The Best Cocktails to Make for Your Next At-Home Happy Hour

You don’t need to hit up a bar after work to have an epic happy hour. Instead, you probably have everything you need to whip up a bartender-level drink right at home. 

During a virtual mixology class for Intuition, Olivia Wallace, a bartender and regional manager at the mobile bartending service BarBees, shared a couple drinks that aren’t just easy to make—they’re also delicious. “The Berry Bramble is similar to a sangria. It’s a light and fruity cocktail that’s more on the sweeter side,” Wallace says. “Then there’s the Cucumber-Lime Bite, which is almost like a tequila mojito with mint, cucumber, and limes muddled into it.”

You don’t need anything fancy to make them, either. Wallace says home bartending is totally possible by swapping common bartender tools—like a muddler, for instance—for something like a wooden spoon. Here’s how to whip up two happy hour cocktails in minutes.

Berry Bramble

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce of fresh lemon juice
• 1 shot of vodka
• strawberries
• blueberries
• unflavored club soda
• simple syrup or sweetener

Instructions:

1. Add some strawberries and blueberries to your cup, making sure to remove the greens from the strawberries.
2. Take the end of a muddler or wooden spoon and slightly mash up the fruit, releasing the juices.
3. Add ice cubes to your cup.
4. Add a shot of vodka.
5. Squeeze the lemon juice into your cup.
6. Add 2.5 ounces of simple syrup.
7. Top everything off with some unflavored club soda, and stir it all together.
8. Garnish your drink with a strawberry on the ring.

Cucumber-Lime Bite

Ingredients:

• 1 shot of tequila or clear rum
• cucumber
• fresh mint
• juice of two limes
• unflavored club soda
• simple syrup or sweetener

Instructions:

1. Add some cucumber slices and mint leaves into your cup with 2.5 ounces of simple syrup.
2. Take the end of a muddler or wooden spoon and slightly mash up your ingredients.
3. Add ice cubes to your cup.
4. Add a shot of tequila or a clear rum.
5. Add the lime juice.
6. Top everything off with club soda.
7. Garnish with a cucumber slice on the ring.

Intuition’s virtual happy hour platform makes it easy to get together, even if you’re apart!