How to Drink: Heatwave Edition
Words: Shamim de Brún
Images: Instagram/Unsplash
You’re not supposed to drink during a heatwave. They have all these sponsored campaigns that recommend against it. But who are they kidding? With weather like this, everyone wants a summer sipper in their hand as soon as possible. Who can blame them? What else are we supposed to do during this heat? Work? Impossible.
But what is possible is to have a lovely little drink with the people of your choice without sunstroking or passing out. You just have to have a little cop. So here are my top heatwave drinking tips for those of you who, like me, wanna have a little soiree this weekend.
Frozen Cocktails
Frozé, blended margs, Aperol Spritz slushy, the options are endless. This is the only way any Irish person has survived an Australian summer. All you need is a decent blender. Who doesn’t have a knock-off Nutirbullet by now? They were the original air fryer.
What’s excellent about frozen cocktails is that you drink the ice. So they keep you more hydrated than any other cocktail. I’d still space them out with a glass of unaltered H2O in-between in weather like this, but at least they’re making an effort to help. Ditch the salt on the mar
Sorbet cocktails are ready in a flash, and unlike the fussier old-fashioned or whiskey sour, they don’t require much technical skill. It’s wack all the ingredients in a blender with ice and click click boom.
Just make sure not to overfill your blender. Better to do two loads and break the only tool that will help keep you cool, hydrated, and tipsy.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to do it yourself, hit up Chimac on Sunday for a Buckfast Slushy or Hen’s Teeth for an Aperol Slushy.
Top tip: Avoid hard liquor. If you’re a martini person, then be careful. Neat boozy cocktails with a salty disposition are going to actively dehydrate you much faster and might even leave you feeling hungover rather than drunk. Ditch the salt on the margs too. We all know salt makes you thirsty. So no point doubling up when the sun is coming for your reserves.
Go in on the low alcohol buzz
Low alcohol doesn’t equal no craic. As much as we were all led to believe it did when we were in our youth. Sour beers are often lower alcohol but have the actual perfect taste for a sunny day. Pet Nat is lower alcohol than wine and tastes like it was purpose-made to go with BBQ.
Or non-alcoholic beers We love a big bag of cans by the canal. And sometimes we can’t make ourselves have another water between two beers. It just doesn’t feel right sometimes. Especially if the water is sun-warmed in a plastic bottle. So how about a non-alcoholic beer? Especially a good one like Mickeller Drinkin’ in the Sun. Could there be a more aptly named beer?
While they don’t hydrate like water. They do more good than harm, so are the perfect alternative to add to your big bag o cans on a hot ass day.
Lean into the fruitier cocktails
Fruitier drinks are generally higher in juice and ice. Think MaiTais and Pina Colladas. Basically, whatever you imagine, tourists in Barbados drink. Those are the cocktails you should be going in on.
Anything with berries. Berries are mostly water. They are the perfect eat your hydration food, so adding them to your drinks makes sense. Just make sure you eat them too, or what’s the point?
I will forever think that Sangria is the ultimate party cocktail. You can make it stronger; you can make it weaker. You can make it cheaper, or you can make it fancy. It runs the gamut.
Crucially in summer weather, you can make Sangria with both sparkling water and frozen berries. Both will keep you hydrated while the wine and optional vodka chill you out.
Spritzer
This is the kind of thing I’ve been secretly snobbily against for many years. Very pearl-clutching, “won’t-someone-please-think-of-the-wine” notions. But I stand corrected. I was converted slowly via white port and tonic. On a hot sunny day, a wine spritzer gives you just enough taste of actual wine while keeping you hydrated. Truly the lords work, really. I’ve found they work best with a good orange wine, but rosé and white are also stalwart candidates.
I would avoid garnishing with fruit as above because it will spoil the taste of the wine, but if you want t bit of a garnish, then go in on fruit the back of the bottle tells you the wine is supposed to taste like. The fruit will bring out that taste in the wine and make you feel all fruity.
Drink Water
Ah we had to say it. Safety, as we know, is sexy. So stay safe in the heat. Drink your water, eat your veggies, yadda yadda yadda. Have a lovely weekend.
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