There were those tallboys of Miller High Life cadged off picnickers on a Connecticut beach. Spritzers on a splintery deck on Fire Island. Long, cold shandies on suspiciously sunny Dublin days.
There was indisputably lousy wine — I’m talking strawberry wine here — drunk from coffee mugs on a porch in Vermont, over games of Scrabble and crazy eights.
There was glass after glass of cloudy Pastis, knocked back in the cheerful, chummy company of French college students in Tours during the 1998 World Cup. And brain-freezing piña coladas “fresh” from the slushy machine at a Coney Island boardwalk bar.
These are my favorite memories of summer drinking. And to a certain kind of cocktail connoisseur, there’s not a winner in the bunch.
But for another kind of drinker, context is (almost) everything. Winter, especially that last one, often seems to drag on forever — not a bad time to lock down indoors and make bitters from scratch, try out some less-familiar spirits and engage in elaborate cocktail-concocting experiments. When it feels as if you have all the time in the world, you may as well use some of it up in the service of sophisticated drinking.
Shakespeare (most likely a drinker of ale) was right about summer, though: its lease hath all too short a date. Who wants to be stuck in the kitchen, or behind the bar, when we’d all rather be in the yard, or the park, or up on the roof, or stretched out on a towel in the sand?
Complicated cocktails are out of place in the dead of summer anyway, like wearing a tuxedo to the beach — incongruous and uncomfortable. And, like an overdressed beachgoer, a classic cocktail served straight up runs a high risk of wilting in the sunshine.
The best summertime drinking is the sort that matches the mood and rhythm of the warmest months. It should require little effort or expense or time, and it ought to go down as easily as the catchy pop songs that constitute the season’s soundtrack. If a drink has more than three ingredients, consider saving it for autumn.
Mostly, what I want to drink in summer is beer and wine. Among beers, Miller High Life remains my hot-weather favorite — not for nothing is it called the Champagne of Beers — though I’ve switched out the tallboys for bottles. I want it as cold as it can possibly be. As for wine, rosé rules, and I also love light, bright aperitif wines like Lillet (here, again, rosé is my first choice) fizzed up with seltzer and adorned with a segment of grapefruit, or nothing at all.
Among mixed drinks, let highballs reign. Few drinks are more refreshing than a simple gin and soda. Or a tequila and grapefruit juice. Or a rum and tonic. And they couldn’t be easier.
A few slightly fussier (but still easy) classics fit the bill, too — I’ll take that martini on the rocks for the next few months. And I defy anyone to refuse an icy, slushy, frosty treat a like piña colada or a frozen margarita.
But like the best backyard barbecuing, even the simplest summer bartending benefits from some planning and forethought. Get your bar set up in advance so your guests can help themselves. Have bowls of citrus wedges and other simple garnishes ready. And, whatever else you do or don’t do, make sure that there’s plenty of ice. If there’s one rule of summer bartending, it’s this: Never run out of ice.
If you have loads of people coming over, and you want to offer something other than beer and wine, punch is the way to go. An effectively effortless combination of watermelon purée and tequila (adapted here for a single serving), punched up with chilies and salt, is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. A drink dispenser filled with lemonade spiked with gin is essentially enough Tom Collinses for a party. A few pitchers full of sangrita, a wonderfully bracing and piquant Mexican mixture of fruit juices and grenadine and spices, will hold out for a couple of hours set beside bottles of tequila chilling on ice.
Aside from refilling the punch bowl or pitchers maybe once or twice in the course of the evening, you don’t have to do anything except hang out with your friends and family.
But mostly, just don’t get too cerebral about summer drinking. The simplest thing is often the best thing, and the right thing. You can relax. And grill some hot dogs. And play some Scrabble on the front porch.
And if you’re really craving that complicated cocktail with a half-dozen ingredients, let a professional do the work for you. Get yourself over to a good bar. It will always have great air-conditioning.
Pink Gin
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces London Dry-style gin
Splash of soda water (optional)
Add Angostura bitters to a chilled Old-Fashion glass and swirl to coat glass; pour off excess. Add gin and, if you like, ice and a splash of soda water.
Yield: 1 drink
Tequila Sour
2 ounces reposado tequila
1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 scant teaspoon simple syrup
Dash of Angostura orange bitters
1 teaspoon egg white (optional)
Half-wheel of orange, for garnish
Fill a shaker with ice, and add all ingredients except half-wheel of orange. Shake vigorously. Strain into an Old-Fashion glass over ice. Garnish with the orange.
Yield: 1 drink
Rum Julep
10 mint leaves, plus a few sprigs for garnish
2 teaspoons simple syrup
Crushed ice
2 ounces light rum
Muddle mint with simple syrup in a julep glass or Old-Fashion glass. Fill glass with crushed ice. Add light rum and stir well, until glass frosts. Garnish with mint sprigs.
Yield: 1 drink
Negroni
1 ounce London Dry-style gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
Orange twist, for garnish
Fill a mixing glass with ice and add gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. Stir well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Yield: 1 drink
Tequila Shots With Sangrita Chasers
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup grenadine syrup (use one with real pomegranate, like Employees Only or Fee Brothers)
2 teaspoons ancho-chili powder
6 dashes Tabasco, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
Reposado tequila (use about 1 1/2 ounces per shot)
1. To make sangrita, combine all ingredients except tequila in a pitcher and stir. Chill well.
2. Shake tequila with ice; strain into shot glasses. Serve sangrita in small glasses to chase tequila shots.
Yield: About 3 cups sangrita (enough to accompany many shots)
Tequila and Watermelon
2 ounces blanco tequila
4 ounces watermelon purée
Small pinch sea salt
Squeeze of lime
Soda water, to top
Jalapeño slices, for garnish
Fill a highball glass with ice and add tequila, watermelon, salt and a squeeze of lime. Top with soda water. Float a couple of slices of jalapeño on the drink to garnish.
Yield: 1 drink
Piña Colada
4 ounces golden rum
4 ounces pineapple juice
4 ounces Coco Lopez cream of coconut
3 cups ice
Pineapple slices, for garnish
Maraschino cherries, for garnish
Add rum, pineapple juice, cream of coconut and ice to blender. Blend until smooth and frosty; add more ice as necessary. Pour into tall glasses and garnish with pineapple slices and maraschino cherries (and paper umbrellas).
Yield: 2 to 3 drinks
Martini on the Rocks
3 ounces London Dry-style gin
3/4 ounce dry vermouth
1 small strip of lemon peel
Fill a mixing glass with ice. Pour in gin and vermouth. Stir for 30 seconds, then strain into an old-fashioned glass over fresh ice. Twist the lemon peel over the drink, then drop it in.
Yield: 1 drink
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