16 Fruity Drinks to Level Up Your Summer Cocktails

Bright, colorful, fruity summer cocktails are perfect for entertaining! We're sharing some of our favorite drink recipes, plus tips to incorporate fresh summer fruit into your favorite cocktails and mocktails. These recipes contain alcohol and are intended for readers 21+. Please drink responsibly.

Nothing cuts through a heat wave quite like a good summer cocktail. Adding fresh fruit is a delicious way to infuse your homemade cocktails with bright summer flavor (and gorgeous colors!)

In this article, we'll show you a few easy ways to add fruit to your favorite classic cocktails, plus a collection of our favorite drink recipes!

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4 ways to add fruit to cocktails (without a recipe!)

While we love a good step-by-step recipe, there are plenty of ways to add fruity flavor to the drinks you already know and love! Some of our go-to methods:

Homemade simple syrup. Add fresh fruit to a basic simple syrup while it cooks to add flavor (and a beautiful color!) to this bar staple. Berries, peaches, and cherries all make delicious, complex syrups that you can use in place of regular simple syrup or triple sec in just about any cocktail recipe.
Use jam as a shortcut. Mix a spoonful of jam or jelly into your favorite cocktail for a fruity twist with no extra prep! We love adding a bit of crockpot blueberry jam to a lemon drop martini, a scoop of slow cooker strawberry jam to a classic margarita, or blackberry sauce to a simple mojito.
Use fresh fruit as a garnish to make even the simplest cocktails feel fancy!
Infuse your own vodka. Add a handful of berries, pineapple chunks, or sliced peaches to a large jar, cover with vodka, and let sit in the fridge for up to a week. Strain out the fruit, then use this lightly flavored liquor in your favorite vodka cocktails! This blackberry vodka tonic shows just how simple this is to make.

Make it a mocktail

When it comes to fruity drinks, alcohol is optional! Skip the booze and turn any of the recipes below into refreshing non-alcoholic drinks.

Use non-alcoholic spirits. Substitute NA liquors for alcohol in your favorite cocktail recipes. We've tested a ton of NA options over the past few years: Some spirit substitutes (like whiskey alternatives) haven't wowed us yet, but we've tested and liked Ritual Tequila, Ritual gin alternative, and Drink Monday zero alcohol gin in cocktails.
Swap the liquor for extra mixers, like soda water, club soda, tonic water, ginger beer, or a non-alcoholic sparkling wine.

Our Favorite Fruity Cocktails

Blackberry whiskey lemonade in a mason jar filled with ice.

Asking us to pick one favorite cocktail recipe is...unfair. But if we had to choose JUST ONE DRINK from this recipe collection, it would be our blackberry whiskey lemonade.

It's bright and summery, with just a hint of earthiness thanks to some fresh rosemary. It's one of our most popular cocktail recipes ever, and for good reason!

Keep scrolling for more of our favorite easy, fruity mixed drinks!

Raspberry Margaritas

These simple margaritas feature a homemade raspberry syrup! Add fresh lime wedges and a salt rim for a crisp, refreshing drink.

Raspberry Margarita Recipe

Blueberry Whiskey Spritzers

These easy whiskey drinks feature fresh blueberries, lemon juice, and a splash of tonic water!

Blueberry Whiskey Spritzer Recipe

Pineapple Crush

This pineapple cocktail brings a tropical twist to your summer routine! It's bright and sunny, with a sweet blend of fresh pineapple and your favorite rum.

Photo & Recipe: Sweet Tea & Thyme

Pineapple Cocktail Recipe

Lemon Drop Jolly Pops

Store-bought cranberry raspberry juice is an easy shortcut for this bright pink lemon drop that's similar to a cosmopolitan!

Cranberry Lemon Drop Recipe

Blackberry Vodka Tonics

These easy, flavorful Blackberry Vodka Tonics get their summer flavor and blush pink color from a simple home-infused blackberry vodka!

Blackberry Vodka Tonic Recipe

Triple Berry Margaritas

A quick mixed berry simple syrup gives these margaritas a jaw-dropping neon pink color and packs a TON of flavor.

Mixed Berry Margarita Recipe

Nectarine Whiskey Sour

This cozy twist on a classic whiskey sour cocktail features fresh rosemary and a nectarine simple syrup!

Photo & Recipe: A Duck's Oven

Nectarine Whiskey Sour Recipe

Raspberry Basil Bourbon Spritzers

Fresh raspberries and summer basil give these bourbon spritzers so much flavor. Top with champagne, club soda, or tonic water for a fun, fizzy cocktail!

