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Cheers! Cocktails from around the world to celebrate WorldPride

Fun fact: LGBTQs tend to tip one back at their parties.

Come the last Sunday in June, the biggest, and arguably gayest, party of the year descends on New York this month, World Pride. And as every color of the rainbow rips the Big Apple a new one, several innovative bartenders are commemorating the event with gay-themed cocktails, some you can make yourself for your oh-so-fabulous parade viewing party.

Which might just create a whole new palette of colors to play with…

Greenwich Grenade

Photo courtesy of EDITION

Get to the swanky EDITION on the double for this verdant victual; it’s only being served during Pride Month! The grenade gets its arboreal hue from cucumbers and mint syrup; it gets its punch from two ounces of bourbon; it gets its name from the fact bourbon bottles were used for Molotov cocktails during the Stonewall Riots. The cool taste is perfect for late June in New York, and the little rainbow heart pin is a nice touch, too.  

Rainbow Crush

For you DIYers, not only does it look like a rainbow, this tangy frozen cocktail from Gray Whale Gin is monument to chemistry: the red layer gets its hue from pureed blackberries and lemon juice, the blue from fresh squeezed yuzu and blue-green algae powder, the green form cucumber juice, and the orange from mango and lime juice. Throw in two ounces of gin throughout and some Peychaud’s bitters and voila! This is one potent potion.

Pride Poptail

Photo courtesy of Conrad

Head on down to the rooftop Loopy Doopy bar Conrad in Battery Park City for an effervescent cocktail whose glass started life as a small fishbowl. The Poptail is delightfully simple: fill a wine glass with Prosecco and throw in a rainbow-colored popsicle to suck on (cough). Hilton, long a gayfriendly business, outdid themselves with this one; nine hotels across south Manhattan have their own Pride Cocktails. Pub crawl!

Unicorn Tea

Photo courtesy of the Aviary Bar

The Unicorn Tea the gay Transformer of cocktails! The secret is in the spectrum of ice cubes, flavored with violette, curacao, cucumber, pineapple, orange and strawberry. As the ice melts, cocktail’s flavor evolves as well, transforming with each sip. This is on top of the Grey Goose, elderflower, orange, and seltzer. Slide on up to the Aviary Bar at the Mandarin near Central Park for this alchemical alcohol.

Stonewall Inn IPA

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery

No trip to gay New York is complete to the Stonewall Inn, the bar where all began on a steamy night in a Mafia-run dive in 1969. The fruity result of the partnership with the local Brooklyn Brewery, the Stonewall Inn IPA is a citrusy salute to 50 years of protests, parades, precedents, and pride. OK, so it’s not a cocktail per se, but you can hardly get your gay on better than with this beer.

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