Say Cheers To These Tropical Recipes For National Cocktail Day

With all due respect to the oracles who come up with the most obscure holidays in the world, some of us are still trying to finish the last few recipes from National Margarita Day. We barely even had time to restock our ingredients for today's big day, National Cocktail Day, and next thing we know it'll be National Tequila Day and we'll still be cleaning out our glassware from National Mai Tai Day.

Still, who are we to turn down a reason to celebrate with our favorite tropical resorts? Especially when their master mixologists generously send along yet another batch of recipes that'll make all our friends and family say, "Wow!" when we bust these cocktails out for any occasion. Just remember to get a few extra steps in on National Walking Day (April 3).

The Place: Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa, Grand Cayman

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Escape rum, a pineapple and coconut sous vide Appleton White rum
• 0.75 oz Coco Lopez—no substitutes
• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice
• 0.5 oz fresh pineapple juice
• 1.5 oz sparkling wine

How to Make It:

Add all ingredients except bubbles to a shaker and shake very hard until very cold. Strain into a chilled coconut sanded champagne flute with bubbles already in. Garnish with a coco "sand"—grated coconut roasted with demerara sugar until brown.

The Place: Curacao Marriott Beach Resort

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz premium cachaca
• 4 lime wedges
• 0.5 oz homemade five spiced syrup and homemade bitters

How to Make It:

Muddle all ingredients in mixing glass, then pour them into another glass. Top up with crushed ice and a splash of soda.

The Place: Coconut Cove at The Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, USVI

Ingredients:

• 2 oz cinnamon and raisin-infused rum
• 2 oz orange juice
• 2 oz Coco Lopez
• 2 oz pineapple juice
• Cinnamon for garnish (optional)
• Pineapple slice for garnish (optional)

How to Make It:

Shake all ingredients and serve on a fresh bed of ice. Add a dash of cinnamon on top with pineapple garnish.

The Place: Baros Maldives

Ingredients:

• 40 ml Bacardi White
• 20 ml Malibu
• 40 ml coconut cream
• 15 ml simple syrup
• 10 ml lime juice
• 10 mint leaves

How to Make It:

Muddle mint, lime juices, and simple syrup in a Highball glass. Add in crushed ice, Bacardi, Malibu, and coconut cream and shake until mixed. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

The Place: The Harbor Club, St. Lucia

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz Bounty Rum
• 0.5 oz Blue Curacao
• 1 oz pineapple juice
• 1 oz coconut cream
• Half a banana

How to Make It:

Place the Bounty rum, Blue Curacao pineapple juice, banana, and coconut cream with ice into a blender. Process until totally blended. Pour into glasses and garnish with slice of banana.

The Place: Cruise Barbados

Ingredients:

• 1 oz coconut syrup
• 1 oz lime juice
• 3 oz passionfruit juice
• 1.5 oz. of Doorly's Macaw White Rum
• 6 fresh basil leaves
• Edible flower

How to Make It:

To begin, combine coconut syrup, lime and passionfruit juices, and fresh basil leaves in a mixing tin with ice. Shake vigorously until the glass is chilled and the flavors are married together. Double strain over ice into serving glassware. Top with Doorly's Macaw White Rum and garnish with a basil leaf and edible flower.

The Place: Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Tito's vodka
• 0.5 oz Amaretto
• 0.5 oz peach schnapps
• 0.5 oz orange juice
• 0.5 oz pineapple juice
• Dash of Oasis banana
• Dash Blue Curaçao

How to Make It:

Combine ingredients, serve on ice, and say, "Salud!" (the Aruban word for cheers)

The Place: Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel, Miami Beach

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Patron Silver
• 0.5 oz Cointreau
• 1.5 oz honeydew juice
• 0.75 oz ginger-infused simple syrup

How to Make It: 

Combine ingredients into shaker tin, shake and pour over ice. Green Jell-O the rim and garnish with a honeydew wedge.

