjavík Mule
The cocktail that made vodka the hipsters’ tipple of choice in the States back in the ’30s and ’40s. It’s experienced a resurgence of late, but a drink this simple and refreshing never really goes out of style. It’s simple enough for anyone to make, but be sure to use ginger beer, which is more flavorful and has more of a gingery bite to it than genteel ginger ale. The traditional drinking vessel is a copper mug, but it tastes just as good in a glass or whatever you’ve got handy at your beach party.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 0.5 oz. lime juice, 6 oz. ginger beer
Directions: Pour vodka into Collins glass or copper mug, add a few ice cubes. Squeeze juice of half a lime into glass then throw in lime. Top with ginger beer.
Vodka Collins
The flavor of gin isn’t for everyone, so a lot of traditional gin cocktails also have their vodka equivalent. This vodka variant of a Tom Collins is a classic summer drink—as refreshing as a lemonade, only it makes you tipsy. Some recipes will call for sweet and sour mix, but don’t listen to that noise! Instead of ruining your drink with goop from a bottle or packaged powder, just use lemon juice and sugar. Your taste buds will thank you.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp. sugar, club soda or seltzer
Directions: Combine all ingredients except club soda in a shaker. Shake well and strain into a tall glass (also known as a Collins glass, conveniently enough). Add ice and top with club soda. Optional: Garnish with a lemon slice and/or maraschino cherry.
Little Bit Bittah
For this extra long day and all those scorching summer days to follow when a sweet drink just doesn’t cut it, here’s a libation that’s bracingly bitter, but with the rough edges smoothed down a tad (thanks to the grenadine). You might think the bitter-bitter combo of Campari grapefruit juice would clash like Donald Sterling and Magic Johnson, but the alchemy proves to be as magical as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 1.5 oz. grapefruit juice, 0.5 oz. grenadine, 0.5 oz. Campari
Directions: Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled shaker, shake vigorously, strain into rocks glass with a few ice cubes. Optional: Garnish with grapefruit slice.
Blue Hawaii
Hawaii by way of Iceland? One sip of this tiki classic and you might start thinking of Reykjavík as a tropical isle. Every summer ought to have at least a couple of blue drinks in it, and this classic—invented by an enterprising bartender in Honolulu back in the ’50s—is up there with the best. It’s fun to quaff for the color, but it’s damn tasty, too. The recipe calls for white rum to go with the vodka, but since a lot of white rums are light enough to resemble vodka anyway… if you want to blow off the yo-ho-ho and double down on the vodka, your bros at the pool party probably won’t notice the difference.
Ingredients: 0.75 oz. Reyka vodka, 0.75 oz. white rum, 0.5 oz. blue curaçao, 3 oz. pineapple juice, 0.5 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice, 0.5 oz. simple syrup
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a shaker, shake well, strain into a tall ice-filled glass. For a frozen version, combine all ingredients with 1 cup ice in a blender, blend till smooth, pour into tall glass. Optional: Garnish with a pineapple chunk and maraschino cherry.
Chi Chi
When it comes to tiki cocktails, rum is usually the go-to spirit. But vodka works just as well in lots of tropical drinks, including this variation on the piña colada. So if you don’t have a bottle in the house, or you just prefer vodka to rum, don’t sweat it, you’re covered!
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 4 oz. pineapple juice (preferably unsweetened), 1 oz. cream of coconut
Directions: Combine all ingredients with 1 cup ice in a blender, blend until smooth. Strain into a tall glass such as a pilsner or parfait glass. Optional (though the drink doesn’t look complete without it): Garnish with a pineapple chunk and maraschino cherry.
Watermelon Cooler
Watermelon and summer go together like Pharrell Williams and… hell, whoever he’s working with this week. You may know about the “drunken watermelon,” which involves boring a hole in a big-ass watermelon and pouring a bottle of vodka into it. It’s pretty damn refreshing, but if you want to drink your cocktail instead of eating it, try this slightly more refined and uber-refreshing libation.
Ingredients: 12 oz. (1.5 cups) fresh watermelon cut into chunks, 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 0.5 oz. orange liqueur, 1 tsp. fresh squeezed lime juice
Directions: Puree the watermelon in a blender, strain through a fine sieve. Pour all the other ingredients into an ice-filled Collins glass, stir, top with watermelon juice. Optional: Top the whole thing off with club soda or seltzer and garnish with a lime wheel.
Rosemary, Baby
Fresh herbs in a cocktail? Your local hipster artisanal bartender does it all the time, so why not you? Don’t worry, it’s not complicated—if you can figure out your way around a saucepan, you can whip up the syrup that this uber-refreshing cocktail calls for in no time. Better still, it’ll keep for a couple of weeks in your fridge, so you can make two weekends’ worth in one shot.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 4 oz. rosemary-lemon simple syrup, club soda
Directions: To make rosemary-lemon simple syrup, boil equal parts fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar with 3 sprigs rosemary until the sugar dissolves. Dispose of the rosemary sprigs and chill for about an hour. Pour vodka and syrup into an ice-filled Collins glass, top with club soda. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary, a slice of lemon, or both.
Minty Fresh
Cool mint, crisp cucumber, tart lime juice, vodka… this stuff is like air conditioning in a glass. Drink one and bring a little bit of Iceland (emphasis on ice) to your hot and sticky summer. And because it’s got fresh veggies, herbs, and fruit juice, there’s the possibility it could even be healthy. Will drinking a Minty Fresh a day keep the doctor away? Well, let’s not get carried away, but… maybe it’s worth giving it a shot.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice, 1 oz. agave syrup, 3 cucumber slices, 3 mint leaves
Directions: Muddle the agave syrup, mint leaves, and cucumber slices in a shaker. Add the vodka and lime juice, shake vigorously and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
Ice Blue
Blueberries are native to Iceland, so why not use them in a cocktail and get two great Nordic tastes in one. The addition of basil and lemon juice offsets the berries’ sweetness and creates a depth of flavor that will make this drink the hit of your pool party. Don’t tell your buds how easy this drink is to make; simply let them stand in awe of your mixological mastery.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, Small handful (10-15) blueberries, 3-4 leaves basil, 1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice, club soda
Directions: Muddle blueberries and basil leaves in a shaker; add vodka, lemon juice and several ice cubes. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass, or strain into an ice-filled cocktail glass and top with club soda. Garnish with a few blueberries on a toothpick and a couple of leaves of basil.
Bloody Mary
For decades, the Bloody Mary has been the boozy answer to the question, “What’s for breakfast?” There are few better ways to kick off a lazy summer Sunday than a Bloody followed by an artery-clogging brunch. Of course, there are folks who stick so many garnishes in it—from celery stalks to olives to shrimp—that it can almost be a meal in itself. But the drink itself is sheer genius. And it’s just about the only socially acceptable way to drink hard liquor before noon. Hell, you’re not going to have a martini with your eggs are you?
Ingredients: 2 oz. Reyka vodka, 4 oz. tomato juice, 1/4 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice (basically a squeeze of half a lemon), 1-2 dashes Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp. horseradish, 1-2 dashes Tabasco sauce (optional), salt and pepper to taste, celery stalk
Directions: Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper in an ice-filled shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a Collins glass with a few ice cubes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with celery stalk, or else the drink looks naked.