By Trina Machacek
It should not shock anyone that knows me when I say Summer is my best season friend. You will not hear me complain about the heat. I have been cold and I complain about the cold. But! Yes, a blue haze colored “but.” For me complain about the heat, the red stuff in my outdoor thermometer would have to bubble out the top first. So Summer and I are good buddies.
Trina Machacek
During summer there are so many drink options to cool your hot whistle. Just a few days ago I found the drink mix section of my grocery store. I drank my fair share of Kool-Aid as a kid. When it was mixed with real granulated heaping cups full of sugar. Giving us kids red lips and energy to stay out playing ‘till way past the street lights coming on. My best friend growing up always liked the lemon-lime flavor. Yeah, I didn’t go to her house as much as she came to mine to play. It was cherry all the way at my house. Now? Sadly it is all about the no-calories drink mixes. And there are a lot of them.
I find that sodas just don’t quench a summer thirst as much as some kind of lemonade. Sodas are fine with a meal, but to sit on the porch sippin’ there needs to be ice and no bubbles. Before there were all the dry packaged drink mixes there was frozen, concentrated drinks. The lemonade was tart and could pucker even the happiest of mouths. There was grape juice too. It was purple. It was never meant to be enjoyed inside. Grape juice stains are what mother’s nightmares are made of. As I grew up and adult libations took over there was a time when the frozen limeade concentrate mixed in a blender with this stuff called tequila made for some wonderful evenings around us porch sitters. Who knew chips could be used as dippers in those frozen concoctions. There have been some fun times around many different Summertime drinks.
Now enter iced coffee drinks. The epitome of what I enjoy today. My pocketbook will not open everyday to quench my parched throat with a Venti Carmel Frapachinno, with an extra shot and whipped cream. Oh, but my friend has shared her iced coffee recipe with me and I use it liberally in the summertime. Looking back I have gone from those five cent packages of cherry Kool-Aid to the grown-up iced coffee. Stopping along the way to create some drinks that everyone should have in their memory banks.
Let’s go back to that 4-to-8-foot section of drink mixes offered today. I have not tried all of the flavors. It does seem though that the flavor I always want is the same flavor many others want too. How does that happen. At the present time I happily have a supply of raspberry lemonade packets squirreled away. Hey they were on sale for goodness sakes. I was mixing the 2-quart packets. I swear there is someone else living in my house with me. There is no way I could be drinking one 2-quart pitcher of this delightful mix—every day! No. No way. Must be a hole in the jug. But alas, it was me. I found I was hitting the jug pretty hard there for a while. I then started to buy the raspberry lemonade in single use packages. Again, they were on sale so I have a goodly supply.
I have MY stainless-steel cup that I fill with ice, one packet of magical raspberry powder and fill the cup with water. Install lid and go about my day. Yes, I use a straw. Did you know that if you use a straw, you can raise it up as you suck and when it draws liquid from where the ice sits… Oh baby that’s cold raspberry lemonade. Just saying.
Then of course there is iced tea. I have a group of friends who make sweet tea. I feel useless when I get company who likes sweet tea. I don’t sweeten my tea. I offer sugar of course, but most will just drink it plain. That makes my mouth feel like a dry towel is in my cheeks. I do offer the go to sweeteners along with sugar. There are the yellow packets, they leave a distinctively un-sweet flavor. The green ones that promise they are made from real sugar but have no calories. Come on! How is that possible? A mystery to me. They leave a sweet flavor, but a glass needs at least three packets.
Oh, the king of iced tea non-calorie sweeteners. The pink packets. The ones that my friends tell me will kill me faster than any other fake sweeteners. Yes, of course I use the pinks.
Drink SUMMER happily my friends.
Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com
