Freeze a crowd: a selection of the best cocktails in Hong Kong for summer

Summer is the best season to be a drinker. Winter with its hot toddies and mulled wine has its charms but the summer months, with their sweltering heat and markets full of ripe produce are definitely the thirstiest. Hong Kong bartenders seem to agree and bars across the city are pulling out all the stops creating thirst-slaking concoctions of shaved ice, tropical fruits, flowers and exotic liquors.

This year the Common Room takes refreshing to a new level in a partnership with Lola's Ice Pops. They will be offering two standalone alcoholic popsicles or boozesicles, but we're most excited about the drunken boozesicles - icy cocktails served with the popsicles as a garnish.

Try the Drunken Bramble, a berry-based boozesicle dipped into the Common Room's gin and crème de mure bramble cocktail, or the Drunken Espresso Martini, a rich chocolate iced coffee served with a boozy fudgsicle. Before making the boozesicles, Lola's Ice Pops founders Sandra W. Wong and Julie Tuan spent the day with the mixologists from the Common Room. "We had a fun afternoon drinking and talking and trying a lot of the different booze they had," says Wong. While alcohol's low freezing temperature can present challenges, they tell us doubling the freezing time seems to do the trick.

Jason Atherton's newest venue, Aberdeen Street Social, opened its doors just in time for summer with a nod to the season in the form of Down Mexico Way, a floral south-of-the-border-inspired mezcal cocktail served in a cactus-shaped glass and heaped with crushed ice.