Late May is one of the best weeks of the year for a garden bar. Strawberries are at peak. Mint is growing faster than you can use it. Basil is finally warm enough to be happy. Lavender is blooming. Elderflower, if you can find it, is in its brief but brilliant window.
Here are five drinks built entirely around what's harvestable right now — no out-of-season ingredients, no substitutions. Each one has a mocktail version so everyone at the table has something worth drinking.
1. Strawberry Basil Smash
The combination of strawberry and basil shouldn't work as well as it does. The basil adds an herbal, almost peppery note that keeps the strawberry from being cloying. This is the drink to make when your strawberry plants are at peak and your basil has leafed out.
- 2 oz vodka
- 4–5 fresh strawberries, hulled
- 4 fresh basil leaves
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- ½ oz simple syrup
- 2 oz soda water
Mocktail: Skip the vodka. Add 1 oz white grape juice and increase soda water to 3 oz.
2. Lavender Lemon Spritz
If you have lavender blooming right now, make syrup this week. The flowers have a short window and the syrup keeps for three weeks in the fridge. This spritz is light, floral, and works as well before dinner as it does on a hot afternoon.
- 1 oz vodka
- ¾ oz lavender syrup
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- 3 oz prosecco
- Splash of soda water
Mocktail: Skip vodka and prosecco. Use 4 oz sparkling water, ¾ oz lavender syrup, ¾ oz lemon, 1 tsp honey.
3. Cucumber Mint Gin and Tonic
Mint is in full swing and cucumbers will be ready in a few weeks — but if you have them now, this is the drink. Gin and cucumber have a natural affinity, and fresh mint bridges them beautifully. Don't overdo the muddling: you want to release, not shred.
- 2 oz gin
- 4 thin cucumber slices
- 6 fresh mint leaves
- ¾ oz fresh lime juice
- 4 oz quality tonic water
Mocktail: Use non-alcoholic gin base or skip entirely. Add ½ oz simple syrup to compensate for sweetness.
4. Elderflower and Cucumber Gin Fizz
This one requires elderflower syrup — which you should be making right now if you have access to elderflowers. The combination of gin, elderflower, and cucumber is one of the great spring flavor combinations. The egg white (or aquafaba) gives it a silky foam top.
- 1½ oz gin
- ¾ oz elderflower liqueur or syrup
- 4 thin cucumber slices
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- ½ oz simple syrup
- 1 egg white* or ½ oz aquafaba
- 2 oz soda water
Mocktail: Use elderflower tonic instead of liqueur. Skip gin. Use aquafaba for foam.