Jam Session: The 3-Ingredient Kombucha Cocktail To Sip This Summer

Delicious cocktails don't require professional skills to make. Take the Jam Session, a refreshing cocktail created by Natasha David. This light sipper isn't boozy enough to send party guests into premature stupors, and the bubbly beverage can be made ahead of time and batched so you can place full pitchers onto scattered DIY drink stations for guests to refill glasses with little effort on your part. 

Crisp, dry fino sherry lends the concoction just the right amount of alcoholic buzz, and the sweetness of fresh watermelon juice complements the peppery fizz of ginger kombucha. This kind of drink will have party guests feeling like they have just stepped into a resort spa instead of your backyard. When served cold and garnished with cucumber slices or sprigs of rosemary, Jam Sessions will disappear fast from the event. After you've mastered the basic recipe, you can put a flavorful spin on the drink by experimenting with different juices, add-ins, and alcohols. 

Homemade batches of kombucha offer a gentle fizz to drink recipes, and since the ingredient is already light in taste, the fermented beverage can pair easily with stronger flavors of booze, mixers, and fruit. Campari cocktail lovers can play with adjusted ratios of kombucha, gin, and Campari, while whiskey drinkers can create a modified whiskey sour with kombucha, bourbon, and citrus juice. Set out separate containers for partygoers to mix up their own drinks or pre-make recipes that can be poured easily.

Flavored kombuchas can be the perfect complement to fruit-enhanced vodka drinks like a Madras, and when garnished with berries or citrus wedges, will have your guests thinking you've attended bartending school just for the occasion. Should you want to accommodate the teetotalers attending your party, nix the sherry and booze and make nonalcoholic sippers for your friends using ginger and plain kombucha, sugar syrups, and freshly squeezed juices. With mint or basil leaves added to glasses, these fresh drinks can be easily poured until the last guest leaves.