Explore these homemade cocktail mixers for drink recipes that are perfect for summer celebrating.

If you’re planning to spend July 4th with a celebratory cocktail in your hand, forget going to the store to buy some cheap, sugary cranberry juice. No, for a good party you’re going to need something a little classier. Homemade cocktail mixers, perhaps? These nine homemade cocktail mixers and drink recipes will all add a little pep to your Fourth of July celebrating–or any other summertime fun you have planned.

1. Make: Ginger Ale

Drink: Ginger Ale with Bourbon

What’s more American than a good bourbon? Bourbon with ginger ale. But you don’t need to buy ginger ale to get the fizzy drink with a kick. Invest in some fresh ginger and make your ginger ale yourself. Then get a good bottle of bourbon and mix away.

2. Make: Lemon verbena infused vodka

Drink: Lemon Verbena Drop

Have some lemon verbena on hand? Use it to infuse vodka and make a new spin on a lemon drop; you’ll feel like you’re drinking summer in a glass.

3. Make: Mint simple syrup

The Shortcut Mojito

This one’s called a “shortcut” mojito, because you make a mint infused syrup first, allowing you to skip the muddling part. Perfect if you’re hosting a party and many mojitos need to be made.

4. Make: Sour mix

Drink: Whiskey Sour

Using lemons and limes you can make your own sour mix, then just add whiskey and you’ve got yourself a super simple whiskey sour.

5. Make: Jalapeño infused tequila

Drink: Spicy margaritas

Of all the drink recipes, none of them say “summer” as much as the margarita, and to step things up a notch, make your own jalapeño infused tequila for a spicy version.

6. Make: Hibiscus-lime syrup

Drink: Hibiscus-Tequila Cooler

While we’re on the subject of tequila, let’s move on to a drink that’s just a little more exotic. The Hibiscus-Tequila Cooler is made with a simple syrup concocted with limes and dried hibiscus flours. The result is a red drink that’s sure to please a crowd.

7. Make: Rhubarb shrub

Drink: Spiced rhubarb gimlet

With coriander seeds and pink peppercorn, you get a punchy rhubarb shrub. Then all you need to do is add a little gin and bitters (you can make those yourself too!) and you have yourself a gimlet.

8. Make: Apricot puree

Drink: Apricot bellini

At some point during Fourth of July weekend you’re probably going to end up brunching, and when you do, you’ll want a festive drink. Grab some apricots, make a puree, add a little sparkling wine and you have yourself a tasty bellini.

9. Make: Blackberry syrup

Drink: Blackberry spritzer

Blackberries can easily be turned into a syrup, and once you have that, your options for drink recipes are endless. Make up a batch of blackberry spritzer perhaps?

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Image: Louise Ireland

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Hipster cliché or not, craft sodas are showing up in bars and on menus nationwide, and that’s a good thing. Move over, high fructose corn syrup and artificial colorings, there’s a new carbonated beverage in town.

Craft sodas are reaching their tipping point. Joining the ranks of trendsetters like DRY Soda Co., WildCraft Soda, and SIP are a rising number of restaurants, bars, and nano-producers who are using some surprising raw ingredients to produce their seasonal products. DRY really set the modern standard for craft sodas; the Seattle-based company specializes in scarcely sweetened beverages that make for elegant refreshers or mixers.

Flavors like Rhubarb, Lavender, Ginger, Blood Orange, Juniper Berry, and Cucumber also pair well with appetizers, salads, or a cheese course. Miniscule WildCraft Soda, founded by DC native Nathan Zeender, takes a different approach, using foraged ingredients like elderberry, rose hip, sarsparilla, and burdock and licorice root. The resulting draft-only sodas have a distinct Colonial American vibe.

In Brooklyn, perhaps the epicenter of craft foods, Caroline Mak and Antonio Ramos recently moved their tiny, three-year-old company into slightly larger digs. Brooklyn Soda Works was born of the couple’s love of mixing up a great cocktail. They began selling their craft beer-influenced (because they’re carbonated in-keg) sodas at Brooklyn Flea. Instead of carbonated syrup or concentrate, the sodas are made with fresh-squeezed juices, using ingredients sourced farmer-direct from the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza and Union Square farmers’ markets.

Esoteric seasonal flavors include Yellow Plum & Basil; Concord Grape & Fennel Seed; Strawberry, Hops, & Pink Peppercorn, and Grapefruit, Jalapeno, and Honey. Bring on the gin or vodka, please. One of the most unusual- and delicious- craft sodas on the market comes from Northern California’s Eatwell Farms. Farmer/co-owner Lorraine Walker started making whey-fermented sodas four years ago, using Lactobacilus-rich, organic milk by-product from Petaluma’s St. Benoît Yogurt, and fruit and herbs from her farm. The result- Drinkwell Softers- have a gentle fizz, and subtle creamy note on the palate.

Walker mixes a base of fermented whey, sugar, and salt with water and fresh fruit juice. Then, she adds aromatics. The result are seasonal flavors like Lemon Verbena, Lavender, Rosemary, and Rose Geranium. Walker sells the sodas at markets (most notably, San Francisco’s famed Ferry Plaza Farmers Market). Explains Walker, “It’s always been my goal to encourage people to think about beverages the same way many of us think about our food; made with locally-grown, organic ingredients. What we drink should figure into the concept of the local food movement just like produce, meat, eggs, and dairy.”

Related on EcoSalon:

Soft Drink Revival: A Return to Old-Fashioned Soda Shops

There’s Quinoa in Your Cocktail: Foodie Underground

Images via Alberto Gonzalez, DRY Soda Co.,  lubre

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