This post invites notices of the best ethanol vehicles for a really hot summer afternoon and evening. We know about Sangria, gin and tonic (and that it must be made with Tanqueray), mint julep and rum punch (and that they are very strong and deceptively so), bloody Mary, and thanks to NPR last week, the Pimm’s cocktail. What about more obscure survival potions? Anyone still drink a Southside?
My nomination is Campari and Tonic; substitute Campari for the gin in a gin and tonic, lemon or lime are OK for the squeeze.
Author: Michael O'Hare
Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Michael O'Hare was raised in New York City and trained at Harvard as an architect and structural engineer. Diverted from an honest career designing buildings by the offer of a job in which he could think about anything he wanted to and spend his time with very smart and curious young people, he fell among economists and such like, and continues to benefit from their generosity with on-the-job social science training.
He has followed the process and principles of design into "nonphysical environments" such as production processes in organizations, regulation, and information management and published a variety of research in environmental policy, government policy towards the arts, and management, with special interests in energy, facility siting, information and perceptions in public choice and work environments, and policy design. His current research is focused on transportation biofuels and their effects on global land use, food security, and international trade; regulatory policy in the face of scientific uncertainty; and, after a three-decade hiatus, on NIMBY conflicts afflicting high speed rail right-of-way and nuclear waste disposal sites. He is also a regular writer on pedagogy, especially teaching in professional education, and co-edited the "Curriculum and Case Notes" section of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Between faculty appointments at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, he was director of policy analysis at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He has had visiting appointments at Università Bocconi in Milan and the National University of Singapore and teaches regularly in the Goldman School's executive (mid-career) programs.
At GSPP, O'Hare has taught a studio course in Program and Policy Design, Arts and Cultural Policy, Public Management, the pedagogy course for graduate student instructors, Quantitative Methods, Environmental Policy, and the introduction to public policy for its undergraduate minor, which he supervises. Generally, he considers himself the school's resident expert in any subject in which there is no such thing as real expertise (a recent project concerned the governance and design of California county fairs), but is secure in the distinction of being the only faculty member with a metal lathe in his basement and a 4×5 Ebony view camera. At the moment, he would rather be making something with his hands than writing this blurb.
View all posts by Michael O'Hare
Dark and Stormy-light rum and ginger beer, with lime
Colonel Collins-bourbon, sugar, lime juice, soda water-(It's basically a whiskey sour with soda in it).
If you want refreshment and not much alcohol, a shandy is good-fruit juice (apple is my choice) and lager, mixed half and half.
I don't know if there's an official name for this, but I call it a cucumber martini: 5:1 ratio of gin to vermouth, infused with cucumber. (Just dice half a cucumber and put it in the shaker.) Garnish with a cucumber slice.
My Dad used to make the following whisky sour recipe. Put ice cubes in a blender until they reach the top. Scoop in one can of frozen lemonade. Fill empty lemonade can with Seagram's and pour that in to. Carefully (start blender on low) pulverize the concoction until smooth. Pour.
I love Cucumber Martinis! I put a large amount of cucumber innards into a shaker and muddle them, add vodka, ice, a little water and a generous pinch of sugar.
I also employ Mojitos and white wine.
Atomic cherries: Take a bottle of maraschino cherries, replace the fluid with Everclear, and let soak for a month. After that store them in the freezer, and eat them cold.
Caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil (which is also the nation where ethanol has had its greatest success).
2 tsp granulated sugar
8 limes wedges
2 1/2 oz cachaca
Pulverize the sugar with the lime wedges in a mortar. Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes. Pour the cachaca into the glass. Stir well.
how does the lime moosh get into the drink?
Gimlets - Rose's lime juice and gin. Good enough for Philip Marlowe, good enough for you.
I second the vote for caipirinha. It can also be done with vodka in case cachaca is hard to find (in Brazil, this is actually quite chic), but it will not have that distinctive taste. (Rum is not a suitable alternative.)
I've never seen a mortar used. The lime and ice are crushed right in the glass. (The picture of a caipirinha on Wikipedia is highly unrepresentitive, by the way).
I think that you're making a mistake by not including summer beers on your list. Light, carbonated ethanol feels good in so many ways and you can hold it against your temple if things get really bad.
Plenty of great contenders to choose from, including an excellent entry from the Anchor Brewing Co., but for having a weiss-beer-with-lemon on a hot day Hoegaarten remains the gold standard.
Mudslide:
Pour equal parts vodka, Kahlua, and Bailey's into a blender with about twice the volume of ice cubes. Pour into a chilled collins glass.
Margarita:
Juice of four key limes
2 oz non-rotgut tequila (Cuervo Tradicional works nicely)
3/4 - 1 oz Grand Marnier (or Cointreu, if you prefer something sweeter)
Ice to fill above the fluid level.
Process in blender until smooth. Serve in a margarita glass rimmed in kosher salt. Garnish with lime slice.
Bottled key lime juice works just fine.
Yes, I vote for the caipirinha too. Best hot weather drink ever. I sometimes make a simple syrup to mix with the limes, if I have to make it for more than one person.
Cachaca is available in many non-state owned (ABC) stores, if you have them in your area. In Ohio it is even sold in varieties ranging from $10 to $30 a bottle. Go figure.
You're in the islands, mon, with Myers's Original Dark rum and tonic. On the rocks with a lime twist.
Gotta be Myers's! Ahhhhhhh!
There are two twists on a shandy that are must drinks this summer. 1. Sparkling blood orange (you can find this at Whole Foods or Trader Joes) and pale ale, lager, hefeweizen, or whatever beer is on hand will work just as well. 2. Same as above but substitute sparkling grapefruit juice for the blood orange.