12 Drinks of Christmas

Some people (let's call them "psychopaths") consider gardening a relaxing summer pastime. I consider it loathsome, tedious manual labor. Nevertheless, I am endeavoring to grow some watermelon in my garden this summer. Impatient grump that I am, today I mixed up a cocktail made with some store-bought watermelon chunks. It's the Brazilian drink called the Caipirinha: cachaça (which is like light rum, but it's distilled from sugarcane juice rather than molasses), with lime juice and granulated sugar. For the watermelon version, I just muddled and shook the melon with the other ingredients and strained it into a rocks glass with some extra lime wedges. If you don't have a bottle of cachaça on hand (you should), just use light rum and call this a watermelon daiquiri. Call it whatever you want, actually. You can even call gardening "fun" if you want. Just don't call me if I'm standing all sweaty in my weedy garden with a cocktail in my muddy hands. I won't answer. Cheers!

If you can't scavenge coconuts on a tropical beach, hot summer days are great for playing make-believe. (Or for fond memories of your last trip to Puerto Rico.) Give your mojito some extra coco-mojo by adding coconut water. Just muddle a handful of mint with a tablespoon of sugar, squeeze in the juice from half a lime, then add about a half cup of coconut water to your shot of light rum and shake it all up. You can try to look cool drinking it from a coconut shell... but honestly, a glass is sooo much more civilized. Cheers!

While you're gearing up for this summer's Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest, slated to go down this Friday on Coney Island, consider washing down a few of your own dogs with some refreshing, ice-cold Coca Cola... mixed with red wine! There are versions of this simple (and surprisingly tasty) cocktail all over the world. In Argentina, they call it Jesus Juice. In Chile, they call it Black Vulture. But in the Basque region of Spain, where the drink has become wildly popular, they call it the Kalimotxo. Don't forget the lemons. Joey Chestnut, who has won the annual hotdog-eating contest a whopping 16 times, probably won't have one of these at his side as he shovels hotdogs down his gullet this Fourth of July. But you can certainly have one or two as you enjoy a little grilling on your patio this week. Cheers!

When those rain clouds finally part and you get some breezy blue summer skies, you tie some string to your favorite kite and watch the day drift away. You can also tie one on with a lovely blue cocktail. This one has a half ounce of Blue Curacao liqueur shaken up with a half ounce of simple syrup and two ounces of light rum, topped off with some lemon-lime soda. (I also tried a version of this with lemon juice and dry sparkling wine instead of the Sprite and rum, but it just didn't convey the light and airy feel I was going for.) The thing about summer is that you've got to lay back on the grass and enjoy watching clouds on these warm-but-not-too-warm days. If you need an excuse to do that, a kite and a cocktail should suffice. Cheers!

Despite taking golf lessons at my local community college a few decades ago, I never quite got into the swing of the sport. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a cocktail that's kinda-sorta named for "The King" of American golf: Arnold Palmer. The Arnold Palmer, of course, is a non-alcoholic beverage comprised of equal parts iced tea and lemonade. But it's a refreshing beverage that you can easily booze up a little. (Or, a lot.) To make the Peachy Palmer cocktail, just add a shot of your favorite peach-flavored spirit to your Arnold Palmer. Toss in some frozen peach slices as a handicap. I experimented with three different liquors: peach brandy, peach vodka, and peach bourbon. But if you'd like a cocktail that's not just par for the course, put some peach bourbon in your Arnold Palmer and enjoy hanging out at that 19th Hole. Cheers!

If there were to be an unofficial "smell" of summer, what would it be? Tonight, I propose a toast to the fragrant, unassuming Citronella candle that we've all burned on our patios in a vain attempt to ward off the skeeters. The cocktail we'll be toasting with is a variant of the Italian dessert/digestif called the Sgroppino. It's lemon sorbet blended with a fizzy mixture of vodka and Prosecco. (Man, those Italians know how to live! No wonder we named our freaking continent after one of them.) In keeping with our summer theme, I've added a little extra citronella scent by muddling in some sweet-smelling lemongrass and a splash of Limoncello. I'm even garnishing mine with a few blades of lemongrass in the middle to sort of mimic the look of the Citronella candle's wick. But, as the Barefoot Contessa would say, "if you don't have a handful of fresh lemongrass from the herb garden behind your Tuscan villa, store-bought will do just fine." (We know it's not fine, though, don't we?) Sorry for the late post today, folks, but this cocktail had to wait until after supper... just as the mosquitos are out hunting. Cheers!

