5 fruity cocktails men shouldn’t be too shy to try
Are you man enough to sink the pinkest of drinks?
Words: Nikki
Despite the Great British weather doing its best to convince us otherwise, it is still summer. And, in the absence of bright skies and sunny days, we must turn to the bar to introduce a little colour into our lives. But, a perennial problem with men is that they don’t seem to be able to order a drink from anywhere other than the golden-brown portion of the colour spectrum. No more. Fruity cocktails are underrated, undervalued, and – by men – underordered.
So put your reservations to the side, get fruity and, if you’re worried you’ll look like a melon drinking a melon ball, don’t. Think Sex On The Beach, schnapps of peach, the Velvet Hammer or the Alabama Slammer. Think Tom Cruise in 80s cult classic Cocktail. Think the fruitier the better.
As long as you don’t sing the song as you sip, this slightly more difficult cocktail is well worth the effort. A summertime special, if ever there was one, the sugar levels run high, which will keep you pepped and prepped all the way through the UK ‘summer’ weather. Well, the song does talk about getting caught in the rain….
Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz rum, 3 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz. coconut cream, ice
Directions: Combine the rum with the pineapple juice and add the coconut cream in a blender. Blend on high with a cup of crushed ice, pour into your glass of choice – we recommend a hurricane glass – and garnish with whatever fruit you see fit, cherry, pineapple, melon – the list goes on…
Tahitian for ‘good’, we couldn’t agree more with the naming of this fruity cocktail. With a tropical taste, and an earned place on your list of ideal summer cocktails, the Mai Tai sees rum blitzed with several different fruit juices to create a splash in your glass and a colour to turn heads.
Ingredients: 1 1/2 parts rum, 1/2 part Cointreau, equal parts pineapple and orange juice, dashes of grenadine and lime juice
Directions: Pour all ingredients into a shaker with a generous amount of cubed ice. Shake for around 20 seconds and then strain into a chilled glass containing fresh ice. Garnish with mint.
Swoon the ladies with this citrus taste of Brazil by serving a delicious concoction of sugar and cachaca – the Caipirinha. Not as fruity as some of the entries on this list, the vivid green is still markedly more exciting than that whisky and coke you usually nurse. So take the plunge and go the full Brazilian.
Ingredients: 2 oz. cachaca, 1/2 lime, 1.2 tsp sugar
Directions: Slice the lime into cubes and muddle them in a tumbler with the sugar. Add a few ice cubes, pour in the cachaca, and serve with a stirring rod.
Make sure you’re equipped with the good, 100% agave tequila for this one. This drink is one of the ultimate summertime cocktails, and if you settle for a subpar tequila then your guests will be leaving with a heavy head. Give Patron Silver a go and it won’t disappoint.
Ingredients: 2 oz. silver tequila, 1 oz. Cointreau, 1 oz. Lime Juice, Coarse Salr
Directions: Chill a glass of your choice, and then rub its rim with lime juice and dip it in the salt, add the tequila, cointreau, lime juice and ice then shake well in a cocktail shaker, strain over ice into the glass.
The reason many men don’t order fruity drinks is because of their names. They can’t seem to handle ordering a ‘Sex on the Beach’ without sniggering at the bar, and refuse to even say ‘Woo Woo’ just because it’s a stupid name. But the Tequila Sunrise is a good compromise – a middle-of-the-road name, but a great cocktail. Take our word for it.
Ingredients: 2 measures tequila, orange juice, dash of grenadine
Directions: Pour the tequila into a highball glass filled with ice, then top up slowly with orange juice. Next, pour the grenadine in down the side of the glass so it slowly sinks to the bottom, garnish with an orange slice, and throw in a maraschino cherry for good measure.
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