10 Backcountry Cocktails Every Backpacker Should Know
Some food items are just too heavy to justify schlepping them around in your pack. (When's the last time you saw somebody whip out a watermelon at camp?) But liquor, my friends, is not one of those items. Yeah, the ingredients can be heavy, but a perfectly blended, snowbank-chilled cocktail can be the difference between an excellent day on the trail and a transcendent day on the trail. In that spirit, here are 10 of our favorite concoctions. Cheers.
1. Mountain Margarita
Lemon-Lime Gatorade + tequila + fresh snow
2. Watermelon Snowfield
Fruit punch sports drink + Bacardi 151 rum + snow + maraschino cherry
3. Bikini Sunburn
Vodka + light rum + cherry sours + juice of half a fresh lemon + sugar
4. Mountain Storm Cosmo
Lime juice + cranberry juice concentrate + triple sec + vodka + lime Kool-Aid powder + hailstones
5. Snake in the Grass
Lemon-Lime Gatorade + vodka + green creme de menthe
6. Blackberry Margarita
Fresh-picked berries + snow + tequila
7. Backcountry Mai Tai
Tang + snow + dark rum
8. Goodnight Kiss
Good Earth tea + scotch
9. Wilderness White Russian
Kahlua + vodka + milk (use dry whole milk powder)
10. Under the Sleeping Bag
Light rum + triple sec + brandy + lemon juice
With thanks to editors Jon Dorn, Shannon Davis, Steve Howe, & Kristin Hostetter; realcampingworld.co.uk. Image credit: GSI Outdoors
—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan