There’s one thing I learned as a child about quenching the special thirst brought on by summer’s heat and humidity. Despite the pleasure of downing a cold bottle (in those pre-can days) of carbonated soda pop, I seemed, only a few minutes later, to be more thirsty than before. Sugar was the culprit, my mother or some other adult told me. If you really want relief, drink something bitter or bittersweet.
As I remember it, that advice was accompanied by an invitation to have a sip of beer. At that time, that one sip was one too many. I didn’t like the taste at all. But gradually I came to appreciate the citric bite of homemade lemonade and of iced tea with lemon and the rare joy afforded by the first sip of a truly cold beer on a steamy day. Iced coffee can be a cooling treat as well.
Coming of age-legal drinking age, that is-I discovered the pleasure that bitter tonic water can bring when combined with gin or vodka or rum (or orange juice, for that matter) and the value of bitter Campari in a number of European aperitifs.
With this in mind, I’ve collected several summertime drinks that downplay sugar or offset it with the tangy bitterness of lemon, lime, tea or coffee.
Let’s begin with a pair of non-alcoholic after-dinner coffee drinks from Starbucks:
CAFE RIO
Six to eight tall glasses
4 cups hot, double-strength coffee
4 strips orange peel
4 strips lemon peel
8 whole cloves
Milk (optional)
Brown sugar (optional)
1. Brew coffee and cut peel from fruit.
2. Place orange and lemon peel in a heat-proof container with cloves. Pour coffee into container. Allow mixture to steep until coffee is at room temperature. Strain, cover and store in the refrigerator.
3. To serve, pour chilled coffee over ice in tall glasses. If desired, add milk and brown sugar to taste.
COOL BANANA MOCHA
Four to six large glasses
2 cups milk
2 cups espresso or double-strength regular coffee
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet ground cocoa
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
2 medium ripe bananas, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons granulated sugar, or less to taste
1. Place milk, espresso, cocoa, vanilla, bananas and sugar in a blender. Blend on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Pour over ice into large frosted glasses and serve.
Over on the alcohol side of the bar, any true mixologist’s first love is the cocktail, and for any lover of cocktails, the sound of ice bouncing off the sides of a rhythmically moving cocktail shaker is pure music.
Harry Craddock, bartender of the Savoy Hotel in London, was once asked what was the best way to drink a cocktail. “Quickly,” he replied, “while it’s laughing at you.”
Advice in “The Savoy Cocktail Book,” for which he compiled the recipes, includes: “Shake the shaker as hard as you can. . . . You are trying to wake it up, not send it to sleep.” Also, “If possible, ice your glasses before using them.”
Here are recipes for a classic cocktail from the gin fizz category, a vodka-and-lime drink currently popular in Paris and a famous mixture of fruit and sparkling wine from Harry’s Bar in Venice:
ALABAMA FIZZ
Two cocktails
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1/3 to 1/2 cup dry gin
8 ice cubes
1 cup soda water
4 sprigs mint
1. Combine the lemon juice, sugar and gin in a cocktail shaker. Add ice cubes and shake vigorously.
2. Strain into 2 medium-size glasses and add soda water. Garnish with mint sprigs.
BRASSERIE FLO KAIPEROSKA
15 to 20 cocktails
5 limes, washed and dried
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 quart mineral water
1 quart vodka, Polish Zubrowska recommended
Mint sprigs as optional garnish
1. Cut the limes into very small pieces, leaving the peel on. In a bowl, mix the limes and sugar together. Leave for at least 2 1/2 hours.
2. Add water and vodka to the bowl. Stir well. If space allows, chill until serving time. Otherwise, leave at room temperature.
3. Serve, preferably in a chilled martini glass, with ice. If desired, garnish with a sprig of mint.
THE HARRY’S BAR BELLINI
One drink
1 ounce peach puree, refrigerated until very cold
Superfine sugar (optional)
3 ounces chilled sparkling wine
1. If puree is tart, stir in superfine sugar to make it slightly sweet.
2. Combine puree and wine in a cocktail shaker. Stir very briefly and pour into a well-chilled glass.
This drink seems easy to make, but to exactly re-create the original requires more effort. Arrigo Cipriani, the owner of Harry’s Bar, the famous Venice watering hole, insists in his book that the drink be made only with the pulp and juice of white peaches and the wine be dry prosecco, a softly sparkling wine of the region. Prosecco may be found in wine shops that specialize in the wines of Italy, but it is not widely available here.
Furthermore, he writes, “Never use yellow peaches to make a Bellini and never puree the peaches by machine. Use a food mill or meat grinder to make the pulp and then force it through a fine sieve.” Harry’s Bar also makes a Rossini, substituting strawberry puree for peach and a Tiziano, using a special grape juice not available here.
In this pop-top era, during which casualness and informality have become the hallmarks of home entertaining, the family punch bowl rests forgotten in a storage cabinet or closet. But it is well worth remembering and putting to use when giving a party without a full-time bartender.
The first of the following punch recipes comes from the urbane Julian Street’s widely appreciated “Table Topics,” a 1940s newsletter that was edited into a book. Street offered the following observations on making punch: “No punch is better than the palate of the person who mixes it. Taste as you go along. The object is to achieve a blend without obtrusive flavor. There is mention in several recipes of strong tea. An old club bartender long ago taught us to use tea as a balancer and harmonizer of flavors. This is a good thing to know.”
The second punch combines wine and fruit.
POTENT PEABODY PUNCH
20 to 24 servings
1 dozen limes
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups hot strong green tea
1 jar (17 ounces) guava jelly
3 cups best Jamaica rum
3 cups cognac
1 1/2 cups madeira
1. Cut off green portion of rind from 6 limes and mince. Reserve. Cut and squeeze the juice from all the limes. Dissolve sugar in hot tea. Add lime juice and minced rind. Dissolve the guava jelly in 2 cups of boiling water and add to the mixture.
2. Taste and add sugar if desired until mixture tastes mildly sweet. Add the rum, cognac and madeira and allow the punch to steep, covered but not refrigerated, for at least 12 and preferably 24 hours.
3. Half an hour before serving, transfer punch to a serving bowl and add a large chunk of ice.
-Adapted from “Table Topics,” by Julian Street
SUMMER WINE CUP
12 servings
4 cups cut-up fresh fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, peaches and black grapes
Superfine sugar to taste
Ice cubes
2 bottles chilled medium-dry white wine, such as chenin blanc
1/4 cup Curacao liqueur
2 tablespoons maraschino liqueur or cherry brandy
1. Place the fruit in a gallon container or large punch bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, add plenty of ice cubes, then pour in wine, Curacao and maraschino. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. If necessary, transfer mixture to a punch bowl. Ladle into punch cups or hollowed-out pineapples.-Adapted from “The Book of Cocktails,” by Jenny Ridgwell