The Place: The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota

Ingredients: 

• 3 oz Ketel One Vodka or Hendrick's Gin
• 1 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• 1 oz homemade simple syrup 
• 1.5 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup grapefruit and cranberry juice 
• Splash of Prosecco or champagne 

How to Make It:

Freeze grapefruit and cranberry juices in an ice cube tray. When ice cubes are solid (or it's just time for a cocktail), combine the St. Germaine, gin or vodka, lemon juice, and simple syrup into a shaker. Shake to combine. 

Add one or two of each type of fruit juice ice cubes to a large wine glass. Pour the shaken cocktail over ice cubes. Top the cocktail off with a splash of Prosecco or champagne.

The Place: Driftwood Room at Hotel deLuxe, Portland

Ingredients: 

• 0.75 oz St. Germain
• 0.75 oz Kettle One Vodka 
• 0.75 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
• 0.25 oz fresh squeezed lime juice 
• 0.25 oz simple syrup 
• Garnished with a strawberry with fresh mint leaves 

How to Make It:

Add ice to a cocktail shaker. Add St. Germain, Kettle One Vodka, grapefruit and lime juices, and simple syrup to shaker. Shake for 10 seconds and strain in a glass, leaving the ice in the shaker. Cut the top off a whole strawberry and cut a slit at the bottom. Add a sprig of mint to the top of the strawberry and slide strawberry on the rim of the glass.

The Place:  Manzanita at The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Maker's Mark (or preferred brand)
• 0.75 oz lemon juice
• 0.75 oz lavender honey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 lemon slice
• Hot water

How to Make It:

Pour the whiskey, lemon juice, and honey into a glass. Finish with hot water to the top. Shave some cinnamon over the lemon slice, and garnish with the lemon and cinnamon stick on top.

The Place: The Clancy, San Francisco

Ingredients: 

• Maple syrup (adjust based on sweetness preference)
• A few dashes of orange bitters
• 2 oz Bulleit Bourbon
• Orange zest and peel
• 2 Luxardo cherries
• 3 ice cubes

How to Make It: 

Combine maple syrup and orange bitters in the glass, stir. Add in bourbon, stir again. Express the zest of an orange peel in the glass and around the rim. Add ice cubes. Garnish with Luxardo cherries.

The Place: Tampa Marriott Water Street

Ingredients (measurements depend on number of cocktails):

• Jose Cuervo Tradicional
• Milagro Anejo
• Meyers Dark Rum
• Key lime juice
• Agave nectar

How to Make It: 

Combine ingredients, pour into glasses, and enjoy.

The Place: New Orleans Marriott

Ingredients:

• 5 Earl Grey tea bags 
• 1 liter of your favorite vodka
• Your favorite lemonade, to taste 
• Blueberry lavender syrup, to taste

Ingredients for the Homemade Blueberry Lavender Syrup:

• 5 cups water
• 5 cups sugar
• 1 pint blueberries
• 2 tsp lavender flowers
• Zest of 2 limes

How to Make the Syrup: 

Combine ingredients and bring to a boil on the stovetop. Boil until blueberries burst, remove from heat, and strain through a fine-mesh strainer.

How to Make the Cocktail:

Mix 2 ounces of the tea-infused vodka into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Add blueberry lavender lemonade and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Strain over fresh ice in your favorite cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge and fresh blueberries.

The Brand: Stranahan's Blue Peak

Ingredients: 

• 1.5 oz Stranahan's Blue Peak
• 0.75 oz Amber Vermouth
• 0.25 guava puree
• Sparkling apple cider
• Orange slices 

How to Make It: 

Combine Stranahan's Blue Peak, Amber Vermouth, and guava puree in goblet glass over ice. Top with dry sparkling apple cider and garnish with orange half slices.  

The Brand: ASM Whiskey

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grapefruit juice
• 0.25 cup ASM Whiskey
• 0.25 cup rosemary syrup
• 0.25 cup club soda
• Ingredients for Rosemary Syrup (makes 4-6 servings):
• 1 tbs fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

How to Make It:

Over low heat, bring rosemary, sugar, and water to low simmer in a small saucepan, stirring frequently until sugar is fully dissolved. Continue to stir frequently, reduce heat, and let mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove syrup from heat and let cool completely.

Combine rosemary syrup, whiskey, grapefruit juice, in a glass over ice. Top with club soda.