Delicious, Easy Summer Cocktails

Colin Cowie Offers Recipes With And Without Alcohol

(CBS)  Summer is in full swing, and what better way to relax and quench your thirst than with a wonderful and refreshing mixed drink?

Master party planner Colin Cowie stopped by The Early Show Monday with some delicious recipes, with and without alcohol.

He showed how to simply take an ordinary drink and make it into an extraordinary moment.

Among Cowie's favorites:

STREPE CHEPE

Cowie has fueled lots of parties with the Strepe Chepe. This very light and refreshing cocktail is not only easy to make with only four ingredients, but versatile, too. Cowie says a friend/client named the cocktail and it's been fuel for fabulousness ever since.

RECIPE:
8 ounces high-quality vodka
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons superfine sugar, plus more to taste
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, tightly packed

Combine all ingredients in a blender full of ice cubes. Blend until the contents achieve a uniform frozen consistency. Add more sugar periodically as needed or until the mixture is just sweet to taste. Serve in champagne flutes or shot glasses

PASSION FRUIT AND CHILI MARTINI

Cowie originally discovered this all-time new favorite cocktail at a hotel in Miami. It's very easy to make. Simply combine the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Only the ginger juice may take a little time to make.

RECIPE:
1 ounce cranberry juice
1 ounce orange juice
2 ounces Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Passion Fruit Rum
1 ounce passion fruit puree
1⁄4 ounce fresh ginger juice (made from fresh ginger, ground and boiled)

Add 8-12 seeds of red thai chili pepper, a few pieces of chopped up chili and one red thai chili pepper for garnish. Combine ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake, strain and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with one red chili pepper that has been sliced and attached to the glasses rim or just float the chili in the drink. DON'T' eat the chili!