Occasion & Season
Spring Cocktails: Floral & Fresh
Light, floral, and garden-fresh cocktails for spring — elderflower, lavender, fresh herbs, and the sparkling Spritz formats that make April feel like a celebration.
Spring is the most optimistic cocktail season. After months of dark, warming drinks, there's genuine joy in reaching for something floral, pale, and sparkling. This guide covers the flavors, formats, and specific recipes that make spring drinking feel like a celebration of the season itself.
The Spring Flavor Palette
Spring cocktails are defined by delicacy and freshness:
Floral: Elderflower (St-Germain is the gold standard liqueur), lavender, rose, violet. These work as liqueurs, syrups, garnishes, and infusions. They're feminine, complex, and beautiful.
Fresh herbs: Mint comes into season in spring, but the cocktail herbs worth knowing are basil (pairs beautifully with strawberry and gin), tarragon (fennel-anise character, excellent with vodka), thyme (earthy and herbal — try it with honey and lemon), and rosemary (piney and resinous, unexpected with citrus).
Young citrus: Meyer lemon (sweeter, more floral than regular lemon), yuzu, and white grapefruit are all in season or at their peak through spring.
Pale, delicate spirits: Spring is the season for light, floral gins (Hendrick's, Tanqueray No. Ten), French whites (Lillet Blanc), and dry vermouth. Save the heavy whiskeys for fall.
Sparkling wine: Spring entertaining revolves around bubbles. Prosecco is the seasonal spirit animal of April and May.
Elderflower: Spring's Most Versatile Ingredient
St-Germain elderflower liqueur is one of the genuinely transformative cocktail ingredients. It adds floral sweetness without cloying sugar, pairs with almost any spirit, and instantly elevates simple drinks.
The St-Germain Spritz (The Ultimate Spring Aperitif): - 1.5 oz St-Germain - 3 oz Prosecco - 1.5 oz soda water - Grapefruit or lemon wedge
Build over ice in a wine glass. The "St-Germain Spritz" is the simplest excellent spring cocktail.
Elderflower Gin Collins: A Tom Collins riff: - 2 oz London Dry gin - 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice - 0.75 oz St-Germain (in place of simple syrup) - Soda water to top
Shaking gin and lemon briefly with ice, strain into a ice-filled Collins Glass, top with soda. Garnish with a lemon wheel and an edible flower.
Elderflower Martini: - 2 oz gin - 0.75 oz St-Germain - 0.5 oz dry vermouth - Dash of orange bitters
Stirring over ice, served up in a coupe with a lemon twist.
Lavender Cocktails
Lavender is polarizing — too much and it tastes like soap or moth repellent. Used with restraint (always less than you think), it's beautiful.
Lavender Simple Syrup: - 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar - 2 tbsp dried culinary lavender
Heat until sugar dissolves, steep 10 minutes (no more — over-steeping brings soapiness), strain. Refrigerates for 2 weeks.
Lavender Lemon Drop: - 2 oz vodka - 1 oz fresh lemon juice - 0.75 oz lavender simple syrup
Shaking hard over ice, strain into a sugar-rimmed Coupe Glass. The pale purple tint from the lavender syrup is perfect for spring.
Lavender Bee's Knees: A riff on the classic gin sour, substituting lavender honey syrup (1:1 honey:water, steeped with lavender): - 2 oz gin - 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice - 0.75 oz lavender honey syrup
Garden Herbs in Cocktails
Fresh herbs from the garden or market are spring's most underrated cocktail ingredient.
Basil: The classic basil smash (Muddling fresh basil with lemon and simple syrup, shaking with gin) is a spring staple. Also excellent with strawberry and vodka.
Mint: See Mojito for the classic application. But mint + cucumber + gin creates the most refreshing spring drink imaginable.
Thyme: Less expected than mint, thyme pairs beautifully with honey and grapefruit. Muddle a sprig gently — the essential oils are in the leaves, not the stem.
Rosemary: Infuse into simple syrup (1 sprig per cup of syrup, 30-minute steep). Rosemary-lemon-gin is a classic combination.
Spritz Season: The Spring Format
The Spritz is the canonical spring cocktail format: lower-ABV, bubbly, and built in the glass without any Cocktail Shaker. The formula — bitter amaro or liqueur + sparkling wine + soda — is infinitely variable.
Classic Aperol Spritz: - 3 oz Prosecco - 2 oz Aperol - 1 oz soda water - Orange wheel garnish
Build over ice in a large wine glass. The orange and Campari-family Acidity of Aperol makes this incredibly spring-appropriate.
The Hugo (Northern Italian Spring Spritz): - 3 oz Prosecco - 1.5 oz St-Germain - 1 oz soda water - Fresh mint and lime slice
More floral and delicate than Aperol Spritz — this is the authentic spring drink of the Alps and Northern Italy.
Lillet Blanc Spritz: - 2 oz Lillet Blanc - 2 oz soda water - Grapefruit or orange slice
Simple, beautiful, and extremely food-friendly. Lillet's honey-orange character is perfect with spring salads and light fish.
Recipes for Spring Outdoor Entertaining
Spring entertaining wants drinks that work outdoors and photograph well among greenery and flowers.
Garden Party Punch (serves 10): - 12 oz gin - 8 oz St-Germain - 6 oz fresh lemon juice - 4 oz simple syrup - 1 liter Prosecco (add at service) - Cucumber slices, lemon wheels, edible flowers, fresh mint
Pre-batch all non-sparkling ingredients. Transfer to a large bowl or pitcher over ice. Add Prosecco at service, garnish generously. The edible flowers make this visually spectacular.
Spring cocktails at their best feel like drinking the season itself — delicate, optimistic, and briefly perfect.