Spring is in the air and Easter celebrations are hopping into full swing, which means you need selection of cocktails and mocktails to match! We asked five local mixologists to help us toast the season with a lineup of festive cocktails and mocktails inspired by the classic song, Here Comes Peter Cottontail! Their delightful concoctions capture the whimsy and joy of Easter, and you and your guests will have fun shaking, stirring, humming, as well as sipping. Enjoy!
Peter Cottontail’s Easter Cocktails and Mocktails
Here Comes Peter Cottontail
Start your Easter brunch off with Here Comes Peter Cottontail, a refreshing cocktail or mocktail bursting with bright notes of strawberry, lemongrass, and grapefruit. But the flavor experience doesn’t stop there. Vallozzi’s mixologists, Laura Karner and Stephanie Yarup, added more to the drink. “We immediately wanted to make a fun cotton candy cocktail when we heard our assigned line was ‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail’. To welcome spring, we wanted a bright sangria with plenty of fruit and botanicals.” They complete their drink with pure fun: a puff of cotton candy garnish goes in the glass before you pour the cocktail.
Hoppin’ Down the Bunny Trail
Upon hearing that his assigned lyric involved hopping down the bunny trail, Square Café’s Steven Krall pulled his juicer onto the bar. In it went fresh carrots, ginger, and pineapple. Out came the freshest, most flavorful blend of juices. (Don’t worry; for those who don’t juice, he also specifies store-bought juice equivalents in his recipe.) Then, he adds lime or lemon sparkling water and a healthy dose of prosecco – which, in the mocktail version, is omitted. With or without alcohol, the resulting quaff will have you just as bubbly and jazzed as a buzzed bunny either way.
Hippity
Collin McNamee’s behind-the-bar genius lit up with the idea of capturing the ineffable, entirely magical quality of hippity in a glass. In his view, no doubt inspired by the hallucinogenic interior of Cobra, hippity is poetically linked to the perfumed qualities of rose hip and lavender, so his recipe starts with a colorful tea made from these floral elements. Add lemon juice and strong honey syrup to complete his mocktail version, and also a glug of the botanical notes of gin to bring a cocktail into being. The taste buds will wander happily through this garden of flavors. And, perhaps, you’ll meet the Easter bunny along the way.
Hoppity
Hoppity evoked the seductive appeal of hops for The Commoner’s Blaise Malandra, so a hoppy IPA-based drink was inevitable. Add to that special tingling of the taste buds drops of hopped grapefruit bitters, Cynar, Sfumato, and strawberry syrup…and you get a treat that has all the appeal of jellybeans and Jolly Ranchers, but with a sophistication that’s entirely grown-up and delicious.
Easter’s On Its Way
What does Peter Cottontail want when he finally reaches that delightful little bar at the end of the Bunny Trail? Carrot juice, of course. Cam Dickson reaches into his stash at Ritual House
to add tequila, lemon and lime juice, vanilla syrup, and an egg white. After a hard shake in a cocktail tin, out comes a frothy, tangy, yet still sweet cocktail that would calm the nerves of even the jitteriest, travel-weary bunny. Swap out the tequila for pineapple juice in the mocktail version. Both will refresh and
delight you!
Story by Star Laliberte
Styling by Anna Franklin
Photography by Laura Petrilla
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