Strawberry Lemon Prosecco Cocktail

What’s better than an icy cold cocktail on a hot summer day? Basically nothing.

If you are anything like me, summer wakes up your desire for a cocktail on the porch. This past weekend was the unofficial start of summer and we made the most of it by having my family-in-law over for some snacking and sipping.

Admittedly, prosecco isn’t the first thing I grab for when cocktail hour rolls around. I typically consider it a vehicle for a splash of orange juice when I want an excuse to indulge before noon on a Sunday. What? I KNOW it’s not just me.

I typically write more about decorating and such, but I do develop the occasional smoothie recipe or side dish. I thought it would be fun to play around with creating a refreshing summer cocktail recipe. My guests were more than willing to join in for some taste testing 🙂

The Taste Test

We had an organic, extra dry Prosecco and a sparkling rosé to play around with. First up was the Prosecco… yes, we took some silly game show pictures. We like to have fun around here.

Surprisingly — to me at least being a lukewarm prosecco person — the straight organic extra dry was delicious! It had a lot more depth than most proseccos I’ve tried and I loved that it didn’t have any cloying sweetness (hence, extra dry).

Then we tried it with orange juice for the classic mimosa. Again, very good, but I actually preferred it straight. I think the guests were split 50/50 on straight versus mimosa-ed.

Next up was the sparkling rosé. I was very excited for this one. A “rosé all day” gal through and through, I was pretty sure this one would be my jam. And it soooo was. Very crisp, nicely fruity. Perfect summer sipping.

However… I was itching to get a little creative. Strawberry season is short and deliciously sweet so that was a natural place to start. I grabbed local strawberries from a farm down the road (#countrylife) and started chopping.

Creating the Summer Cocktail: Recipe Below

To really amp up the strawberry goodness I doused them in some simple syrup and let them sit for a bit. Next, I rummaged around in my fridge to find a little something to add more life to the cocktail. Sparkling Italian lemonade!

A generous scoop of the sugared strawberries and a glug of the lemonade went into the glass. I topped that with the sparkling rosé and… meh. Just ok. It was missing something. Dimension I guess? I started to worry I shouldn’t have messed with something that was perfect to start with.

Too late to turn back I grabbed a random can of coconut seltzer, added a splash of that and crushed in a sprig of mint. The verdict? DELISH. Slightly sweet, slightly tart, slightly tropical, and super refreshing. So much so that Matt stole my test glass, ha.

All in all, I definitely changed my mind about prosecco. Summer entertaining is here and in gear so I plan to keep a few bottles of this stuff in my fridge for impromptu get-togethers and home movie nights with the husband. I broke down the recipe here for you to try for yourself. Cheers!

Thank you to Mionetto for making such yummy wine and to my brother- and sister-in-law for being such adorable spokesmodels 🙂