Each season brings its own unique, often time-honored libations. If pressed to pick a favorite, I would choose summer's offerings. The heat renders every beverage more refreshing and an endless assortment of local, seasonal fruits and herbs liven up any cocktail. When it comes to deciding among summer's tempting libations, there is one important rule—keep it simple with fewer ingredients and less prep time. Who wants to wait days for some infusion to be ready? Save the time-consuming cocktails for the fall and winter. These three boozy beverages will effortlessly and delightfully quench your summer thirst.
Caipirinha One of my favorite warm weather refreshments is the Caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. Made with cachaça, fresh lime juice, and sugar, it’s served over cracked ice, offering a tropical and truly delicious drink. Produced only in Brazil, cachaça is distilled from the fermented juice of pressed sugarcane. What’s so enjoyable about a Caipirinha is that you can add local, seasonal fruit such as peaches, blackberries, raspberries, or any fruit you may have growing in your backyard or find at the farmers' market. The result will be worth it. Katie Nelson, former head bartender of the Columbia Room in Washington, DC gave the following recipe to me. Serves 1
pairs well with just about anything. Feel free to experiment with your favorite ginger ale, ginger beer, or even homemade lemonade. Traditional garnishes include cucumber, strawberries, orange, lemon, lime, and the herb borage. Create your own masterpiece by adding seasonal berries, mint, basil, or any other goodies you may have growing in your garden. Serves 1 2 ounces Pimm's No.1 Ginger beer (I recommend Fever-Tree), ginger ale, or lemon-lime soda Juice from half a lemon Fill a glass with ice, add the Pimm's liqueur, and top off with ginger beer, ginger ale, or lemon-lime soda. Add fresh lemon juice and stir. Garnish with your choice of seasonal fruit or herbs.
Pisco Sour A Pisco sour tastes like summer in a glass—with ingredients that include Pisco, fresh lemon or lime juice, and egg whites. Pisco, a grape brandy that hails from both Peru and Chile, can have flavor profiles that range from fruit and flowers to smoke and earth. It’s not surprising that both countries consider the Pisco sour to be their national drink. Serves 1 1 1/2 ounces Pisco (I like Macchu Pisco) 3/4 ounce fresh lemon or lime juice (both taste good, but I prefer lime juice) 1 ounce simple syrup 1 egg white Angostura bitters
2 ounces cachaça (if you can get your hands on a bottle of Leblon, do so!) 1 ounce simple syrup (adjust to taste) Half a lime, quartered 3 – 4 pieces additional fruit of your choice (I recommend using peaches. If using berries, you may want to strain out the seeds) Fill your drinking glass with cracked ice. Add lime quarters, fruit, and simple syrup to your shaker. Muddle and add cachaça. Fill the shaker with ice from your glass, cap it, and shake vigorously. Uncap the shaker and pour all of the contents back into your glass. To make cracked ice, hold the ice cube in your hand and hit with a muddler or spoon several times.
Add all of the ingredients (minus the bitters), and shake very hard for a minute or two. Add several cubes of ice, and shake again. Strain into a chilled glass and add a dash or two of Angostura bitters. A note about ice: Instead of using freezer-made ice cubes, I use a square ice cube mold and filtered water. Once the ice is frozen I transfer the cubes to a plastic bag to keep unwanted freezer smells out. This has made a huge difference in the quality of my cocktails.
Pimm's Cup I have spent many summer evenings sipping on a Pimm’s Cup, a refreshing concoction made with Pimm’s No.1, a gin-based herbal liqueur from England. The traditional recipe calls for Pimm’s and a combination of lemonlime soda, but my personal recipe calls for the addition of Fever-Tree’s ginger beer and fresh lemon juice. It’s cooling, slightly spicy, and
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Ashlie Hughes is a food, travel, and cocktail writer currently living in Santa Fe. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing home bartender, making wine with her husband’s family, and daydreaming about traveling the world. You can view her website at www.ashliehughes.com.
edible Santa Fe · Summer 2013