After much anticipation, the 2023 monsoon has arrived. Sure, it teased us for weeks with isolated rains, added humidity and a few brilliant lightning displays but it has officially came in with a bang.
Now that we've gotten a taste of refreshing rain and relief from triple-digit temperatures (albeit temporary), we're turning to some of our favorite watering holes to keep us in that monsoon mindset.
We found several Tucson-area restaurants and bars that have storm-named drinks, both alcoholic and non, that remind us of dark clouds and pounding rain.
Here are six stormy cocktails that define the monsoon for us.
The Monsoon is the ultimate storm concoction at Ermanos, 220 N. Fourth Ave.
The Monsoon from Ermanos Bar
Of course we have to start here with the perfect stormy cocktail that sums up every nuance of our monsoon in Tucson.
The Monsoon is the calm before the storm in a clash of spicy, sweet, bitter and refreshing.
It all starts with a base of slightly spicy housemade jalapeño-infused tequila that gets a sweet jolt of tamarind syrup, lending a Mexican candy flavor. Peychaud’s bitters add a layer of complexity that’s slightly tempered with fresh cucumber.
The concoction is mixed and strained and served in a glass rimmed with lime and Tajín before it’s topped with club soda.
“With the effervescence from the club soda, you get this bright sunny day,” longtime bartender Cody Cowen waxed poetically in describing the popular drink. “But it has this darkness from the tamarind that gives it a cloudy look, and the jalapeño-infused tequila delivers the thunder and lightening and beautiful destruction.”
The Monsoon has been one of Ermanos Bar’s most popular cocktails since they launched a cocktail menu about a year ago in collaboration with their sister bar Portal, located behind Ermanos’ main dining room, Cowen said.
“The Monsoon is easily our most popular cocktail,” he said. “On a busy night, I will crank out 100.”
Dante’s Fire on East Grant Road has the Sunburn, left, that’s a little spicy and refreshing; and the Monsoon Chaser, made with a smoked mezcal and fresh rosemary simple syrup.
Monsoon Chaser from Dante’s Fire
Chef-owner Ken Foy was looking for ways to incorporate smoky mezcal into one of his signature cocktails when he came up with Monsoon Chaser a couple of years ago.
The popular cocktail combines the smoky notes of the mezcal with the botanicals from fresh grown-on-site rosemary simple syrup and the slight spice and sweet of ginger beer topped with fresh-squeezed lime.
“When it goes in the glass, it’s kind of cloudy, like after it rains in the desert, and you get that mist about us,” Foy said. “It kind of reminded us of that (feeling) after a mid-afternoon monsoon hits us.”
On the days that the monsoon decides to take a breather, Foy recommends Dante’s Fire’s Sunburn, made with housemade jalapeño-infused tequila mixed with orange liqueur, fresh lemon-lime and tart-yet-sweet cranberry juice finished with a Tajín-salted rim.
“It burns your lips a little bit, but it finishes nice and sweet,” he said.
Dark and Stormy from Union Public House 
They like their copper cup cocktails here, but they love twisting the concept of the classic ginger-beer-based Moscow Mule (traditionally made with Russian vodka) to reflect the top-shelf personalities of America and beyond.
Their Kentucky Mule employs Jim Beam bourbon, the London Mule uses Bombay gin and, no surprise here, the Mexican Mule is centered around Jose Cuervo Tradicional Silver.
Then there’s the Tucson Mule, which adds a little spice to the Mexican formula with Hanson Habanero Vodka.
Union Public House centers its Dark and Stormy mule on Meyer’s Jamaican Dark Rum, which adds a slight sweet to the slight spice of the ginger beer.
But what better copper cup to hoist in a monsoon than the Dark and Stormy, made with Meyer’s Jamaican Dark Rum?
Sip it and the sensation of a coming storm will collide with the tropical rush of the islands.
“It is really popular,” Union Public House bar manager Andy Bulkley said, describing how the sweetness of the dark rum blends with the spirit’s slight spice. “But the ginger beer is mostly what you taste. It’s really refreshing.”
Ghost Cloud from Agustin Kitchen
The bartenders and servers at this just-west-of-downtown restaurant get a lot of questions about one of Agustin Kitchen’s newest cocktails.
