By Ann Keeler Evans
Summer is hot. Alcoholic drinks are great to serve, but alcohol makes you warmer, however refreshing the additives might be. So serve alcohol, but consider ways to serve the additives on the side and offer something fun and wonderfully cooling. And here's the deal: alcohol costs more to serve than hand-pressed lemonade! And even frozen lemonade can be dressed up and transformed into a cooling beverage. Save yourself some money and let your imagination go wild (and refreshing!)
In my childhood, there wasn't a big picnic that was complete without a washtub full of lemonade cooled with a block of ice. I'm not sure the tin washtubs were the best thing to drink from, but I can see them in my mind and they spell summer with a big S!
When it's hot, you want something refreshing to drink. Non-alcoholic drinks fill the bill. Lemonade isn't the only option (don't forget sumacade!) - and it doesn't need to be plain lemonade. Go on line and find some recipes:
Lemonade - Try one with basil and cayenne.
Limeades - Add to the tastes with mint and ginger.
Fruit/Vegetable combos - I make a cucumber, mint and lime mixture that we pour in a 10 gallon water jug, fill it up with ice and water, and haul to the local summer blues festival. On that day, I'm a very popular person! Other people swear by celery. Try it with orange.
Fresh fruit juice combos - Offer pitchers of Juices and Flat and Bubbly water and even some syrups. Put together a pile of fresh garnishes and put an inventive drink master behind the bar. If people want to wander over to the alcohol table after that to top their drink off with champagne, rum or vodka, they can. In Pennsylvania, you might find some people adding it to micro-brew lagers.
Fresh fruit juice punch - Where I come from, they call it Presbyterian Punch, it involves good juices, ginger ale or club soda and sherbet. Make your sherbet homemade with some of nature's bounty.
Switchell - Just checking, never had it, it's local to the area, I think it's made with molasses, cider vinegar, water and brown sugar. I'd probably make it with bubbly water for the wedding!
Gourmet sodas - the fruit sodas and ginger beers are great.
Ice cream sodas or floats - Use fresh fruits, gourmet sodas and gourmet or homemade ice creams. (fruits are more cooling than chocolate) Or get ice cream from your local small soft-serve place. Here in Central PA soft ice cream stands are ubiquitous. Add soft black raspberry ice cream to your grapefruit soda. Yum!
You can make these drinks more fun by making them relevant. Talk about enjoying the bounty of the summer during the wedding ceremony. Build a drink to share during the ceremony that combines the juicy goodness of the season. (Practice this beforehand, will you? You want to get proportions right and have a good drink to sip together!)
Promise one another to always explore seasonal bounties and gifts in life as well as marriage. And then find a drink you both like, based on what you shared at the wedding, drink it throughout your wedding (nothing like adding fruit juice to your champagne!), and then celebrate life throughout your marriage with a cool, refreshing drink filled will goodness, love and memories.
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The Rev. Ann Keeler Evans - helping you move from "I do" to happily and healthily ever after!
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