Vodka Drinks, Cocktails and Concoctions - 10 Refreshing Summer Recipes

Vodka is a versatile spirit that is perfect for giving any fruity or milky drink combo a good kick. It is my spirit of choice either in it's vodka and mixer or cocktail guise. I must admit I can't handle neat shots of the stuff although here and there I put this theory to the test only to come to the conclusion that, no, I still can't handle it!

Over many years of enjoying a nice drink or two (or three...) I have sampled, sipped and slurped a spectrum of colourful concoctions and cocktails, here are 10 of the tastiest tried and tested recipes, from the simple to slightly more involved. All of them delicious, in my opinion!

Yield: 6 cocktails in long glasses. The yield for this cocktail is high as there is a little bit of preparation involved so it's worth making it in bulk. Scale up or down to suit.

Ingredients:

• 240ml vodka (based on 40ml per drink - add more or less depending on how potent you want it to be, remember to adjust water accordingly)
• 135g strawberry jelly (or jello). 1 UK jelly pack is 135g. Jello packs are 85g so you will need a little under 2 packs.
• 285ml boiling water
• 50g sugar
• 285ml water
• 170ml pineapple juice
• 170ml lemon juice
• 500ml ginger ale
• Lime for garnish

Instructions:

1. Stir together the strawberry jelly and boiling water. Making sure all the jelly has dissolved.
2. Put the sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil making sure all the sugar has dissolved.
3. Add the two water mixtures together.
4. Stir well.
5. Add the pineapple juice followed by the lemon juice and mix together.
6. Pour the contents into a freezer bag that can be sealed.
7. Freeze. It takes a good 3 or so hours to solidify completely so prepare this part well in advance.
8. Take out the frozen mixture and break up so it fits into a jug or if you are serving a few drinks at a time take out as much as you need. Judge it by filling up most of the glass with the frozen mixture as you only need a splash of ginger ale otherwise it will be more drink than slush.
9. Add the vodka and ginger ale and stir. This should partially melt the frozen mixture producing a slushy drink.
10. Serve in a long class add a wedge of lime to the side of the glass (slit the lime in the middle, width ways, flesh side so it sits nicely on the side of the glass).

A simple, but deliciously refreshing drink. This is a completely different drink to vodka and orange! Even if you are using the allegedly freshly squeezed orange juicde from cartons it just tastes different.

Yield: 1 Drink

Ingredients:

• 40 ml vodka
• 250 ml squeezed orange juice
• Ice
• Orange slice to serve

Instructions:

1. Squeeze about 3-4 oranges depending on juiciness. Using an electric citrus juicer will extract more juice than doing it manually. My juicer is my favourite gadget in the kitchen! I know it's simple but it just pleases me in its simplicity and efficient juice extraction!!
2. If you are using an electric juicer then you can opt to add more of the pith from the orange into the juice if you prefer your orange juice a bit more bitty.
3. Add crushed ice (or just ice) to a glass.
4. Add the vodka and the OJ
5. Pop a slither of orange on the side of the glass. Et voila!

Yield: 1 Drink

Ingredients:

• 25ml vodka
• 20ml Kahlua (or other coffee liquor)
• 40ml Bailey's (or other Irish cream)
• Crushed Ice
• 1 scoop of vanilla ice-cream
• Chocolate sauce
• Squirty cream

Instructions:

1. Fill your chosen glass with crushed ice
2. Add the ice, vodka, Kahlua, Bailey's and Ice-cream to a food processor/blender.
3. Blend!
4. Decorate your glass with chocolate if desired.
5. Add the slushy, alcoholic, chocolaty, coffee concoction to the glass.
6. Squirt some cream over the top for extra indulgence if desired and the finish it off with a bit more liquid chocolate.

Yield: A 700cl bottle contains 28 shots (at 25ml per shot). So if the whole bottle infuses before reaching saturation point then 28 shots worth will be spread across 1 watermelon.

Ingredients:

• 1 watermelon
• 1 bottle of vodka

Instructions:

1. Make a hole in the top of the watermelon that is the same size as the cap of your vodka bottle. Do this with a sharp knife.
2. Dig out the watermelon hole until it is a fair way into the watermelon, at least as deep as the neck of the vodka bottle, to aid the absorption of the vodka.
3. This is the tricky part. Get your vodka bottle and tilt it slightly then slide the neck of the vodka bottle into the prepared hole. Turn so that the vodka bottle is upside down and filtering into the watermelon. If your hole is big enough and you go quite slowly there shouldn’t be any spillage. This could be a team effort!
4. Leave for a day of two. Ideally this monstrosity would be kept in the fridge so that the watermelon is nice and chilled when it comes to consuming it. There won't be any room left for food though!
5. Cut open your watermelon and serve.
6. Beware! Very potent!

