Four great cocktails to serve at your Spring wedding

A great, tasty, and often cost-saving aperitif is the trusty, age-old punch.  We’re not talking junior high dance punch, but rather artisanal and rustic drinks full of flavors, color, and best of all, great taste.  The following recipes are small scale, but simply multiply each ingredient by the number of guests and you’ve got yourself a great spring time party drink.  Accent with a chilled glass and fresh ingredients - leave the umbrella straws at home.  

Brazilian Sangria
Clark Clark, bar chef at Barmarché (via GQ)

1 lime, diced
2–3 spoonfuls of sugar
3/4 ounce Água Luca cachaça
1 ounce red wine
3/4 ounce passion fruit puree
Sugarcane stick

In a rocks glass, muddle the lime and sugar together. Add remaining ingredients and ice, and cap the glass with a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously and serve in the same glass you muddled everything in. Garnish with lime and sugarcane stick.

Hudson Lemonade 
the Sky Terrace bar at the Hudson Hotel, New York City

3 lemon wedges
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 ounce Finlandia Lime Vodka
Fresh lime juice
Cranberry juice
Ginger ale

Muddle the lemons and sugar together in a cocktail shaker. Add a splash of lime juice and a splash of cranberry juice. Add the vodka and ice and give it a good shake. Top it off with ginger ale and serve in a rocks glass.

Black and Blue Caipiroska
Daphne’s restaurant, Barbados

3/4 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce blueberry puree
1 dash blackberry puree
1/2 fresh lime
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Crushed ice
Splash of soda

Cut the lime into quarters and slice the quarters in half so that you have smaller segments. Place the smaller segments into a rocks glass. Add the blueberry puree, blackberry puree, and brown sugar, and muddle together. After muddling, top the glass up with the crushed ice. Add the vodka and a splash of club soda. Stir enough to mix the muddled ingredients throughout.

Caipirinha
Calle Ocho, New York City (via GQ)

2 lime wedges
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1⁄2 ounces cachaça

Muddle the lime, fresh lime juice, and sugar together in a cocktail shaker. Add the cachaça and shake with ice. Serve in a rocks glass and garnish with a lime wheel.