Raspberry Bourbon Spritzer Recipe

Watermelon Cocktails with Lemon and Rosemary

These watermelon cocktails are the definition of refreshing. Fresh rosemary adds a subtle, earthy note to round out the bright lemon and sweet homemade watermelon juice in these vodka drinks.

Watermelon Cocktail Recipe

Cherry Bourbon Smash

This easy bourbon smash gets its stunning color and rich flavor from fresh cherries.

Photo & Recipe: Sweet Tea & Thyme

Cherry Bourbon Smash Recipe

Strawberry Whiskey Lemonade

A quick strawberry syrup and fresh lemon juice are a bright complement to your favorite whiskey or bourbon in this cocktail recipe! It's also great with gin or vodka.

Strawberry Whiskey Lemonade Recipe

Peach Bourbon Spritzers

These peach spritzers are perfect for end-of-summer barbecues! Shake homemade peach syrup, fresh basil (or mint!), lemon juice, and bourbon together in a cocktail shaker and top with club soda for a fizzy finish.

Peach Spritzer Recipe

Strawberry Thyme Cocktails

Add strawberries and fresh thyme to a quick simple syrup for rich, complex flavor that's sure to be a hit! Pair it with tequila for a classic margarita, or add this syrup to your favorite gin or vodka drink.

Strawberry Thyme Cocktail Recipe

Blueberry Ginger Hot Toddy

This cozy, warm cocktail is the perfect summer-to-fall transition drink! Muddle blueberries with fresh ginger and lemon, then steep in a bit of hot water and add bourbon.

Photo & Recipe: Coley Cooks

Blueberry Ginger Hot Toddy Recipe

Blood Orange Margaritas

Blood oranges aren't *technically* a summer fruit (they tend to peak in fall/winter), but we couldn't resist showing you this gorgeous pink margarita! Use blood oranges if you can, or grab whatever oranges are in season near you (this recipe also works with grapefruit!)

Blood Orange Margarita Recipe

FAQs

What liquor pairs best with fruit?

We like pairing fresh fruit with light, refreshing liquors - like vodka, gin, or white rum (shoutout to another summertime mvp, the classic strawberry daiquiri). That said, whiskey or bourbon can lend rich flavor and fun complexity to fruity liquor drinks!

If you lean more towards bright, refreshing cocktails, we'd recommend sticking with lighter liquor options when you make fruity cocktail drinks. But if you love to sip darker, boozier drinks (like a Manhattan or Old Fashioned), try experimenting with whiskey or dark rum in your fruit cocktails!

Fruit can also pair very well with wines - like prosecco, classic red wine sangria, or white wine in a pitcher of white sangria.

How do I adjust the sweetness of fruity mixed drinks?

Fresh fruit can vary in sweetness depending on the time of year, where it was grown/harvested, and a variety of other factors. As a result, you may find you need to adjust the sweetness of a cocktail to compensate for this variation in the fruit itself.

If your cocktail is too sweet, add something bright and acidic. We tend to grab citrus (like lime juice, orange juice, or lemon juice). Depending on the drink, you can also balance out the sugar with things like grenadine, bitters, or cranberry juice.

If your drink is too tart, add something sweet! Extra simple syrup, honey or maple syrup, a splash of sweet pineapple juice, or sweet garnishes (like extra fruit or a maraschino cherry) can help balance out too much tartness.

What are the best fruity cocktails for people who don't like alcohol or don't drink?

Fruit-forward ingredients pack a TON of flavor, which is great, because it means we can skip the alcohol in a lot of fruity mixed drinks and still have a really delicious, complex mocktail.

If you like the taste of alcohol but don't want the booze, you can replace the alcohol in a regular cocktail recipe with an equivalent amount of a non-alcoholic spirit. Non-alcoholic gin and tequila alternatives tend to most closely mimic their alcohol counterparts (we like non-alcoholic spirits from Monday and Ritual; you can also find a ton of great options at NA-only retailer Boisson).

If you don't like or drink alcohol and want to avoid non-alcoholic spirits, you can omit the alcohol in a cocktail recipe entirely. In its place, try adding some club soda, tonic water, or - depending on the drink - a splash of ginger ale, coconut water, lemonade, or even kombucha.

Need some more inspo? Here are a few step-by-step mocktail recipes we love:

- Summer sunrise tropical mocktail
- Rosemary orange spritz
- Watermelon agua fresca
- Cardamom rose orange mocktail

We hope you loved this guide to homemade fruity drinks! Thank you to the wonderful photographers and recipe developers who contributed to this article.