Summertime Sippings

Let’s admit it. Some occasions just call for cocktails.

Colorful, sweet, frosty and fun, cocktails seem to be the perfect statement that summer is here. Serious types may stick to their brown whiskeys or an obligatory glass of wine, but mixing up an electric blue or fragrant orange beverage paints happy hour in a whole different hue.

Savour’s Superman: Maker’s Mark Bourbon, muddled strawberries, lemon juice, simple syrup and aromatic bitters. Photo by The Workmans

Cocktails are old. Some speak of ancient Greeks mixing “punch bowls” of different alcoholic ingredients together, then lovingly presenting them as offerings to a Zeus or Hera. The word “libation” translates loosely to “an offering to a god.”

Later, cocktails seemed to have fallen in the alcohol hierarchy. In the 1700s, the leftovers of whiskey barrels and gin distilleries — the “tailings” — were often mixed together, pumped out through a “cock” (or spigot) and sold cheaply. Onlookers thought the behavior of the imbibers — “acting like cocks of the walk” — was a good appellation for a drink that seemed to make everyone, even then, feel good.

In 1838, a New Orleans pharmacist named Antoine Peychaud invented the first named cocktail, the sazerac, made of rye, absinthe, sugar and bitters. By the time of Prohibition, speak-easies were mixing cheap liquor together with exotic flavors for illicit and naughty nights.

Level 8’s Passion Smash: Kaiyo Japanese Whiskey, lemongrass juice, passion cordial, lemon juice and simple syrup garnished with a lime leaf. It is bright and refreshing with notes of citrus. Photo by The Workmans

With the ascent of Americans’ taste for wines between the 1960s and ’80s, cocktails declined in favor, but since the 1990s, their popularity has come roaring back. Specialty cocktail bars and inventive mixologists might add the essences of jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, rhubarb, pineapples, oranges and even horseradish to the tequila, gin, rye, rum and vodka that make up most cocktails. Adventurous drinkers everywhere are drawn in by such elaborate flavor profiles.

Drew McLeod, owner of downtown’s Savour, has turned their mixed drinks into monthly “sippings” with a superhero theme. Beneath sparkling chandeliers, bar guests giggle at the supersized ice cubes in the shape of an “S” and munch on edible flowers as they lick gold dust sugar from their lips.

The Superman cocktail for summer is made with Maker’s Mark, muddled strawberries, lemon juice, simple syrup, aromatic bitters and rose-infused ice cubes.

Blu Halo’s The Last Days of Summer: A concoction of cucumber vodka, elderflower liqueur and rhubarb Aperol is a hit. Photo by The Workmans

The Spiderman will keep you cool with Flor de Cana and Saya Rums, pineapple, Aperol, Velvet Falernum and lime.

The Level 8 Lounge, one of Tallahassee’s earliest rooftop cocktail spaces, always prepares a summer cocktail collection, said bartender Donnie Plante. “With views across the city, guests particularly love the Sunset Martini. Coconut rum, peach schnapps, pineapple juice and grenadine are perfect for a colorful summer evening.”

D.J. Williams, bar manager of the trendy restaurant and bar Blu Halo, admits that summer drinks often seem lifted off an island fruit stand. “Mango, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries and pineapples (are popular additions), but we always do our own creations.”

Blu Halo’s popular Moscow mules, a classic mix of lime, vodka and ginger beer, will have blueberries added this year. The Last Days of Summer, a concoction of cucumber vodka, elderflower liqueur and rhubarb Aperol is a hit.

Blue Halo’s Popular Moscow Mules: A classic mix of lime, vodka and ginger beer, topped with sweet blueberries. Photo by The Workmans

“Infusing cedar or cherrywood smoke into cocktails is another popular hot weather trend,” Williams said.

Bar 1903, a 100-year-old downtown landmark turned elegant cocktail lounge, features not only newly created drinks, but libation recipes stretching back 160 years. Summer fruitiness and curated spirits blend together to sound like haute cuisine despite the funky name, Out of the Weeds Punch. A stir of Fabriquero Sotol, Smith & Cross Rum, Cronan, Braulio, lime juice, turbinado sugar, toasted almond bark tea and coconut milk may sound uppity, but like all these cocktails, it’s just right for a sultry Tallahassee night.