Sunshine and highballs for all, advises Backbar

Spring means baseball, warmer weather and greener scenery. But it also means that restaurants and bars trade in the mac and cheese for lighter fare. What can you expect now? We asked Melinda Johnson, bar manager at Backbar (which just updated its own menu for spring), what kinds of changes we’ll be seeing in our cocktails now that we’ve finally escaped our snow piles.

Floral sips

“We’re working with a lot of green flavors. We’re doing a coconut and pepper infused kind of piña colada theme tequila drink, so that’s going to be a lot of fun,” says Johnson, adding, “We’re going to do a flower syrup. Basically, taking sugar and water and flowers and mixing them all together and making a cocktail with that, so that’s pretty cool. It adds like a little floral meld, but also a little of that bitter green, with things like the dandelion.”

The quintessential spring drink

“If I could just pick one? That’s a tough question,” says Johnson with a laugh. “I think highballs. You still have the booze there but it’s light and refreshing and you can add elements to it to make it a little heavier but people can drink a lot of them. They can drink them outside.”

What to bring on your picnic

“Anything like rum or gin or tequila and citrus or soda water or sparkling wines,” suggests Johnson. “We’re actually doing raspberry and cognac with soda. It’s super simple but really, really tasty.”