The Distinct Alcohol You Should Be Adding To Lemonade

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Plain lemonade, consisting of nothing more than sugar, lemon juice, and water, is one of summertime's most refreshing drinks thanks to its combination of sweet and tart flavors. Many people like to throw an extra element into the mix, though, that being booze. There are numerous canned and bottled boozy lemonades on the market, or you can just spike your beverage with a shot of vodka or limoncello (the latter being something you can easily make at home out of leftover lemon peels). Mixologist Julie Reiner, however, suggests using a different type of spirit: She's particularly partial to gin.

Reiner, who has mixed up mocktails for a pop-up bar co-sponsored by event venue Tenspace and supplement brand Nature Made, explains, "Gin lemonade is really delicious because gin has the botanicals ... vodka is really just going to add alcoholic strength. Gin [is] going to give you a really nice flavor."

Reiner advises mixing lemonade and gin in a 2-to-1 ratio. "Give it a quick shake and then strain it over fresh ice," she says. Another idea is to add some sparkling water. In this case, you needn't start with premixed lemonade, but can combine gin, simple syrup, and lemon juice. Shake it over ice, strain, and fill a tall, ice-free glass with soda water.

If you're embracing an alcohol-free lifestyle, you can still experience the complexity of a botanical lemonade mocktail by substituting spirit-free gin for the high-octane kind. There are a number of options available for purchase — Seedlip was an early version, Tanqueray makes one, and Julie Reiner has used the Dutch import Damrak Virgin 0.0. She advises, however, that with non-alcoholic spirits, "You just want to do a lighter shake because of the lack of alcoholic strength." In her opinion, non-alcoholic gin would go great with a sparkling water mixer. She also offered an alternative, saying, "Bitter lemon ... gives you that bitter note [that] sort of tricks you into feeling like it's not just a lemonade if you don't have the non-alcoholic spirit."

If you're mixing both lemonade-based cocktails and mocktails for some sort of social gathering, Reiner has a tip that will help you tell the two apart: "Make sure that you maybe have a different garnish for [each drink] so [they don't] get mixed up." This could be as simple as using a lemon wheel for one kind and a lemon wedge for the other, or you could have whole fresh mint stalks in some drinks and muddled mint leaves in others. That way, both drinks will provide much the same flavor experience, with or without alcohol, but they'll have enough visual distinction that non-drinkers won't accidentally get a boozed-up beverage.