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 40ml vodka
• Approx 2 slices of watermelon
• Handful of strawberries (about 10)
• 40g sugar
• 50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Chop up the watermelon and remove the seeds.
2. De-head the strawberries and chop.
3. Add the watermelon, strawberries, lemon and sugar to a blender or processor.
4. Add crushed ice to a glass.
5. Strain the drink if you prefer it less pithy as there will be a lot of watermelon and strawberry gunk. It is the healthiest part of the fruits though so keep it in if you want the goodness! Note that if you strain it you will end up with a smaller quantity and will need to add more watermelon and strawberries.

With a generous amount of fresh lime juice this is a great tasting drink. Also very low in calories for an alcoholic beverages, one of the lowest there is in fact (with 1 shot of vodka in it's 76 calories). I used to drink vodka, lime and soda with lime cordial until I discovered that without the cordial and with fresh lime it is infinitely better. The number of times I end up with cordial in my drink if I'm out though! Sometimes I send it back and sometimes I bear it astounded that I ever chose to drink it like that.

Yield: 1 Drink

Ingredients:

• 30ml Vodka
• Limes
• Soda Water
• Ice, cubes or crushed

Instructions:

1. Squeeze the limes to get a 15ml of lime juice.
2. Add ice to a glass.
3. Add the vodka
4. Add the lime
5. Add the soda.
6. Add a good wedge of lime to the drink to serve.

This is called 'lemonade' without containing any actual lemons. It tastes really good but only make as much as you can drink pretty much straightaway!

Yield: 2 yield options provided as it is a bit of effort just for one cocktail.

Ingredients:

1 Cocktail:

• 30ml vodka
• 1/2 a lime plus wedge to garnish
• 1 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk
• 150ml water
• 20g sugar
• Crushed ice (enough to fill the glass you are using as a rough guide)

2 Cocktails:

• 60ml vodka
• 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk
• 300ml water
• 40g sugar
• Crushed ice (enough to fill 2 of the glasses you are using)

Instructions:

1. Cut up the lime removing ends add them (peel and all).
2. Add the water and sugar to the blender.
3. Blend the limes, water and sugar together. Don't blend for too long to avoid the lime peel getting too bitty and so harder to strain.
4. Strain the result to get rid of the grittiness.
5. Put liquid back into blender.
6. Add the ice, sweetened, condensed milk and vodka.
7. Blend.
8. Pour into glass.
9. Serve with a lime wedge on or in the glass.

These classics have to be included when vodka is involved.

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:

25ml Vodka

25ml peach schnapps

75ml Orange Juice

75ml Cranberry Juice

Dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Add some ice to a cocktail shaker.
2. Pour each of the ingredients into the shaker.
3. Add a couple of squeezes of fresh lemon juice.
4. Shake well
5. Transfer into a long glass.
6. Add a maraschino cherry on a stick and a slice of orange to garnish.

This is the one drink in the list that you will really be aware of the vodka! Not for the fainthearted!

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 60ml vodka
• 15ml Triple Sec
• 25ml cranberry juice
• Approx 10ml freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 orange peel twist
• Ice

Instructions:

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Add the vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice and lime juice to the shaker.
3. Shake vigorously for about 20-30 seconds.
4. Strain into a martini glass.
5. Garnish with an orange peel twist.

These are great fun in the summer…..or anytime!....and will really impressive friends but if time is against you then go for the one colour.

Works well with disposable, plastic shot glasses.

Yield: One 135g pack of Jelly produces 600ml, which is 24 UK or 20 US shots. If you use 3 packets worth you will end up with 72 or 60 shots worth. Adjust the quantities to suit your jelly needs!

Ingredients:

• 45g each of strawberry jelly, lime jelly and lemon jelly
• 200ml Vodka
• 150ml Boiling water
• 200ml Water (you will use a bit less)

Instructions:

1. Set up the shot glasses on a tray or in a container that can be easily transferred into the fridge.
2. Break up the jelly and dissolve it in 150ml boiling water.
3. Add the vodka
4. Add the cold water to make the total contents up to 600ml.
5. Pour carefully into each shot glass so that each one is 1/3 full.
6. Place the shots into the fridge for about an hour or so to firm up (will set quicker in the freezer).
7. Repeat the process using the second colour.
8. And the third colour.
9. Place in the fridge for another hour or so and they should be ready to go!