I've been trying for weeks to write about a couple of my favorite warm weather drinks, but it's been too warm.Spring is always a time of dilemma in Wisconsin. If it's a nasty Spring, you want to curl up under the covers and forget the whole month of May. But if in May, we get multiple days of 70 degree weather, I instead want to wallow in the unexpected bounty. I've lived in Tennessee, so I know this would be hard to understand for anyone living below the Ohio river where by mid-May, the crocuses have bloomed and croaked and where the drink that is most welcome when the temp is 95 with humidity to match is Sundrop but in Wisconsin, back-to-back seventies before June are lusciously rare.
So I've waited for Memorial Day weekend to write about a summer drink. Because, as all Northerners know, regardless of the sun and 88 last Thursday, Memorial Day means cool and cloudy, if not cold and rainy--occasionally snowy. (The other weekend you can count on this in Madison is in March when the Boy's Basketball tournament is in town. 25 and icy.)
Many summer drinks are obvious, so let's move on from Gin & Tonic, no matter how glorious.
One of my favorites for warm weather is a classic: The Dark & Stormy (also my bro's new fave) which you can find recipes for many places. Just be sure you stay classic--Gosling Rum and Barrit's Ginger Beer. I've been told that Reed's Ginger Beer is a decent substitute if you absolutely can't find Barrit's and Cruzan Navy Dark Rum isn't a bad sub but stay with the tried and true if possible.
My other suggestions is so much a "girlie" drink that I'm almost embarrassed I like it so much: visions of ladies in straw hats out on the lawn in stilettos come to mind. Worse, I found it in an article by Bobby Flay. And it couldn't be more simple which is essential when all you really want to do is plop down in a hammock and read Elle. I don't remember its official name, but it's rum and lemonade with a little mint muddled in it and used as a garnish on it. Wow, that was hard.
Fill a big glass with ice (yes, chunky) and add a jigger of rum. Top with lemonade--I suppose you could use homemade but I never have: always just used frozen concentrate. Rub a mint leaf between your fingers to bring the oils out and stir in, then top with another mint leaf.
Mint comes in far more variety than people tend to imagine and while any will work, if you can find some, use chocolate mint. It has a very subtle undertone of dark chocolate that blends well with the rum. This is another drink I use a dark rum for, in part to kick it up out of the ladies' garden party spot at least to cricket watching (the game, not the bug) and in part because I'm too cheap too keep two kinds of rum around. Despite being willing to have three or four different gins on hand.
May your Memorial Day weekend deserve a Rum & Lemonade. Mine will probably need a Hot Toddy.
I'm going to weigh in belatedly on the Dark 'n' Stormy ingredients. (I served a couple more initiates tonight at rehearsal.) As you know, I have trouble finding the Barrits around here, and that's the authentic Bermudan original. Frighteningly enough, it's also staring me in the face in the Google Ads box directly below where I'm typing this. While I have been drinking Reed's as a standalone, I find it doesn't blend in quite the same way with the Gosling's. Some say it's too 'fruity'. I think it's just because it's from another Jamaica, and there's some sort of inter-island sabotage involved. Anyway, the local gourmet market (which happily also has turned into a liquor store) has a couple of good alternatives. They are also more natural than the Barrits is now; it seems to have turned into the typical contemporary soft-drink compound. the Ginger People may be the most natural, having an actual bit of Ginger sludge at the bottom. Really good, but my first choice at this point is both touted as a genuine Bermuda Stone Ginger Beer, but is a couple bucks cheaper per six-pack. It's called Regatta. Nope, I never heard of it before, either.
ReplyDeletebtw, I just learned recently that mint blocks receptors that allow us to feel heat. That 'kool' menthol thing is not just about the flavor.
I have been using Barrits, doing it the "trad" way. But I don't see much else except Stewart's which I was warned away from. Almost sorry I mentioned chocolate mint because now that's all I ever see--whatever happened to good old peppermint?
ReplyDeleteI've got the peppermint, a big pot of it growing like crazy on the back porch.
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