Celebrate summer with frose, gin cocktails and Aperol

Wine slushies, gin and bitter Italian cocktails are cool drinks for hot summer days.

Glass House has gin and tonic cocktails on the menu. Picture: Adam Yip.

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When the temperature soars, it’s time to cool down with a long, cold drink. Here are some of this summer’s most popular drinks.

From Manly to Newport, the trendiest drink of summer is frosé. This frozen wine-based drink, which debuted at Bar Primi in New York, took London by storm over the northern hemisphere summer, and has become a hit on our shores.

Manly Wine found the cocktail on Instagram and introduced it to the northern beaches last September. The beachfront venue mixes it up with a secret liquor and fresh strawberry.

Frose with a mint sprig from The Newport.

Edison’s Bar in Mona Vale and The Newport have also succumbed to its pastel charms. Edison’s blends rosé with ice, strawberry syrup, lemon and triple sec, topped with a maraschino cherry.

The Newport’s cocktail comes from a slushie machine. It is a blend of Innocent Bystander rosé, Beefeater gin, Lillet blanc, cold-pressed watermelon and lemon, served with a with a sprig of mint and a paper straw.

Gio, the southern Italian restaurant and bar at Harbord Diggers, has gone for an Italian twist on summer drinks. Its summer tipple du jour is an Aperol spritz.

Classic summer drinks: Aperol cocktails at Gio.

This bitter, lurid orange cocktail is similar to Campari, but sweeter. Mixologist Sebastian Kadziela ramps up the citrus content by adding orange soda and fresh oranges to prosecco and the zesty aperitif. And it’s not just a drink for the girls, Kadziela says.

Gin and tonic is undoubtedly one of the summer classics. Hotel Steyne’s new rooftop bar Glass House is the place to sample one. The revamped Asian restaurant Harry Phat’s has been given a colonial-meets-conservatory restyle making it the perfect end-of-week venue to down a couple gin cocktails.

Gins and botanicals dominate the cocktail list. One to try is the sambucas. This mint-infused Hendrick’s, cucumber juice and elderflower cocktail is the epitome of summer in a glass.

Hotel Steyne’s new rooftop bar, Glass House. Picture: Adam Yip.

Easy frose recipe

Ingredients

1 bottle rose

I punnet strawberries, washed, hulled, quartered

2tbs sugar

1/4 cup gin or vodka

Method

Freeze wine in ice cube trays overnight, or until frozen.

Put strawberries, sugar and frozen rose in blender, blend

Add gin, blend again until smooth

Pour into glasses

Decorate with cocktail parasols and strawberry