As you're mapping out your summer roadtrip to visit Yellowstone (or one of our 62 other majestic national parks), enjoy a bubbly version of an old standby. The Old Faithful Old Fashioned adds a predictably delightful eruption of club soda to the classic blend of whiskey, sugar, and orange bitters. Just like its geothermal namesake, the Old Faithful Old Fashioned is effervescent and enchanting and mildly alkaline. It can be enjoyed responsibly at ninety-minute intervals in large crowds of people. But unlike the geyser, it's cold and potable and won't scald you to death if you get too close. Park rangers will discourage you from throwing orange wedges or ice cubes into the geyser, but you can and should throw some of each into your cocktail. Be sure to snap a quick pic... it's what everyone does these days. Cheers!

No Fourth of July celebration would be complete without a good ol' fashioned tug-of-war. Two opposing forces competing for glory. So today let's wrap up our 21 Drink Salute to Summer with a shandy-radler tossup, featuring the quintessential American beer: Pabst Blue Ribbon. The shandy is a simple mixture of a light-flavored beer (like our PBR lager) with lemonade, and is said to have originated across the pond in jolly old England; the radler swaps out the lemonade for some grapefruit juice, and has its mythic Teutonic origins in Germanic lands. Both cocktails add a little tangy zip to your ice-cold brew. And yes, do go ahead and add some ice... unless you've got a koozy for your pint glass. Just quaff quickly to minimize diluting your drink. For my money (and shouldn't an epic tug-of-war involve a friendly little wager?), the tart radler pulls harder and bests the shandy lightweights on the other side. Then again, my ancestry is mostly German and not at all British, so I may be operating under cultural bias. But hey, we're all Americans today, right?

If you can't scavenge coconuts on a tropical beach, hot summer days are great for playing make-believe. (Or for fond memories of your last trip to Puerto Rico.) Give your mojito some extra coco-mojo by adding coconut water. Just muddle a handful of mint with a tablespoon of sugar, squeeze in the juice from half a lime, then add about a half cup of coconut water to your shot of light rum and shake it all up. You can try to look cool drinking it from a coconut shell... but honestly, a glass is sooo much more civilized. Cheers!

If you can't scavenge coconuts on a tropical beach, hot summer days are great for playing make-believe. (Or for fond memories of your last trip to Puerto Rico.) Give your mojito some extra coco-mojo by adding coconut water. Just muddle a handful of mint with a tablespoon of sugar, squeeze in the juice from half a lime, then add about a half cup of coconut water to your shot of light rum and shake it all up. You can try to look cool drinking it from a coconut shell... but honestly, a glass is sooo much more civilized. Cheers!

If you can't scavenge coconuts on a tropical beach, hot summer days are great for playing make-believe. (Or for fond memories of your last trip to Puerto Rico.) Give your mojito some extra coco-mojo by adding coconut water. Just muddle a handful of mint with a tablespoon of sugar, squeeze in the juice from half a lime, then add about a half cup of coconut water to your shot of light rum and shake it all up. You can try to look cool drinking it from a coconut shell... but honestly, a glass is sooo much more civilized. Cheers!

If you can't scavenge coconuts on a tropical beach, hot summer days are great for playing make-believe. (Or for fond memories of your last trip to Puerto Rico.) Give your mojito some extra coco-mojo by adding coconut water. Just muddle a handful of mint with a tablespoon of sugar, squeeze in the juice from half a lime, then add about a half cup of coconut water to your shot of light rum and shake it all up. You can try to look cool drinking it from a coconut shell... but honestly, a glass is sooo much more civilized. Cheers!