How, for starters, do you pronounce shōchū, the Japanese distilled liquor at the center of the Ghost Cloud?
We got you on this one: show-choo.
The Ghost Cloud from Augustin Kitchen, with vermouth, shochu, tonic water and a maraschino cherry, one of the monsoon-themed drinks available in local bars and restaurants.
It’s a valid question. It’s not often you will see shōchū in a starring role on a Tucson cocktail menu. Many mixologists like to sub in gin or vodka to avoid having to explain the intricacies of shōchū, which has an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 25%.
Agustin Kitchen bartender Basil Denboer described shōchū as light and slightly sweet, without the spirit forward punch of some liquor. The Ghost Cloud, which the Mercado District restaurant rolled out three months ago, combines 2 ounces of shōchū with top-shelf sweet-leaning French Dolin Blanc clear vermouth and Fever-Tree tonic from England.
“It’s definitely a refreshing summer cocktail,” Denboer said.
“It’s just a kind of dryer cocktail, but refreshing,” added restaurant Manager Jesse Schaefer, who said the drink is starting to catch on with customers. “I think sometimes the shōchū can be a little of a conversation. Everybody knows margaritas and tequila, but nobody knows about shōchū.”
A Southside Patio Cooler from Sidecar, a non-alcoholic drink of ginger, lime juice, sugar, soda water and mint.
Southside Patio Cooler from Sidecar
There’s no better place to watch the monsoons roll in than from your back patio, which is why we were so intrigued with Southside Patio Cooler at the tiny (900 square feet) Sidecar bar next door to Falora artisan pizzeria.
The Southside Patio Cooler is one of three non-alcoholic cocktails on the menu of the 9-year-old bar and bartender Amanda Sierra said it’s their best seller.
Sidecar bartender Colter Glogner mixes up a Southside Patio Cooler, a non-alcoholic drink of ginger, lime juice, sugar, soda water and mint. For an alcohol version, Glogner recommends using rum or vodka.
The drink mixes ginger syrup, made in-house with raw ginger, and fresh-squeezed lime juice with fresh mint and simple syrup. It’s shaken and topped with a splash of soda water.
“Since everything that we put in it is made fresh in house, it’s very fresh and refreshing,” said Sierra, who has worked at Sidecar for two years.
If you like the idea of the Southside Patio Cooler, but you prefer your cocktails with alcohol, Sierra suggests adding gin.
A bartender at Bata downtown adds the lemon garnish to the Santa Cruz, an inventive non-alcoholic cocktail that celebrates Tucson's dry riverbeds.
Dry Riverbeds at Bata
One of the things we really look forward to during the monsoons is seeing our normally bone-dry and crackling riverbeds flowing bank to bank. It’s always fleeting and always exciting when you stand on the banks of the Rillito or Santa Cruz and see that water roar like true rivers.
The folks at the award-winning downtown restaurant Bata get us.
They have a trio of non-alcoholic cocktails they rotate on their menu that celebrate the Santa Cruz and Rillito rivers and the Pantano Wash. The drinks take their cue from the history of those handful of so-called “dry” Southern locales (like the 31 dry counties in Arkansas) where the sale of alcohol is outlawed.
“We try to take one of the cocktails from our main menu and recreate it with non-alcoholic ingredients to try to be reminiscent of the (original) cocktail,” says Bata’s bar manager Andrew Scheerens, who curates the bar menu at the globally-influenced restaurant tucked into a historic downtown warehouse.
The riverbed-themed cocktails are fresh and fruity, the perfect drink for a hot summer day or a muggy monsoon storm. The Santa Cruz starts with Lyre’s Dry London non-alcoholic gin and adds a citrus cordial and lavender with some sparkling water. The Rillito combines a housemade cherry shrub with Lyre’s Italian Orange, a tangy non-alcoholic aperitif with distinctive blood orange and grapefruit notes. The Pantano is a fruity festival of passion fruit and grapefruit with the spicy addition of ginger and earthy accents of cinnamon.
Scheerens said the menu changes, but “having the option of non-alcoholic cocktails goes over very, very well with our clientele.”
