PSA: You Should Really Be Making White Claw Cocktails

If you've never had a Paloma before, it's a super refreshing cocktail made with tequila or mezcal, fresh lime juice, grapefruit juice, and club soda-- sort of like a grapefruit margarita. For these Palomas, I followed this recipe, but I used grapefruit White Claw in place of regular club soda.

If I had to stick to one drink for the rest of my life, I would probably choose sangria. It's so versatile and you can make it taste appropriate for any season. For this version, I roughly followed this Food Network recipe, but instead of club soda I used raspberry White Claw. For this drink I stuck to fresh raspberries, but the best part about sangria is that you can customize it with whatever flavors you like best.

Despite the good amount of alcohol involved, this sangria seriously goes down like juice, and it's very easy to turn into a big batch drink to serve to a crowd. This raspberry version is definitely on the lighter side, but you could also make a more wintery version by using a red wine like Garnacha, more seasonal fruit, and some spices like cinnamon and star anise.

I used this recipe from food blog, Feast in Thyme, as a reference. The recipe calls for mint-infused simple syrup, which felt a little extra, so I used regular simple syrup and tossed in some mint leaves as a garnish. I muddled the berries at the bottom of the glasses, then mixed together the bourbon, lime juice, simple syrup, and White Claw. Then I served the drinks over ice.

I don't usually love bourbon, but this cocktail was a great combination of slightly sweet and zesty. It was definitely a stiff drink (and I don't really enjoy the taste of Bourbon) so next time I would add a little cherry juice in addition to the cherry spiked seltzer. This is a really easy recipe to turn into a big batch cocktail and serve to a crowd.

I used this Ina Garten recipe as a reference for my spicy margs. If you have the time or are planning ahead, Ina says to infuse your tequila with jalapeños overnight, but if you're in a hurry, I usually make spicy margaritas by shaking the tequila with sliced jalapeño and the straining it into a glass.

Once you have your infused vodka, add the triple sec, lemon juice, lime juice, honey, and salt, and stir until combined.

The White Claw margarita tastes very much like a classic spicy margarita, but it's a bit lighter, like a spritzer. I'm a bit of a spice fiend, so I like to garnish my margaritas with jalapeño slices, but if you don't love spice, just leave this step out.