With the summer heat waves, a few unexpected trends are emerging in the realm of refreshing summer drinks. They all happen to involve your freezer: Think freezer door cocktails, low-effort highballs, and pairings expressed over ice, just for starters. 

If you’re seeking to ramp up lukewarm drinks with minimal effort and enjoy more time outside with your guests sipping the coolest of concoctions this season, put these innovative cocktail recipes and techniques to the test—we guarantee they’ll impress even the most discerning of cocktail-loving characters.

A Few Tips to Remember:

Keep It Simple
One of the finest things about using your freezer is that you can make cocktails in advance, leaving you with more time to spend with your guests. Keep things light, festive, and fun — but flowing!

Using Redemption Bourbon, a truly easy-drinking whiskey distinguished by its subtle ‘rye forward’ flavor, consider a freezer door take on the Classic Highball. The whiskey will be easy on the palate, while still serving up plenty of flavor including notes of vanilla and caramel. When it comes to quick and easy cocktails, you can also save a trip to the grocery store since this sneaky delicious cocktail is made up of ingredients you likely already have in your bar or refrigerator.

Classic Highball

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Redemption Bourbon
• Soda Water 
• 2 dashes Orange Bitters 
• Garnish: Orange Slice

Directions:

• Pour Redemption Bourbon over ice in a Highball glass
• Add 2 dashes of orange bitters
• Top with soda water to fill and garnish with an orange slice

Elevate Your Garnish 
A great garnish is an easy way to give any drink an extra “wow” factor. For example, if you decide to make a Classic Highball, you can serve it in chilled glassware with an orange twist frozen into the ice spear to elevate the cocktail. 

To start, take some citrus peels and freeze them in your favorite ice cube tray. In addition to looking sophisticated, freezing the peels “will add citrus notes to your cocktail,” says Theo Rutherford, Director of Wine & Spirits Education at Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits. “It’s going to look great, but it’s also going to give your drink more complexity as it starts to dilute.” And, if your calendar is packed, the best part is that you can make this glamorous garnish as far as a week or two in advance. 

Ramp It Up 
Put this little tip in your back pocket for any time summer rolls around, AKA when berry season is in full swing! Around this time—whether you forage summer berries, pick up a pint at a farmer’s market, or simply grab a fresh-looking bunch at a supermarket—the smaller ones are often sweeter in flavor. Those smaller, bruised ones specifically go great in a berry bramble with tequila. 

Cantera Negra is an award-winning, ultra-premium tequila made from 100% mature blue agave from the prized fields of Jalisco, Mexico, where black volcanic rock in the soil gives the brand its name (it means “black quarry” in Spanish). Twice distilled and aged for at least 7 months in hand-crafted barrels, this tequila has an exceptionally smooth and rich taste that is sure to please your palate. 

Despite its main character energy, it’ll also work perfectly as the spirit in a Tommy’s Margarita—a potent take on the classic cocktail that replaces orange liqueur with agave nectar. And if you want to give the drink a high kick, some jalapeno ice will add a nice spicy splash to the smoothness of the silver tequila.

Tommy’s Margarita

 Ingredients:  

• 2 oz Cantera Negra Silver Tequila 
• 1 oz Fresh Lime Juice 
• 0.5 oz Agave Nectar 
• Garnish: Blood Orange Slice
• Jalapeno Ice  

Directions:

• Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice
• Shake vigorously
• Strain over jalapeno ice in a half salt rimmed Rocks glass and garnish with a blood orange slice

Have a Few Drinks Ready to Go
There’s no better way to delight thirsty guests and maximize the amount of time you spend with them than by keeping a few drinks in the freezer just waiting to be served. “Freezer door cocktails are a big trend at this point,” Theo says. “These are so great because you can pre-batch them ahead of time and then just stick them in your freezer, so any time your guests actually want a drink, you don’t have to move.”

If you’re looking for inspo on how to use freezer-door cocktails as the ultimate lazy-host party trick, look no further than the crowd-pleasing Gray Whale Gin Blackberry Negroni, which includes six botanicals — juniper, kombu, almonds, lime, fir, and mint — that are sustainably sourced along the 12,000-mile migration path of the California Gray Whale. As a bonus, this is a beverage you can feel good about drinking, as every bottle supports coastal conservation, so said gray whales can continue making the journey in their chosen natural habitat. 

Blackberry Negroni

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Gray Whale Gin
• 1 oz Campari
• 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 6 Fresh Blackberries
• Garnish: Blackberries 

Directions:

• In a cocktail glass, muddle four blackberries
• In a mixing glass, combine the Gray Whale Gin, Campari, and infused sweet vermouth
• Add ice and stir until chilled
• Strain the mixture from the mixing glass into the glass with muddled blackberries
• Garnish with two fresh blackberries

Chill the Glasses Beforehand 
Making sure the drinks are nice and cold is, of course, crucial, but one other surefire way to guarantee your guests experience maximum relief when they take their first sip on a stifling summer day is to put the glasses into the freezer in advance. 

“Don’t be afraid to freeze your highball glasses or your rocks glasses or your coupes,” Theo says. “It keeps your cocktail cold for a little bit longer, which is always good [since] nobody really likes those last three sips at room temperature.” 

Another cryo cocktail option to cool things down this summer is The Winning Hand, which features Bib & Tucker’s 6-Year-Old Bourbon. This extra smooth bourbon can easily be sipped on its own and has a nose of vanilla, sweet hay, and sandalwood, with a hint of pecan pie to taste, not to mention a lingering chestnut finish. The small-batch bourbon also goes through the Lincoln County Process — a step native to Tennessee that involves filtering the whiskey through sugar maple charcoal before reaching the barrel for aging. 

Composed of whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Campari, The Winning Hand is essentially a classic Boulevardier—with an epic twist. Upping the cool factor on this freezer door cocktail, a little walnut liqueur has been added to “bring out the inherent nuttiness that’s already in the bourbon while keeping it light and vibrant,” Theo says. 

The Winning Hand

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Bib & Tucker 6-Year-Old Bourbon
• 0.5 oz Campari
• 0.5 oz Dry Vermouth
• 1 Bar Spoon Walnut Liqueur
• Garnish: Expressed Orange Peel

 Directions:

• Stir all ingredients together in a mixing glass filled with ice
• Strain into a Rocks glass over a large ice cube
• Garnish with an expressed orange peel