Awesome Tropical Beach Drink Recipes for 2023
Summer bevvies are among some of the best bevvies you will ever enjoy. That said, a lot of their ingredients are a bit less common than what you may be stocking in your liquor cabinet or home bar.
Written by CraftJack | Updated | 6 min read
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Come to think of it, we typically find ourselves drinking these beachy drinks, well, at the beach. Like, we’d rather be served by Tom Cruise mixing up Daiquiris at Dragon Bay Beach in Port Antonio, Jamaica than back home in New York flipping bottles with Coughlin.
Let’s break out the Tiki torches and start summertime right.
- Common Beach Drink Ingredients
- Tools to Make Beach Drinks
- Beach Cocktails on Ice
- Frozen Summer Drinks
- Summer Beers
- Summer Ciders
- Summer Seltzer
- Summer Wines
Common Beach Drink Ingredients
Beach Drinks tend to require less common kitchen items than traditional alcoholic drinks. You know, anyone can make a screwdriver in a moment’s notice with the OJ on hand in the fridge. But not anyone has the Orgeat for a Mai Tai just hanging around. And nor does anyone use the word sprig during the winter months.
- Coconut Milk / Coconut Cream
- Citrus Fruits (Limes, Pineapple, Tangerine, etc.)
- Exotic Fruit Juices (Pineapple, Coconut, Mango, Papaya, Passion Fruit, etc.)
- Herbs (Fresh Mint, Basil, etc.)
Tools to Make Beach Drinks
You know the term, "Suns out, guns out"? When it comes to summer drinking, it should really be something like, "Blenders out, Benders out" ... cause it's time for some crazy cocktail parties on the shoreline.
- Island Oasis
- Shaker
- Vitamix Blender
Beach Cocktails on Ice
One noticeable omission from this list is the Mai Tai. We've gone back and forth on its inclusion and have ultimately decided to keep it off. Maybe that will change.
Bahama Mama
Can you really name drop a Caribbean Island in your drink and not expect it to be sipped surfside?
Ok, so technically its The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, but don’t let the lack of an “S” stop you from having a good time. Of all the mixed drinks in the world, the Bahama Mama is probably the last one you’d order in a Chicago nightclub, and Chicago nightclubs are the opposite of the beach.
Classic Cuban Mojito
Ok ok, put rum in anything and it becomes beach-y. However, the Classic Mojito is the swanky local hotel to the Strawberry Daiquiris Sandals resort. It’s the drink you drink when you’re wearing your finest linen pants. It’s the beach wedding cocktail reception tipple of choice when you want to keep it classy. Thank Cuba for this tasty treat.
Classic Cuban Mojito Ingredients
- 2-4 mint leaves
- 1/2oz agave or simple syrup
- 2oz light rum
- 1/2-1 fresh squeezed lime
- Club soda
Floater: N/A
Garnish: a sprig of mint, lime wheel
Miami Vice
Painkiller
If Alfredo is Mac & Cheese for grownups, than the Painkiller is the Pina Colada for adults. We're super fans of this excellent cocktail. What separates the Painkiller is that you can have more than one due to its muted sweetness. Don't get us wrong, it's sweet, but a dash less than the Pina Colada.
Pineapple Mimosas
Yes.
Rum Punch
The word punch screams juice box in our childlike brain, and juice boxes are fun. So is summer. So is the beach. You can see how the mathematics are developing on this one, right?
Next time you’re pouring over pages of cocktail recipes, consider this boozy Hawaiian Punch for Adults drink.
Rum Runner
According to Liquor.com, the Rum Runner originated in a small Tiki Bar in Islamorada on the Keys. That’s where they filmed Bloodline, should you care.
Anyway, this seafaring flotilla of booze calls for Navy-Strength rum, as if the drink wasn’t already liquored up to begin with. Like most summer drinks, the Rum Runner has a blend of citrus that keeps it fresh for your taste buds.
We stay clear of the brandied cherry that others use because of the Navy-Strength Rum. But, we do consider a half ounce 151 floater if you’re feeling it. We also like to drink it from a sugarcane straw. You know, for effect.
Lastly, the name Rum Runner has our attention given it’s nod toward bootlegging. It’s far more scandalous than some of these other beach drinks which have airy, casual names. Must be why you use a Navy-Strength liquor in the mixing of this cocktail.
Rum Runner Ingredients
- 1oz light rum
- 1oz navy-strength rum
- 1oz banana liqueur
- 0.5oz blackberry liqueur
- 2-3oz pineapple juice
- 1/2-1 fresh squeezed lime
- 0.5oz ounce grenadine
Floater: 0.5oz 151 Rum (optional)
Garnish: 2x Maraschino Cherries, 1x Pineapple Wedge
Sex on the Beach
Loved for its name, Sex on the Beach is the first tropical beach drink you order when you're of age to be drinking on a tropical beach.
