Hot summer days demand drinks with a fruity punch, writes Don Kavanagh.
WOW, THIS weather would put a thirst on a temperance preacher.
The humidity and heat have been hard on me and I’ve been eschewing some drinks in favour of others as I try to find something to cut my seemingly permanent thirst.
I’m struggling a bit with wine and spirits, to be honest. I find I need to start with something I can gulp down and that has a slightly acid edge to cut through the worst of the dust.
Beer is a great standby on such occasions, but the problem with many of the mainstream beers is that they are too bland to have much of an effect on a raging thirst, unless you doctor them first. I can’t do without a bottle of lemon and lime cordial; a jag of that in your glass and you can guarantee a refreshing hit at the back of the throat.
Ginger beer is another lovely thirst-quencher and Crabbies is excellent (although I’m not sure why they’re trying to market it as a pukka English product when it’s proudly Scottish). There are some rather excellent craft-ish ginger beers on the market, too, and some of the more mainstream ones, such as Monteith’s and Mac’s, work well on a roasting-hot day.
Cider is the other option for thirst-quenching fruity goodness. Like wine, it has a lovely balance of fruit sweetness and tart acid, which makes a satisfying drink. Unlike wine, however, you can slurp it fairly generously without looking desperate or winding up lying on the ground, holding on for dear life.
Cider is enjoying a purple patch of popularity, which is good; not just because it deserves to be popular but because it means a wider range of ciders hitting the shelves. The fruit-flavoured ciders have been popular, but what has intrigued me is the drier, more acid styles being produced. Speight’s cider is a lovely drop and Nally’s Cider (from Invercargill Brewery) is a sublime, no-holds-barred, raspingly dry cider that cuts through thirst like an old-fashioned razor.
And don’t forget the fruit punch style of drink either. These can be “proper” ones, such as Pimm’s, or can be something you make up on the spot from whatever ingredients are at hand. Sangria is a classic example; usually made with red wine, orange juice, fruit and a tot of brandy, you can use virtually anything and still come up with a refreshing drink.
Just don’t be as cheap as the Kingsland restaurant whose “sangria” was a Velluto Rosso cask red wine topped up with Fanta. I’d rather go thirsty.