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Writer's pictureDebbie Lefort

Simple, fun, and incredibly delicious summer cocktails for any BBQ!

Sake and Vodka are great crowd pleasers when working with fruit purées especially  when you want to showcase those flavors because they’re easy neutral spirits. And it screams nothing but SUMMER!

There happened to be sake in the house when we were in the planning process of what drinks we wanted to serve for our get together over Memorial Day weekend. Our buddy who was hosting us had a bottle of Daiginjo sake for me in the fridge. First off! How sweet. Secondly, I thought why not make a melon, cucumber sake thing going (as it would serve as the perfect refresher sitting out on a sunny deck); throw in some vodka to make it more spirit forward but sweet enough to be tolerable, not too much. (I used Haku vodka that is distilled from rice) Voilà! They are also simple ingredients to use when batching for a party. Of course within practicing safe social distancing, its ideal to prep and batch so your beverage experience at home is seamless. The table will be set nicely as the whole concept is to be stress free and easy. We got everything that we needed in one trip to Trader Joe’s.

I got a whole honey dew cut in chunks to sit in the punch bowl, 2 whole cucumbers to be juiced in a juicer and 1 whole cucumber cut in half.  One half cut in cubes for the wine glasses (for garnish) and the other half is dropped into the punch bowl or large format drink dispenser. The one we used this weekend was perfect.

For the coconut and melon purée, you can purchase these ingredients at www.mercato.com ; the Boiron brand which I have been using in drinks for years. These purées are wonderful for pastry as well. This measurement was thoughtfully planned out for 10 guests maximum. Remember, let's always practice safe social distancing but most importantly have fun making these at home.


Makes 20 drinks for each batch:


So Fresh -&-So-“Sake”-Clean

20 oz. vodka    

30 oz. sake   

5 oz. lime juice

15 oz. grapefruit juice

15 oz. lychee liqueur

30 oz. coconut purée

In a blender add all the ingredients, fill with ice, serve on the rocks and garnish with edible flowers

Cool as a Cucumber

20 oz. vodka

20 oz. sake

20 oz. cucumber juice

30 oz. fresh pressed honey dew juice

8 oz. agave  

Place all ingredients including pieces of fresh fruit into punch bowl or large format drink dispenser, fill with ice and stir.

Pieces of honey dew and cucumber in a wine glass prepped

pour over wine glass

Garnish with edible flowers


What’s best about this situation is that you can always add whatever you want to adjust.

For instance after some time the ice melted, so we added more ice and then more spirits. I then adjusted the batch by adding more fresh pieces of melon and cucumber and so forth until it was gone! As for the blended cocktail it’s best that it stays chilled in the back of the fridge in the appropriate pitcher.


The hard part would probably be the prep

because you would need a juicer, blender, a cutting board and all those necessary tools to make your perfect batch cocktails. These things eventually take time unless you have everything at home, then it’s easy as pie. The most important thing is having time and patience while enjoying the process.



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