Grill and Chill Winning Drink Recipes
Cool off with these inventive summer drinks from our contest winners.

Abso-LOCO
by Karin Sainato
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 oz. Absolut Ruby Red vodka
12–20 oz. tonic water
1 lime, cut into four wedges
1 lemon, cut into four wedges
4 cherries
4 teaspoons cherry or Maraschino cherry juice
lots of ice cubes
Preparation
- Pour vodka into a pitcher over ice cubes.
- Fill with tonic water and cherry juice, then stir.
- Pour into glasses, making sure not to filter ice out.
- Garnish individual glasses with lime, cherry and lemon.
Mint Lemonade
by Sarita Puri
Serves 4
Ingredients
1½ cups sugar
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 cups water
handful of mint leaves
Preparation
- Blend mint leaves with ¼ cup lemon juice and ¼ cup water.
- Strain mint through a sieve and add the remaining water and lemon juice.
- Mix with sugar and refrigerate to desired temperature.
- Add some ice and garnish with mint leaves to serve.
Pineapple Fizz
by Jane Ryfa
Serves 6–8
Ingredients
1 ripe pineapple, trimmed and cubed
1 1-liter bottle ginger ale
2 cups ice cubes
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
fresh mint sprigs for garnish
1 cup rum (optional)
vanilla ice cream (optional)
Preparation
- In a small saucepan over medium heat combine sugar, water, lime juice and lime zest.
- Bring to a boil and heat until sugar has dissolved, creating a simple syrup.
- Cool. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Combine the simple syrup with pineapple. Add rum if desired.
- Blend well and chill until ready to serve.
- Pour blended ingredients into a pitcher and add ice cubes.
- Add enough ginger ale to fill the pitcher.
- Serve cold and garnish with a spring of fresh mint.
-
For a creamier, float-like drink, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or top with vanilla citrus cream (from Tropical
Splendor recipe).
Related Read: Grill and Chill Winners and Recipes