BEST OF DRINKS

As the sun blazes, and the clock inches past five, and the country’s arcane restaurant patios open themselves to long-awaited lounging, it is time at last for the parched and overheated to select a beverage appropriate to the occasion. This is no simple choice. Indeed, confusion in the matter has compelled the unlucky and undiscerning to sip at all manner of unsuitable warm-weather drinks, from spiked-vodka Snapple to chocolate-espresso martinis.

But the thirsty need not be uninformed any longer. Here are the 10 most suitable drinks for the summer time:

10. CUBA LIBRE

Fill a chilled Old Fashioned glass with an abundance of ice – more than seems necessary – and slosh in a liberal portion of spiced rum, Sailor Jerry if you have it at hand. Top with Coke: my preference is Diet, because why not mind the calories, but authentic Mexican Coke, which is sweetened with cane sugar, is perhaps even more divine. Squirt in a little lime juice, voila: a high-voltage rum-and-coke ideal for summer sipping.

9. PIMM’S CUP

Pimm’s Number 1, the English original, is about the closest thing one will find to a cocktail in a bottle: simply pour the stuff into a jug filled with chopped citrus fruits and ice, cut with cold lemonade, and serve by the glass – a Highball, if you please – garnished with fresh slices of cucumber and a striped paper straw. Refreshment can hardly be accomplished any easier, nor with much more British flair.

8. PINA COLADA

This obscenely sweet, ludicrously delicious Puerto Rican cocktail is made in its traditional iteration with white rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice, either blended with crushed iced or, to suit more conservative tastes, stirred together over cubes and served as-is. The latter style may be topped with a wedge of pineapple; the former, a plump, lipstick-red maraschino cherry, as befits the (delightfully) childish approach.

7. APEROL SPRITZ

I was first served an Aperol Spritz at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic by a bartender who rather zealously insisted – I’m not sure where he got this information – that it was a staple drink of film festivals the world over. Well, perhaps it ought to be: the refreshing, flavourful concoction, in which Aperol converges with prosecco and a dash of mineral water over ice in a champagne flute or wine glass, is just right for the convivial atmosphere of film festivals abroad.

6. ZOMBIE

The amateur mixologist, sizing up the list of ingredients, will tell you that it simply isn’t worth the trouble to make yourself a Zombie on a hot summer night – but be not intimidated by the scale of the operation. White rum, dark rum, spiced rum, and, yes, overproof rum combined in a Highball glass – or, better yet, a lurid ceramic tiki glass – with sugar and the juice of many limes, pineapples, lemons, and (seriously) papayas. One glass serves two, so double up the colourful straws: then top with a thick wedge of lime that you’ve doused in the overproof and sent alight. The spectacle makes up for the labour, and then some.

5. MINT JULEP

No summer should go without at least one Mint Julep. Typically, the first of the year is consumed during a certain horse race. At the Kentucky Derby in May, this very traditional, and very tasty, bourbon cocktail is enjoyed at leisure all race-day long. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be enjoyed again and again in the many evenings after.

4. MARGARITA

This is not an endorsement of, to clarify, the sort of margarita one commonly finds on the Happy Hour menu of your local suburban Tex-Mex chain restaurant, but rather the classic number: seven parts tequila, four parts Cointreau or Triple Sec and three parts lime juice, no variations necessary. It should be served not in the extravagant bulbous champagne coupe that bears the cocktail’s name – a pointless and unwieldy bit of barware paraphernalia – but over ice in a standard Old Fashioned glass whose rim has been partially caked with salt. Needless to say, avoid any iteration of the drink that involves a fishbowl, a blender, or pre-mixed syrup of any kind.

3. DAIQUIRI

Like the margarita and the cosmopolitan, the daiquiri is one of those classic, uncomplicated cocktails misinterpreted so often in the popular imagination that its original form languishes in tenacious obscurity. The daiquiri is not blended with crushed ice, not served in an oversize coupe and certainly not made with strawberries or indeed berries of any kind. It consists of white rum, lime juice and simple syrup – no more, no less, shaken and served straight-up in a chilled martini glass. If you’ve been spoiled by the commercial associations, do yourself a favour and dispel the myth: try a real one and see the beauty.

2. NEGRONI

Negroni Week, a surprisingly popular creation of Campari’s marketing department that takes bars across North America by storm year after year, recently concluded, but there is good reason to enjoy this enduring Italian favourite all summer long. Mix equal parts English gin, red vermouth, and (of course) Campari over ice in an Old Fashioned glass, garnish with a twist of orange – rub this over the rim of the glass for added taste and fragrance and to look quite cool to whomever you’re serving to – and savour.

1. GIBSON

Ah, the Gibson: “as close to zero-degree drinking as it is humanly possible to come,” in Mark Kingwell’s unimprovable description, and quite simply the world’s finest drink. By all means, do not confine yourself to ordering Gibsons this season alone, but they do rather hit the spot on a humid evening or balmy afternoon. Pour the most generous portion of radically cold gin over ice into a Boston shaker. Add the most miserly portion of dry vermouth – the faintest suggestion, a mere scintilla – and shake with serious vigour. Pour into a martini glass, add a cocktail onion – this is essential – and luxuriate in glacial perfection.