4 Summer Drinks to Keep You Cool

By Ann Binlot June 13, 2014

4 summer drinks keep cool blackberry bourbon iced tea — Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s getting pretty warm out, here are four summer drinks to keep you cool.

Rosé
Don’t think of it as a pink girly drink; think of it as having the best aspects of red wine and white wine fused together. This stuff will make you feel cool on a hot summer’s day. If you want to go for a little something extra, go for a sparkling variety. We suggest drinking it with a dinner al fresco. “Once you discover the craftsmanship and labor behind each bottle of rosé, it’s easy to appreciate the artistry and effort behind each glass. From the maturity of the grapes, to the precise winemaking methods required, it’s seductive quality easily speaks to the male audience, or anyone with a particular eye for refined workmanship,” say the folks at Champagne Louis Roederer about its Brut Vintage 2008 Rosé.
Suggestions: Louis Roederer Brut Vintage 2008 Rosé and Wolffer Estate Vineyard Rosé.

Hemingway Daiquiri
Ernest Hemingway once said, “I drink to make other people more interesting.” The legendary novelist was said to imbibe in the evening and wake up early to write. While he lived in the Florida Keys and Havana, Hemingway loved to down a refreshing lime daiquiri made from fresh lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, maraschino liqueur. We suggest using Bacardi, or if you’re lucky enough to have access to it, Havana Club. Try out this recipe from the good folks at Food & Wine.

Michelada
It’s like a Bloody Mary, but with beer instead of vodka! Sort of. It’s basically a combo of cold beer, peppers, and some sort of tomato and/or hot sauce. The name comes from the Mexican phrase “mi chela helada,” which means “my cold beer.” They say it works well to cure of a hangover, so go for it if you’re in the mood for a hair of the dog kind of morning. Make it with a Tecate or Negra Modelo. Click here to see a recipe from Epicurious.

Blackberry Bourbon Iced Tea.
We know how you love your bourbon, and while whiskey isn’t really thought of as a summer drink, Bobby Flay came up with a cocktail takes iced tea, one of our summer favorites, and mixes it with blackberries and bourbon for a spectacular way to spend an afternoon. Try it with Woodford Reserve or Maker’s 46.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ann Binlot is a New York-based freelance writer who contributes to publications like The Economist, Wallpaper*, Monocle…

Food & Drink

You’re overlooking the most important ingredient in your cocktail

Steel Hibiscus cocktail.

When you list off the most important parts of making a good cocktail your mind likely goes immediately to good ingredients: quality spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices, and well-matched mixers. You might also consider the importance of using the right tools, like getting a proper mixing glass so your stirred drinks can be properly incorporated, or a good strainer so that there aren't little shards of ice in your cocktails. And then there are the fun additions like elaborate garnishes, bitters, or home-made syrups which can add a personal touch to your drinks.
All of those things are important, absolutely. However I think there's one ingredient that can make or break a good cocktail, and it's something many drinkers don't ever stop to consider. It's the humble but vital ingredient of ice.

Why ice is so important
In mixed drinks like a gin and tonic or a screwdriver, ice is added to the drink primarily to chill it down to a pleasing temperature. That's a topic we'll come back to. But in cocktails which are shaken or stirred, ice is far more important than that. Cocktails are typically composed of between around 20 to 30 percent water, and this water comes from the ice used in the preparation process.
When you stir ingredients in a mixing glass or shake them in a shaker with ice, you are chipping away small pieces of the ice so that it dissolves and blends with your other ingredients. You might imagine that water doesn't make much of a difference to taste, being tasteless itself. But it's vital in opening up the flavors of other ingredients. That's why many whiskey drinkers like to add a dash of water to their whiskey when they drink it neat.
If you're ever in doubt of how important water is to cocktails, it's worth trying to make a drink with no ice. Even if you mix up the ideal ratios for a drink that you love and put it into the freezer so that it gets to the chilled temperature that you usually enjoy it at, if you sip it you'll find that your drink tastes harsh, unbalanced, and incomplete. Even for special room temperature cocktails like those designed to be drunk from a flask, you'll generally find water being added at a rate of around 30%.
When you make your cocktails you should be sure to stir for a long time – around 30 seconds is a good start – or to shake for a good while too – I typically do around 12 to 15 seconds – in order to melt enough ice to get plenty of water into your cocktail. Despite what you might imagine, this won't make the cocktail taste watery but will rather make the flavors stand out more as well as often improving the mouthfeel of the drink. A good rule of thumb is to mix or shake until the vessel is cold to the touch. That means your ingredients are sufficiently incorporated with the ice.

Food & Drink

The 10 best rosé wines that everyone should drink

It's time to finally try rosé

Rose wine glasses

Rosé rules -- no ifs, ands, or buts. You’ve most definitely seen dudes drinking rosé, with the pink wine sold in forties. Chances are, you’ve heard the term “brosé” at least once or twice in your life. Heck, people are cooking with rosé. Can you believe that? It's a sweet wine worth talking about.

All this talk about the drink prompted us to go on a quest to find the most exceptional ones this rosé season. With plenty of great options in the market, we chose to narrow down our list to these best rosé wines for your next hot date, guys' night, or solo Netflix binge. Still reluctant to try this magical wine? We listed seven reasons why you should start drinking rosé.
Best rosé wines

Food & Drink

The freshest pilsners to drink this spring

This crisp, refreshing style is perfect for the warm season

Beer foaming over the glass

Winter is firmly in the rear-view mirror and we’re zooming toward summer like a beer-fueled Winnebago. The season of barrel-aged stouts, imperial porters, and other dark, malty, high-ABV beers is over. It’s time for the lighter beer to get their time in the proverbial sun.

Spring is a time for light, refreshing beers like IPAs, wheat beers, and of course, crisp, thirst-quenching pilsners. While we love all crushable, sessionable beers during the season of rejuvenation, we especially love the latter.
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