Light Cocktail Drinks

When spring and summer temperatures rise and outdoor socializing rolls around each year, people enjoy sipping cocktails and mingling with friends in various settings. Light cocktails creatively concocted with low calorie ingredients are as refreshing and satisfying as traditional recipes and simple to make with readily available ingredients. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Light Classics

Mojitos are refreshing lime juice based cocktails flavored with fresh mint leaves. Instead of using conventional simple syrup in the drink, use long thin strands of fresh peeled sugarcane as a natural sweetener. For a light screwdriver, pour a shot of vodka over ice in a tall cocktail glass, add a splash of cold orange juice on top, fill the glass with diet lemon-lime soda such as 7-Up or Sprite and garnish with an orange pinwheel slice. If daiquiris are your passion, mix up a light batch for you and your friends. Instead of using fine sugar or simple syrup in the mix, dissolve a 1/2 cup honey in a 1/4 cup hot water. Combine 6 tablespoons of the honey mixture with 1 1/2 cups rum and 2/3 cup fresh lime juice in a pitcher and stir well. Pour equal amounts of the daiquiri mixture into six ice-filled glasses. Lighten up a pina colada by substituting pineapple juice or syrup with 1/2 cup pineapple chunks, which also add texture and volume to the cocktail.

Light and Fruity Combinations

A light cocktail with puckering properties is easy to make with three ounces each of grapefruit and cranberry juice, a shot of vodka or rum and two ounces of club soda or seltzer water. Garnish with a mint sprig and lime wedge. If you desire more complex tastes, combine the juice of a lemon half with 1/2 shot Cointreau and 1/4 shot tequila or vodka. Pour into a tall glass filled with ice, top with club soda and add a mint leaf garnish. Strawberry lovers enjoy equal amounts of strawberry vodka and sugar-free lemonade mixed with a splash or two of lemon juice shaken together and strained into a chilled martini glass. For more intensity, add strawberry puree. Perch a whole strawberry cut halfway through on the rim of the glass for garnish.

Light Wine Cocktails

Red or white wine combined with diet tonic water, lemon-lime soda or club soda makes a low calorie wine spritzer. For a colorful, low-cal sangria that serves eight to ten people, mix a bottle of your favorite chardonnay with 12 oz. mango juice, 12 oz. pineapple juice and a one liter bottle of seltzer in a punch bowl. Cut up pineapple, oranges, limes and lemons and mix with the sangria. Serve poured over ice.

Unique Light Drinks

For a light tea-flavored cocktail, fill a tall glass with ice and add a shot of sweet tea vodka. Fill the glass with sugar-free lemonade and garnish with a lemon wedge or slice.