There is a specific fortnight at the end of August when the drinks that carried you through July stop quite working. The light goes earlier, the evenings develop an edge, and a glass of something bright and citrus-heavy feels a little thin. Good end of summer cocktails acknowledge that shift rather than ignoring it. They keep the length and the ice, because it is still warm enough to want both, but they move the flavour towards darker fruit, orchard fruit and herbs.
These five are all easy to make at home, all use ingredients you can actually buy, and all give exact measures rather than vague instructions to add a splash of something.
Blackberries hit their proper season in late August and are the single best marker of the turn. This is a Bramble variant with the sweetness pulled back.
Muddle four blackberries and a sprig of thyme in the base of a shaker. Add 50ml gin, 25ml fresh lemon juice and 12.5ml sugar syrup. Shake hard with ice, then strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a blackberry and a bruised thyme sprig.
The thyme is what makes it seasonal rather than simply fruity. Bruise it between your palms before it goes in, otherwise it contributes nothing. A juniper-forward London Dry works better here than a floral contemporary gin, because you want the botanicals to push against the fruit. The spirits range covers both styles.
Cloudy apple juice is the most underused mixer in a British kitchen and it is exactly right for the end of August.
Fill a tall glass to the top with ice. Add 50ml white or lightly aged rum, 15ml fresh lime juice, then top with roughly 100ml cloudy apple juice. Stir once, gently, and garnish with a thin apple slice.
The lime is not optional. Apple juice on its own is flabby and sweet, and the acidity is what turns it into a drink rather than a soft drink with rum in it. If you want more structure, use a dark rum instead and add two dashes of bitters.
A Bellini is a lovely thing and a poor party drink, because it needs peach puree and goes warm in five minutes. This is the version that works when you are pouring for eight people.
Slice one ripe peach and muddle it with 15ml lemon juice and 10ml sugar syrup in a jug. Multiply by the number of servings, leave it in the fridge for an hour, then strain into wine glasses over one large ice cube and top each with 100ml chilled prosecco.
Using a wine glass over ice rather than a flute is the whole trick. It keeps the drink cold for longer, it makes the fruit aroma readable, and it stops the drink from being finished in three mouthfuls. If the peaches are underripe, use tinned peaches in juice rather than a poor fresh one.
Tequila belongs to summer, but a Paloma with a herbal note carries into September in a way that a straightforward Margarita does not.
Put a rosemary sprig in a highball glass and press it once against the side with a spoon. Add ice, 50ml blanco tequila, 20ml fresh lime juice and 10ml sugar syrup, then top with about 100ml grapefruit soda or grapefruit juice and soda in equal parts. A pinch of salt genuinely improves it and is worth doing.
Grapefruit is the bridge flavour here. It has summer brightness but also a bitterness that suits cooler air, and it stops the drink reading as a holiday cocktail once the weather turns.
The simplest drink on this list and the one most likely to surprise people. A whisky highball is genuinely refreshing, considerably lighter than it sounds, and it is the natural bridge from summer drinking into autumn.
Fill a tall glass completely with ice, which matters more than usual here. Add 50ml blended Scotch, then top with 150ml well-chilled soda water. Stir exactly once, from the bottom up, then express a lemon peel over the surface and drop it in.
Do not stir it repeatedly, which knocks the carbonation out, and do not use a lightly filled glass, because half-empty ice melts faster and dilutes the drink. A blended whisky works better than a heavily peated single malt in this format.
Three things separate a decent home cocktail from a good one, and none involves expensive equipment. Use fresh citrus, always, because bottled juice is cooked and tastes of it. Make sugar syrup by dissolving equal weights of sugar and hot water and keeping it in a bottle in the fridge, where it lasts a month. And use far more ice than feels reasonable, since a full glass of ice melts more slowly than a half-full one and dilutes the drink less.
If you are making these for a group, batch the spirit, citrus and syrup together in advance and keep everything sparkling separate until the moment of pouring. A pre-mixed case is worth a look if you would rather not shop for five different bottles, and the wine and prosecco range covers the fizz.
Missing a bottle with people already in the garden? We deliver across London in 30 to 45 minutes, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, so August can go out properly. Check the delivery areas and order what you are short of.
Please drink responsibly. Drinks House 247 operates a Challenge 21 policy - you must be 18 or over to order, and our drivers will ask for photo ID if you look under 21.
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