What to Drink When it's Cold. Then Warm. Then Cold Again.
Proper cocktails (and an easy bar snack!) for these warring early spring days.
I heard the less-than-charming term, “patio pounder” the other day. And yes, the person was discussing drinks well-suited to al fresco afternoon sips.
As much as I am a fan of sitting in the sun with a quality cocktail, I think it’s less than demure to coin day drinking as anything linked to a pounding. With warm weather refreshments, I envision more of a, gimlets on the lawn at Hyannis Port, and less of a, two-fours at the trailer sort of experience.
However, I’m not one to judge, aloud, so you do you.
This enlightened conversation came about as Toronto experienced its first 20°C day of the year last week. That erotic glimmer of ankle that Spring reveals so tantalizingly to the sun-celibate masses. Naturally, winter-weary Canadians shed their layers taking to the streets in flip flops and shorts, euphoric with the feel of warmth on their fragile skin.
Of course, it snowed this morning.
And Canadians were apoplectic.
This back and forth argument between Mother Nature and Old Man Winter will continue in Southern Ontario until May, like it or not. One will storm off in a huff, slamming the door behind him, but come roaring back a day or two later, fist shaking and booming, “And another thing!”
Yes, mom and dad are fighting and, other than have a drink, there’s not much we can do until things settle.
But this leads to another quandary: how does one stock a bar for times such as these? A full commitment to the daiquiri seems premature, nearly superstitiously so, yet, chaining ourselves to the old fashioned of winter signals a lack of confidence, a grim state to be sure.
The following are the candidates I am respectfully submitting for excellent cocktails during these most diurnal of days. Amiable and agreeable, these drinks are like Cary Grant at a bar: timelessly elegant yet charmingly effortless, with impeccable style and laid-back grace.