- Ina Garten’s Raspberry Royale is a simple two-ingredient champagne cocktail for summer.
- The drink is easy to batch for parties and gets a nutritious boost from fresh raspberries.
- A nonalcoholic version with juice and berries offers a festive, hydrating mocktail option.
For years, we’ve been watching Ina Garten create simple, delicious recipes that are perfect for every occasion. From an elegant dinner party to an al fresco family dinner, Garten’s ability to incorporate seasonal veggies into a pasta dish or craft the perfect caprese salad is guaranteed to keep us coming back for more. So when the home cooking icon recently shared a perfect-for-summer cocktail on her Instagram account, we started planning our next cheers-worthy summer get-together.
Garten recently created an Instagram reel sharing her recipe for a Raspberry Royale—a super-simple champagne cocktail that’s perfect for everything from a patio drink to sip on a summer evening to an easy-to-batch-produce cocktail for your next dinner party. (In fact, Garten also included her Raspberry Royale recipe in her go-to watch party menu for events like the Grammys and the Super Bowl.)
Just what is a Raspberry Royale? The flavorful, two-ingredient cocktail is a pretty standard sip, made of raspberry liqueur and champagne. To make it, simply pour a teaspoon of raspberry liqueur into a champagne flute and top the glass off with your bubbly wine of choice. Garten says she sometimes adds a few fresh raspberries for garnish — a perfect use of summer produce—adding that she loves the drink because it “looks elegant” but is “so easy to make.”
What’s more, the drink is easy to prepare in advance for entertaining: Simply set out champagne flutes for all of your guests and add a teaspoon of raspberry liqueur to each. As guests arrive, top the glasses off with champagne and top with fresh raspberries if you choose. Adding those fresh raspberries to your glass can give you an extra dose of vitamins like magnesium, vitamin C and potassium, not to mention fiber.
Living an alcohol-free lifestyle but still want a fancy summer mocktail? Try making a similar, booze-free version of Garten’s Raspberry Royale using non-alcoholic champagne or sparkling white grape juice, raspberry syrup or juice and a few fresh berries. The result will be a hydrating summer sip that’s so delicious, you likely won’t miss the alcohol at all.
Garten’s berry-licious summer drink isn’t the only menu item she likes to cook up when the weather gets hot. On the Barefoot Contessa website, Garten has listed a curated summer menu including delightful dishes like pesto pasta with peas, roasted cherry tomatoes and coconut cupcakes. The summer meal pairs perfectly with berry-topped, sparkling beverages and is packed with healthy ingredients like zucchini and walnuts—all the more reason to break out Garten’s summer menu and clink glasses with your dinner guests.
Some of our other favorite summer recipes from Garten include her watermelon mojito and her veggie-packed Summer Garden Pasta. We also love making Garten’s panzanella salad in summer, especially because it’s made with anti-inflammatory ingredients like olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and basil. While the Barefoot Contessa rarely gets it wrong, summer just may be her season, and we’re here for every bite… and sip.
