Mamrie Hart, YouTube's cocktail superstar, recently published a book all about her "boozy misadventures."
You Deserve A Drink is chock full of her best drinking stories. Each chapter comes with a corresponding recipe, so it feels a lot like the book version of watching her hilarious videos.
Mamrie has nearly a million subscribers on YouTube, and it's easy to see why.
Her videos are filled with delightful puns about your favorite celebrities or hot topics; plus, each vid comes with its own drinking game so you can rewatch and play along.
The book is just as entertaining as the channel, with the added perk of getting to know Mamrie a bit more. It has some truly outrageous stories which can serve as either cautionary tales or inspirational advice.
While her language and jokes may get wild, her book and channel are all about accepting who you are without being afraid to poke fun at yourself.
Here are some drinks, from her book and her show, that she thinks you should make this summer:
1. Right in the Nuts
What You'll Need:
Glass bottle of Coke
1/2 oz homemade grenadine (see next step)
2 oz white rum
Salted peanuts
First, add some ice to a tumbler, then pour in the homemade grenadine syrup.
"We aren't making that radioactive shit that people put in Shirley Temples," Mamrie writes in her book. "This is the real stuff."
To make the grenadine:
Heat 1 cup of pomegranate juice over medium heat, and add a 1/4 cup of sugar. Once that dissolves, raise the temperature to a boil for 5 minutes. Then squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Add in the white rum.
Next, crack open the Coke and pour that into the glass as well.
You can also make this cocktail right the Coke bottle itself, as is more traditional in the South.
Stir it up!
Finally, don't forget to add the peanuts on top.
"Bonus, at the end you get boozy cherry-soda infused peanuts," Mamrie wrote.
So refreshing! Feel like summer yet?
2. Amy Poehler's "Parks and Wrecked"
Inspired by another delightful lady author.
What You'll Need:
Fresh lemon
Maple syrup
Maple-flavored whiskey*
(*Alas, we had to use non-maple-flavored bourbon, since it was what we had.)
To a shaker full of ice, add as much maple whiskey (or, y'know, bourbon) as you'd like. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Add about a tablespoon of maple syrup.
Then shake it all together as gleefully as Leslie Knope would!
Pour over ice, and garnish with a cute lemon wedge.
In the video, Mamrie geniusly uses a mini waffle as a garnish. Yes, please!
Drink up, and make Ron Swanson proud!
3. Mamrie Hart's "Best Celer-y"
What You'll Need:
Gin
Simple syrup
Fresh celery juice (made by putting celery through a juicer or Vitamix blender)
Cilantro
Fresh lime
Celery bitters
Fun fact: dinosaurs LOVE cilantro...
...and Mamrie loves gin.
Muddle your cilantro in a shaker, then add the juice of half a lime.
To that, add about 2 ounces of celery juice and an ounce of simple syrup.
To make simple syrup:
Heat equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Easy peasy!
Pour in as much gin as you please!
Shake it together adorably and vigorously.
Strain into a glass and serve with a little sprig of cilantro as garnish.
4. Lena Dunham's "Not That Kind of Earl"
To enjoy while you read Lena's book!
What You'll Need:
Earl Grey-infused gin (see next step)
Pomegranate reduction (or juice)
Lemon juice
Pour a "decent amount" of the tea-infused gin into a shaker full of ice.
To make the infused gin: Steep 3-4 bags of Earl Grey tea in at least 20 oz of gin for about an hour or two. Ta da!
Next, add a little bit of pomegranate reduction and the juice of half a lemon.
To make the pomegranate reduction:
Heat pomegranate juice with a squeeze of lemon on the stove for about 10 minutes, until it thickens up.
Shake it on up, then pour over ice.
Mamrie garnished with a twist of lemon.
There ya go! A drink fit for yet another badass lady author.
5. Show Thyme
What You'll Need:
1 oz thyme simple syrup
Fresh blackberries
1/2 lemon
2 oz gin
Champagne
First, muddle fresh blackberries in your shaker.
Add in the thyme simple syrup.
To make the thyme simple syrup, from You Deserve A Drink: Combine a cup of water, a cup of sugar and about 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh thyme in a saucepan. Leave on low heat until all the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is good and thymey (— not a word).
Squeeze in the lemon juice, and pour in the gin.
Don't be afraid to be generous. This is a celebratory drink, after all!
Strain and pour into your cutest champagne flute.
Pop a bottle of champagne to top off the glass.
Garnish with a blackberry. All those bubbles will float it toward the top!
A cocktail guaranteed to be super bubbly, just like you!
Voilà!
Mmmm, tastes like success.
And there you have it: The perfect cocktails to keep you company this summer.
For more recipes and stories, be sure to pick up Mamrie Hart's You Deserve A Drink (out now), and subscribe to her channel on YouTube.
You can also catch Mamrie with buds Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart during their remaining #NoFilterTour dates.
