Summer Beverages For The Soul

Fruity Iced Tea Lemonade

Save a trip to the grocery store during the pandemic 

Maria Penaranda // Arts & Culture Editor

The first and only time I went to a nutritionist, she gave me a handy little tip that has nothing to do with nutrition at all: brew some very, very strong tea, add sweetener, and pour it into an ice cube tray for a week’s worth of delicious iced tea. While I never tried the ice cube tray thing, I did get into brewing very strong, concentrated iced tea because I am an iced tea aficionado and also very lazy. 

One summer, missing the daily pitchers of lemonade my abuelita used to make for me in Colombia, I decided to combine my three favourite drinks: iced tea, lemonade and agua fresca. Using mint from a bush that had sprouted in my backyard and the raspberries that were about to go bad in my fridge, I whipped together my signature concoction. 

Okay, I’ll admit it. Deciding to mix iced tea, lemonade and fruit doesn’t make me mixologist of the year. There’s probably a million variations of this recipe online, but what I like about my recipe is its flexibility and yield. All you need is tea, some lemon or lime juice and fruit. I usually make mine with raspberries and mint, but feel free to take the general premise of this drink and create your own fruity iced tea lemonade with whatever you have on you. 

Ingredients:

  • Tea
  • 1-4 lemons or limes
  • Sugar or sweetener to taste 
  • Fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries or blueberries all work)
  • Mint leaves (optional) 

Brew one or two litres of very strong tea and chill it in the fridge. 

In a bowl, mash together the juice of two or more lemons, fruit, mint, and 2-5 tablespoons of sugar. 

Fill a glass with ice and pour the tea in. Spoon in the lemon juice/fruit mixture. Depending on how strong you brew the tea and how much of the lemon juice/fruit mixture you make, one batch can last you a few days if you water each serving down. That’s it. That’s the recipe.

Mangonada

A vacation in your own home

Sheila Arellano // News Editor

If you are into sweet and sour flavours, this Mexican drink is definitely for you. It is called a Mangonada—a drink that simply embodies the feeling of summer. The combination of the mango’s flavour with the spicy and sourness of the lime, chilli powder and tamarind make this drink perfect for a hot day at the beach. If people could taste the feeling of dancing salsa, this is what it would taste like: spicy, sour and sweet. This is the drink you have always been searching for, the drink that will give you instant happiness after exam season. Believe me. 

Ingredients: 

  • 5 large ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 8 cups) 
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup fresh lime juice (from 2 fresh limes)
  • 1 ½ cups cold water
  • ¾ cup silver tequila or rum
  • ¾ to 1 cup chamoy
  • Tajín
  • 4 tamarind candy straws (optional)

Blend 5 cups of mango, and reserve the remaining mango. Add the sugar, lime juice and 3/4 cup cold water to the blender and blend until puréed. Blend in tequila or rum. Add water until the mango mixture reaches the desired consistency. After, chill the mango mixture in the refrigerator until ready to serve. When serving, pour or scoop about 1/2 cup of mango mixture into glass. Add about 1/3 cup reserved mango to each glass, followed by 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of chamoy and a generous sprinkle of Tajín (special chilli powder). Garnish each glass with a tamarind candy straw, if using, and a spoon. ¡Listo! Cheers. 

The Unbearable Lightness of Peeing

Bring the Prague Spring home with a summer twist on this historical Czech spirit

Sarah Rose // Features Editor

I read Milan Kundera’s classic meditation on politics and sex in my second year at Cap. Unlike every student allegedly “registered” in it, there’s no secret I’m an alumnus of the creative writing program. Here’s another secret: this cocktail goes down mighty lighter than its namesake novel. After finding yourself lost in the summer ennui of binge drinking and hangovers, a flat beer the morning after on the balcony isn’t going to cut it. Try this contemplative sipper instead. It’s like a sex on the beach meets Camus except no-one dies and once you finish, you’ll probably be left both hopeful and haunted.

Ingredients:

  • -1 ounce absinthe
  • -2-3 ounces pineapple juice
  • -Ice

Fill a rocks glass with an ounce of absinthe (I recommend Psychedelic Jellyfish from Tofino Distillery or Taboo by Okanagan Spirits) and add crushed ice to fill. Pour in 2 to 3 ounces of pineapple juice over the ice to taste. Watch the absinthe louche into a murky golden glow like a sunset after a storm, while contemplating the debilitating consequences of our seemingly trivial everyday decisions. Garnish with a lemon wheel, bowler hat, existential dread or nothing at all – the true nihilistic drink accessory. Drink slowly and softly, lest you also wake up wearing nothing at all. As Kundera says, “in the sunset of dissolution everything is illuminated, even the guillotine.”

A Moscato Moment

Wine not?

Jayde Atchison // Staff Writer

Ingredients: 

-1 bottle of preferred Moscato (mine are as follows)

-Jacob’s Creek Moscato 

-Copper Moon Rose

-Krause Berry Farms Sparkling Strawberry Wine

-1 bath tub 

-1-10 episodes of The Office

Grab your laptop and toss on your favourite episode of The Office (I suggest “Dinner Party”). While you are filling your bath with the hottest temperature water you can withstand, take the chilled moscato out of the fridge and pour a healthy dose into any glass or cup (let’s stop pretending we are above drinking wine out of a Cheshire Cat mug). To avoid inconvenient wet footprints throughout your place, leave the bottle close to the bathtub for easy access. Be warned however, this wine goes down like the sweetest apple juice. Before you know it, you have a nice buzz and find yourself starting to relate to Creed more than you ever have before. Enjoy every “that’s what she said” responsibly!

Yuzu Gin and Tonic 

Because yuzu makes everything better 

Megan Amato // Associate News Editor

Gin and tonics are my quintessential go to summer drink. Give me that botanical gin brewed in small batches and pair with with a high quality tonic and I’m sold (note: stay away from drinking G&T’s at all the hipster venues around Vancouver—they’re all your bitter feelings embodied in a cup). The yuzu gin and tonic sprouted from my winter drink, the yuzu hot toddy. I wanted to feel summery on a bad day and voila, the yuzu gin and tonic was born. 

Ingredients:

– 2 ounces of your favourite gin

– 4 to 5 ounces on tonic 

– Korean yuzu tea mix (looks like marmalade)

– 2 ice cubes

– Citrus fruit garnish of your choice (optional)

Measure out the gin—or just eye it like I usually do—add the tonic water,  the yuzu tea and mix well. Add your ice and citrus fruit to garnish and you’re sorted!

Rum and Coke 

Just in case you forgot that these exist

Rachel D’Sa // Editor-In-Chief

This one’s for the desperados of us that only have a few ingredients kicking around and can’t make it out to the store. This is not my drink of choice (try a moscow mule, glass of moscato or bellini). I, however, have not left the house in two weeks. I knocked back a few of these babies last night, hunched over my painting workstation, and they seemed to do the trick. My favourite part? It’s all in the name so you’ve really gotta be an idiot to screw this one up. 

Ingredients:

-2 ounces rum

-4 ounces cola (or 6 for the faint of heart)

-Ice 

-A lime slice (optional, but this is already a really simple recipe so you should maybe try a little harder here)

Instructions:

Ice in a cup. Add the rum (sigh). Garnish with a lime wedge. Oh right, add the coke. Eat the rest of the lime, make it into a bird feeder, makeup applicator, focaccia, whatever. Don’t you dare let it go to waste.

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