Summer is definitely upon us in Minneapolis, in all its oppressively hot, stormy glory. So it's no wonder my mind has been on fresh (and refreshing) beverages to keep on hand in the fridge.
Here are my ideas. Do you have any to add?
Sweet tea
Fresh-squeezed lemonade or lemon-limeade
Arnold Palmers (half tea, half lemonade)
Agua fresca
(That last one is a relatively new concept for me, so I'll explain):
A Mexican beverage consisting of water, fruit flavoring and sweetener. So far I've made tamarind agua fresca from a flavor packet I found in the Mexican section of the grocery store; must add 2-1/2 cups of sugar for a whole pitcher because tamarind is TART. It was really, really good though. Going to try and find tamarind pods to boil per recipe on mexicangrocer.com.
I've also made cantaloupe agua fresca. Take a whole cantaloupe; put half the flesh plus 2 cups water in a blender and liquify, pour in pitcher. Put other half of cantaloupe and 2 more cups of water in blender and liquify; pour in pitcher. Add 1/2 cup of sweetener of your choice and then add up to 2 cups more of water; depending on size of pitcher/cantaloupe, you may or may not have room! This drink tastes amazing on its own or shaken with tequila; I'm thinking about calling THAT drink a "cantelita"!
Refreshing drinks for summer
June 25th, 2009 at 07:03 pm
June 25th, 2009 at 07:30 pm 1245954611
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June 25th, 2009 at 08:15 pm 1245957311
June 25th, 2009 at 08:29 pm 1245958166
June 25th, 2009 at 09:31 pm 1245961891
I get excited when people know what an Arnold Palmer is. I work at a golf course and am very familiar with it. But if I go to a restaurant not apart of a gold course most people don't know what it is. I always have to explain what it is and once I even got carded because the waitress thought it was an alcoholic drink.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:21 pm 1245964903
June 26th, 2009 at 12:39 am 1245973199
1/2 juice, 1/2 water - that's what our kids drink (to cut the sugar and afford juice the way they drink it - BOTH).
June 26th, 2009 at 05:05 am 1245989114
1)frozen margaritas
2)Sangria
3)Wheat beers on tap with a slice of orange
Lemonades have way too much sugar for my comfort.
June 26th, 2009 at 05:29 am 1245990547
And then Seattle has the cold processed coffee to make iced coffee - lots of coffee, some water, filter it in the refrigerator overnight. And the iced chai....
And lassi - yogurt drink. Mango is great but I love the salty one even better.
June 26th, 2009 at 08:01 am 1245999715
June 26th, 2009 at 03:30 pm 1246026644
July 1st, 2009 at 07:58 pm 1246474694
What you describe as agua fresca, we call simply "frescos" in El Salvador, cantalupe is one of my favorites. Pinnaple is great, too. Oh, and blackberry!
One that seems to be very popular is "ensalada", it has mammee-apple (?), cashew (the fruit, not the nut!), pinnaple, lettuce, jocotes (red mombin?), but, it's not my favorite.
If you want something with milk in it, you can try
orgeat or barley.
See if you can find something called zapote (Pouteria sapota)and make a zapote and milk shake...you'll be hooked!
July 1st, 2009 at 09:14 pm 1246479294
"Jamaica" means "hibiscus," right? We just got hibiscus agua fresca mix, and it says "jamaica" in the Spanish section.