Pitcher Drinks

A salute to the flavors of New Orleans, this cocktail spices up Napoleon House’s Pimm’s Cup (Pimm’s No. 1, lemonade and 7-Up) with a splash of Tabasco and a generous dose of rum or vodka.

Classicist bartenders have resurrected the centuries-old ritual of the formal punch service. Here, Philip Ward makes a potent concoction named after the old British slang for gin.

Grilled oranges, lemons and grapes add a wonderful, subtle smokiness to sangria. If you grill twice as much fruit as the recipe calls for, you’ll be all ready to make a second batch.

This strong but not overly sweet sangria is nicely spiced with cinnamon, anise and cloves and it has just enough crushed red pepper to give it a tiny kick.

Chef Dean Fearing calls this drink, "the fall margarita." The sweet-tart blood orange flavor intensifies the margarita-ness of it.

This recipe is easy to multiply for crowds. To ensure that a large batch stays chilled without becoming watery, serve it in a punch bowl set in a larger bowl of crushed ice.

Mixing honeydew juice with the fizzy Italian wine Moscato makes a super-refreshing cocktail. Melon balls and chewy tapioca pearls are fun to eat and cute to look at.

This refreshing vodka cocktail, from chef Rachel Klein's friend Julie Weinberg, gets its incredible floral flavor from essential oil. Even a drop or two is powerful.

In Mexico, sangrita is traditionally served well chilled and accompanied by a good tequila served neat.

At Shinsei in Dallas, bartenders stir lychees and sake into their house white sangria, adding an Asian twist to a Spanish classic.

Of course Maria Helm Sinskey and her husband, Rob (co-owner of Napa's Robert Sinskey Vineyards), serve their wine at parties. But she also offers refreshing punches like this one, made with tart-sweet pomegranate juice and finished with Prosecco.

Kerry Simon's Asian-style sangria combines Sauvignon Blanc with green tea-flavored vodka, but it can be made with plain or citrus vodka as well.

Scotch-lover Father Cameron Ayers (a close friend of Duggan McDonnell's) challenged the mixologist to come up with a Scotch-based cocktail that was bold and refreshing but stayed true to the whisky's roots.

It's unlikely that Romeo and Juliet ever drank this citrusy cocktail in Verona, but on summer afternoons, everyone else in the Italian city seems to.

For this punch-like take on the caipirinha, use a Cabernet blended with a good amount of spicy Syrah.