Frozen Summer Drinks
Pina Colada
The Tropical Drink of Tropical Drinks. Pina Coladas, both the frozen drink and on the rocks, have been darlings of the beach bar since before your parents were born. Maybe even before your grandparents were born (depending on how old you are).
If you’re going to enjoy a Pina Colada, enjoy it right and have a stack of frilly drink umbrellas on hand. Here are the ingredients below. As for floaters and garnishes, they’re both optional. That said, we like to load ours up with both, because vacation.
Pina Colada Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup ice
- 3oz rum (light or aged)
- 1oz cream of coconut (not coconut cream; see notes*)
- 2oz pineapple juice
- 0.5oz fresh lime juice
Floater: 0.5oz 151 Rum (optional)
Garnish: 2x Maraschino Cherries, 1x Pineapple Wedge
Strawberry Daiquiri
Summer cocktails start and end with the daiquiri. And among daiquiris, Strawberry is the gold standard.
Watermelon Slush (aka Daiquiri)
Simple, elegant, and absolutely delicious on a 90+ degree day. Beyond the beach, a boozy Watermelon Slush can make your weekend spent glamping truly exquisite.
If you wanted to puree the watermelon yourself, you could sub out some unflavored vodka for it. We'd probably use Tito's, especially because the price to quality ratio of Tito's is excellent.
Watermelon Slush Ingredients
- 2oz watermelon vodka
- 6 cups of fresh watermelon (preferably seedless)
- 1/2-1 fresh squeezed lime
Floater: N/A
Garnish: A wedge of watermelon
Summer Beers
Allagash White
A perfect summer beer, in our opinion. It works in nearly every application, including the beach. If you're lucky enough to have a beach house, you could easily pair it with your lobster dinner.
It's also a great beer to quaff after some Windsurfing out in the bay or a shoreline volleyball game. So stock up the cooler with a 12'er of Allagash White and thank us later.
Sam Adams Summer Ale
Some might argue that it doesn't belong on a beach, but we disagree. A summer beer always goes well with sand, and Sam Summer is no exception.
Shandy Beach
Night Shift Brewing cooks up an Imperial Shandy for your boozy, lemonade-preferring palette. And at 8% ABV, it's no joke. It's a drink that custom-made for sipping while sorting through a bag of shells that your kid brought over. And, beach is in the name.
Corona / Coronita
Hard to leave Corona off a list of beachy beers. It's not our favorite mass-produced lager. Heck, it's not even our favorite mass-produced beach beer. But Beach Chair Coronas are a timeless classic in anyone's book.
Any Fruited Kettle Sour
We're just gonna call out the whole category. Fruited Kettle Sours are slush puppies that masquerade as beer.
Summer Ciders
The best thing about cider is that it comes in a variety of flavors. The crisp, dry ciders are what you want for your day trips to the local beach.
Look for your hard cider to utilize champagne yeast. That's where we've found the best ciders to sip surfside.
Pearadox
Pearadox is a pear cider crafted in a small suburb of Massachusetts. Lookout Farm, the maker of this hard cider, has been around since before the Revolutionary War.
That said, what Hosui pears are we'll never quite know. But they're in Pearadox and that makes them cool, because it's a great summer cider.
Stowe Cider Shandy
Stowe's Shandy is where our low key, hang out, wiffleball brain goes when we think Beach Cider. Homemade lemonade and homegrown apples and yeah, you have us sold on it.
Summer Seltzers
Like Fruited Kettle Sours, only more complete in its application is the entire category of spiked water and hard seltzer.
Look around, hardly anyone is enjoying a White Claw at the Winter Holiday Party. But since you're asking, here's what you should check out.
- Any Craft Seltzer
- High Noon
- Truly
- Vizzy
- White Claw
And, if you're really not sure what they are, check out our article, What is Hard Seltzer.
Summer Wines
When it comes to wine, it's red in the Winter and white in the Summer. You can get creative in the Spring and Fall, but that's on you.
Chardonnays and Pinto Grigios are beachy in that they're amazingly common and oft-served at the cocktail hour of a beach wedding.
But maybe you're hanging out on the under-the-radar Oregon Coast and kicking back a bottle of Pinot Gris. Or, you're like us and opt for a Vignole or GewĂĽrztraminer when you got your feet in the sand.
Or you could just open the fridge of your Aunt's beach house to see a magnum of White Zin because she's classy.
- Chardonnay
- GewĂĽrztraminer
- Pinot Grigio
- Pinot Gris
- Riesling
- Vignoles
- White Zinfandel
Summary
Plenty of excellent drink choices for your relaxed self on a beach.