Summer Drink Recipes That Aren't the Same Old Boring Lemonade

Every summer drink recipes list is the same five drinks.

Lemonade. Iced tea. A mojito. Something with watermelon. A sangria that's mostly just wine with fruit drowning in it. They're fine. They're not exciting. And you've made all of them before, probably last summer, possibly while reading a list exactly like this one.

So I went a different way with these. Five drinks that actually taste like something, that you probably haven't made before, and that don't require a cocktail cabinet or a blender the size of a small car. Some have a bit of effort to them. None of them are hard. All of them are worth it.

Make these instead.

Summer Drink Recipes!

1. Cucumber, Mint and Lime Cooler

This is the drink I make when it's genuinely too hot to function.

It tastes like the inside of a cucumber feels — clean, cold, faintly green, weirdly refreshing in a way that ordinary fruit drinks aren't. The mint lifts it. The lime sharpens it. And there's no added sugar unless you want it, which means you can drink a lot of it without feeling like you've had pudding.

Peel and roughly chop half a cucumber. Throw it in a blender with the juice of two limes, a small handful of fresh mint, and about 400ml of cold water. Blitz it. Then — and this bit matters — strain it through a sieve so you're not drinking cucumber pulp. Pour over a lot of ice. Taste it. If it's too tangy for you, stir in a teaspoon of honey or a splash of elderflower cordial.

That's it. It takes about four minutes and it'll change how you feel about cucumber.

2. Roasted Strawberry and Black Pepper Soda

Stay with me on the black pepper. It sounds wrong. It's brilliant.

Roasting strawberries does something to them — it deepens the flavour, makes them almost jammy, takes away that slightly watery edge fresh ones can have. And a tiny crack of black pepper against all that sweetness does the same thing salt does to caramel. It makes everything taste more like itself.

Halve about 400g of strawberries, spread them on a baking tray, scatter over two tablespoons of sugar and a good crack of black pepper. Roast at 190°C for around 20 minutes until they're soft and syrupy. Let them cool, then mash them through a sieve to get a smooth syrup. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of that syrup into a glass, top with soda water and ice, and stir.

The colour alone is worth it. Deep, proper red. Nothing like the pale pink most strawberry drinks end up being.

3. Iced Hibiscus and Ginger Tea

This is the drink that gets the "what IS this" reaction, in a good way.

Hibiscus brews into the most ridiculous colour — deep ruby, almost magenta — and it tastes tart and floral, somewhere between cranberry and pomegranate. The ginger gives it a warm kick underneath all that cold. It looks expensive. It costs about 40p a jug.

Steep three or four hibiscus tea bags (or two tablespoons of dried hibiscus) in 500ml of just-boiled water along with a few thin slices of fresh ginger. Leave it for around ten minutes — longer if you want it stronger. Take the bags and ginger out, stir in a tablespoon of honey while it's still warm so it dissolves properly, then leave it to cool completely. Pour over ice with a slice of lime.

Make a big jug of it. It goes faster than you'd think.

4. Salted Honey Lemonade

This is what lemonade wishes it was.

Regular lemonade is just sweet and sharp. This one's got a third thing going on — a faint salinity that makes it taste less like a fizzy drink and more like something you'd actually be given on a hot day to genuinely cool you down. It's the kind of thing that sounds slightly odd written down and then becomes the only way you want lemonade from then on.

Juice four lemons. In a small pan, gently warm the juice with three tablespoons of honey and a quarter teaspoon of fine sea salt — just until the honey and salt dissolve, you're not cooking it. Let it cool. To serve, pour a generous splash over ice and top with still or sparkling water. Adjust to taste — more honey if you want it sweeter, a touch more salt if you're brave.

The salt is the whole point. Don't leave it out thinking you know better. I did that the first time. I was wrong.

5. Frozen Grape and Elderflower Slush

This one's barely a recipe and it's possibly the best thing on the list.

Frozen grapes are an underrated miracle. They go almost sorbet-like when blended, no ice needed, no watering down. Add elderflower and you've got something that tastes like a very expensive garden party in a glass, made from a bag of grapes you forgot about in the freezer.

Freeze a couple of big handfuls of green grapes overnight (do this bit in advance, obviously — frozen grapes are also just a brilliant snack so it's worth keeping a bag in there permanently anyway). Blend the frozen grapes with about 100ml of elderflower cordial and 200ml of cold water until it's slushy and thick. Add more water if your blender's struggling. Pour into glasses and eat it with a spoon for the first few minutes, then drink the rest as it melts.

It's somewhere between a drink and a dessert and honestly that's the best place for a summer drink to be.

Before You Go and Make All Five

A few things.

Taste as you go with all of these. Lemons vary wildly in sharpness, honey varies in sweetness, and your taste isn't my taste. Every one of these recipes is a starting point, not a law. Adjust them until they're right for you.

Make the syrups and cordials in advance. The strawberry syrup, the salted honey lemon base, the hibiscus tea — they all keep in the fridge for several days, so you can do the work once and have proper drinks on demand all week without starting from scratch every time.

And don't skimp on the ice. Warm summer drinks are sad summer drinks. Make more ice than you think you need, then make some more.

Start with the salted honey lemonade if you only try one. It's the one that'll surprise you most.

⚠️ Disclaimer

I am not a mixologist, a nutritionist, or anyone with formal qualifications in anything drink-related. I'm a person in rural Scotland who got bored of normal lemonade. All of these are non-alcoholic as written, but most would take a splash of something stronger very happily if that's your thing and you're old enough to make that decision. Adjust sweetness and salt to your own taste and dietary needs.