Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

11 Farmer’s Market-Inspired Cocktail Recipes

The harvest days are here, which means farmer’s markets from sea to shining sea are brimming with fresh produce. For most, that translates to dynamic salads, grilled vegetables, and fruit so ripe it’s basically candy. For the inventive imbibers out there, it means the season for farmer’s market-inspired cocktails is upon us.

So much of what you bring home from your local market, farm stand, orchard, or CSA can be adapted into refreshing beverages. The fresh ingredients will elevate the cocktail and you’ll feel like a well-trained mixologist, working with what the season is providing and adapting as new ingredients come online.

Related Videos

Related Reading

Alas, here are the eleven best farmer’s market-inspired cocktails. Clink!

Georgia Peach Bellini

(From Broken Shed Vodka)

There’s nothing quite like a farm-fresh peach. Well, perhaps a cocktail like this that integrates those ripe, summery flavors.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces Vodka
  • 1 ounce peach schnapps
  • 1 ounce peach puree
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • Prosecco
  • peach slice for garnish

Method:

  1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add vodka, schnapps, and peach puree (or nectar).
  2. Next, add one teaspoon of lemon juice and shake the shaker.
  3. Then strain into a rocks glass.
  4. Top the cocktail with a splash of Prosecco and garnish with a slice of peach.

Highland Cooler

(By Allan Roth)

The floral notes to this one-of-a-kind Scotch work beautifully with watermelon. It will cool you off and take the edge off.

Ingredients:

  • 1 part Glenfiddich 14-Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve 
  • 5 parts watermelon juice 
  • watermelon and mint for garnish

Method:

  1. Cool the juice (pureed fruit) of a ripe, seedless watermelon, and mix it five-to-one with the whisky.
  2. Pour into a highball or rocks glass and garnish with a small watermelon wedge and some mint. 

Summer Smash

Take advantage of fresh blackberries from your local market or berry patch and throw them in this soothing seasonal cocktail.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces Templeton Rye 4-Year
  • .5 ounce Amaretto 
  • 3-4 blackberries
  • 1.5 ounce fresh sour mix
  • lemon twist and rosemary sprig for garnish

Method:

  1. Combine rye, amaretto, blackberries, and fresh sour mix in a shaker with ice.
  2. Shake vigorously and double strain into a Collins glass filled with ice.
  3. Garnish with a lemon twist and rosemary sprig.

Apple Shed-Tini

Photo Credit: Broadway World

Apple season means pie and fresh cider but it also translates to crisp green-tinged cocktails like this one.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 ounce vodka
  • 1 ounce green apple schnapps
  • .25 ounce lemon juice
  • apple slice for garnish

Method:

  1. Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice.
  2. Shake and strain into chilled martini glass.

Larry Limeade

Photo Credit: Austin Food Mag

(By Kyle Nelson, Beverage Director, Middle West Spirits/Service Ba)

This vodka is a great sipper in its own right but dressed up with the right fresh produce (namely, cherries), it’s even better.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 ounce OYO American Character Vodka
  • .25 ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
  • .5 ounce Cherry Heering
  • .5 ounce fresh lime juice
  • .5 ounce tart cherry juice
  • .5 ounce simple syrup

Method:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin.
  2. Fill the remainder of the tin with ice.
  3. Shake vigorously for fifteen seconds or until the outside of the shaker is chilled.
  4. Double strain into a large snifter filled with cobbled ice.
  5. Garnish with a fresh lime wheel and a Luxardo cherry.

Picosita

Picosita Cocktail
Photo Credit: The Detroit News Tequila Cazadores

(From Cazadores Tequila)

Cantaloupe is so often relegated to continental breakfast status at any number of reasonably-priced hotels. Let the summer fruit out of its cage and play a bit with this lively cocktail recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 parts tequila
  • 4 chunks cantaloupe
  • 2 slices chile habanero
  • 1 part fresh lime juice
  • .75 parts agave nectar or simple syrup

Method:

  1. Muddle, shake, and strain into a glass.
  2. Garnish with chile.

Rhubarb Strawberry Spritz

Photo Credit: Amy Traynor (Eating Well)

There are few better combinations than strawberry and rhubarb. Well, maybe those two plus the melding abilities of a good vodka.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ounce Heimat New York Rhubarb liqueur
  • 1 ounce vodka
  • 4 fresh strawberries, muddled
  • .25 ounce lemon juice

Method:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a wine glass.
  2. Top with sparkling water and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Read more: Best Spritz Cocktail Recipes

Blackberry Whiskey Sour

Photo Credit: Cravings in Amsterdam

Again, we’re taking advantage of berry season with this seasonal riff on a classic whiskey cocktail.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces Off Hours Bourbon
  • 1 ounce honey
  • .5 ounce lemon juice
  • 4-6 blackberries
  • Rosemary sprig, for garnish

Method:

  1. Muddle a few blackberries at the bottom of a cocktail glass.
  2. Fill mixing glass with ice and add whiskey, honey, and lemon juice.
  3. Shake and strain into glass and garnish with rosemary and a few blackberries.

Raspberry Tonic

Photo Credit: Rimma_Bondarenko

There’s depth to this cocktail courtesy of cardamom, peppermint, and fresh raspberries. You’ll be surprised and quite satisfied by the sum of its many parts.

