How Grilled Fruit Transforms The Flavor Of Your Summer Cocktails

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Summer cocktails won't just cool you off on a hot day. They're also refreshing pairings for the sizzling burgers you'll be pulling off the grill at summer cookouts. However, savory meats aren't the only dishes that benefit from being grilled. Your next summer cocktail needs a grilled fruit upgrade. Cocktail Instagrammer Katie Stryjewski, author of "Cocktails, Mocktails, and Garnishes from the Garden", agrees, telling us that, "grilling fruit adds a smoky flavor and also caramelizes the sugars, giving fresh fruit a sweeter, cooked flavor like pie filling." Rich caramelized grilled fruit makes the perfect spirit pairing as fruit, caramel, and smoke are common tasting notes in everything from whiskey to mezcal. The best news is that you can incorporate grilled fruit into a wide range of cocktails.

When we asked for grilled fruit cocktail combos, Stryjewski opted for a classic, saying, "I love a margarita with grilled pineapple or peaches muddled in!" Of course, you can reserve some whole grilled fruit for a visually stunning and tasty garnish. But grilling the fruit you use in the drink will impart a sweet and smoky complexity while also softening the flesh and skin, priming it for easy muddling. And muddling the fruit will release its flavors even more to thoroughly infuse a cocktail's spirits and mixers. Try our recipe for a grilled pineapple mojito for starters. But almost any grilled fruit will upgrade a mojito, including peaches, limes, oranges, and strawberries. Grilled grapefruit and limes would make for a smoky sweet upgrade to a margarita or this zesty paloma.

We already have a heap of handy tips from chef Abra Berens, who told us all about the best fruits for grilling, many of which have a firmer pulp or a tougher outer skin to keep the pulp from disintegrating over the grill. Among her suggestions were summer fruits including peaches, watermelons, apricots, cherries, and blueberries. But citrus, apples, pears, and quince also made the list. Seasonality is important to maximize peak freshness, taste, and texture of fruit. While grilling helps coax the sweetness and softness out of fruit, you'll get the most flavorsome results with fruit that's in season.

If you're new to grilling fruit, many tips for grilling fruit overlap with grilling meat. For example, you want your grill grates to be clean to impart those stunning and delicious grill marks without contaminating the fruits' sweetness with remnants of other grilled foods. Heat your grill grates up so that they're extra hot before placing the fruit directly on top. Otherwise you won't get those charred grill marks. Grilled fruit is bursting with flavor all on its own, but you can bring even more flavors to the mix with fresh spices or sweeteners. For example, if you want a spicy margarita, sprinkle tajin or chili powder over grilled oranges or watermelon before blending them with tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. Infuse fruit with wood flavors by grilling it over a wooden plank. Woody, smoky, grilled cherries would enhance the tasting notes in a bourbon-based whiskey sour, for example.