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 ounce Recuerdo Joven
  • .5 ounce sweet vermouth
  • 4 raspberries
  • .25 ounce cardamom syrup*
  • .25 ounce lime juice
  • tonic water
  • ground cardamom
  • peppermint

Method:

  1. In an old-fashioned glass, gently muddle the raspberries with the lime juice, cardamom syrup, and a dash of ground cardamom.
  2. Add ice, then the mezcal and the sweet vermouth.
  3. Stir lightly, and top off with tonic water.
  4. Garnish with peppermint.

*Cardamom Syrup: Bring 16 oz of water to a low boil, add 16 oz of sugar, 6-8 cardamom pods, and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool for 1-2 hours, strain.

Honey, I’m Comb

(From Hotel Bennett, Charleston)

We can’t get enough fresh peaches. Dress ’em up with this elegant drink, stitched together perfectly with the addition of egg white.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ounces Hotel Bennett Firefly Bourbon
  • 2 ounces smoked peach puree
  •  .5 ounce lemon juice
  • egg white
  • Garnish with a lightly “torched” honeycomb

Method:

  1. Mix all ingredients in a tin and shake and strain into a coupe glass.
  2. Garnish with honeycomb.

Miso Mule

Photo Credit: Thirsty

(From Bar Congress, Austin)

What makes this a market-inspired cocktail? Fresh honey and a good radish. The two together elevate the Miso Mule to new and delicious heights.

Ingredients:

  • 1½ ounce Yamazaki Whisky
  • 3 ounce San Pellegrino Limonata soda
  • 1 red radish, cut into chunks
  • 1 teaspoon light miso paste
  • .5 ounce honey syrup

Method:

  1. For the syrup, combine equal parts honey and hot water, let cool.
  2. For the drink, shake all but the soda, strain over fresh ice.
  3. Top with soda and radish.

Editors' Recommendations

The best tequilas you can buy for less than $20
These wallet-friendly tequilas taste much more expensive than they are
best tequilas under 20 espolon tequila

Tequila can start a party. It also can end one very quickly. Your focus should stay on those that can star at any gathering. A solid tequila doesn't have to break the bank, either. Also, keep this in mind when looking for quality tequila, affordable or not: Make sure it's 100% agave. Those headache-inducing tequilas of your past were more than likely only part agave -- they just need to be 51%. The additional sugar in those was likely your culprit.

All tequila hails from the Mexican state of Jalisco. All start as Blue Weber Agave and take a wonderful ride to reach their final destination on a drinker's palate. This Mexican spirit has a beautiful, rich history. The excellence of this well-made spirit can be witnessed even in inexpensive versions -- neat or mixed into a tasty margarita.

Read more
Is erythritol harmful? What a dietitian says new data means for your Keto diet
Erythritol is common in many keto foods - what does that mean for your health?
erythritol in keto diet advice

While sugar substitutes have been around for more than a century, they didn't really become mainstream here in the United States until around the mid-70s. According to Carolyn De La Pena, professor of American Studies at UC Davis and author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda, between 1975 and 1984, Americans increased their consumption of artificial sweeteners by 150 percent. This timeline makes sense when you take into account that the late seventies coincided with the start of our crazed diet culture and the revolving door of fad diets.
One such diet that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, however, is the Keto diet. Still hugely popular among Americans trying to shed a few pounds, Keto focuses heavily on limited or no carbohydrates. Because sugar contains carbohydrates, followers of Keto have turned to artificial sweeteners to satisfy those late-night cravings - sweeteners that, more often than not, contain erythritol. Erythritol in particular has become hugely popular because it's much better for baking than other sugar substitutes, has less of an artificial flavor, and will keep the eater in Ketosis, which is key for losing weight on the Keto diet.
A new study has made waves recently because its findings indicate there's a link between erythritol and higher rates of heart attack and stroke (though the study did note that only an association was found — not causation. So should you be worried?
We asked Dan LeMoine, RD, the award-winning author of Fear No Food and the Clinical Director at Phoenix-based Re:vitalize Nutrition, what he had to say about erythritol, including its benefits and potential health risks. "Artificial sweeteners are still sweeteners. While many are non-nutritive or zero-calorie, we tend to view them similarly as we do regular sweeteners or sugars — moderation is key. While many have amazing implications on weight loss – being low to no-calorie options and having little impact on blood sugar, some have their downside," he says.

While some of that sugar substitution has been good for waistlines and health issues that come from obesity, it seems to be causing more and more concern when it comes to other potential health issues. "For example," says LeMoine, "some research indicates the popular sweeteners stevia may have negative effects on the gut microbiome. And the recent study showing correlation between the sugar alcohol, erythritol, and heart attack and stroke."

Read more
Feeling adventurous? 5 of the weirdest cocktails from around the globe
Would you order a cocktail with a pickled human toe? You can in Canada, apparently
unusual and unique cocktails sourtoe cocktail

We all love a good cocktail, but it's easy to tire of the classics. There's nothing wrong with a perfectly frosty, salted-rimmed margarita, or a warm-to-your-bones, cherry-topped old-fashioned, but sometimes, you just want something new. Something that makes you think. Something that, perhaps, gives you a chuckle. These are those cocktails.
Pig's Blood Piña Colada (USA)

Back in 2014, bartender Jason Brown of Chicago's Kinmont restaurant and bar, concocted this cocktail after listening to a Werewolves of London lyric about a werewolf drinking a pina colada. His creativity sparked, and the "Werewolves of London" cocktail was born.

Read more