From iced water to cocktails, everyone needs to drink something. Your choice of beverages can be as varied as the items on a restaurant menu. The first beverages the Scouts learn to make out in the woods are iced tea and fruit punch. More importantly, they learn how to clean the beverage coolers and why it’s important to keep them clean. They also learn that iced tea is not a rehydrating beverage, and water on a hot day or a cold day is a must!

It’s summer time, so the beverage selections are VAST and varied. They are usually cold and definitely necessary on a hot day! When I was in elementary school, the first beverage recipe I learned how to make was a Chocolate Milkshake! I am sure that it might be hard to believe with all the coffee I drink, but I still like the occasional homemade milkshake. I have played with my milkshake recipe over the all these years, ever since I was a kid to get it just right! It will take time to post all the following recipes, so you will be able to come back here and click on any  new links that take you to all the drink recipes over the upcoming months here at The Magic of a Perfect Pairing (MoaPP for short). I will also have to post some kind of list or index I suppose to make life easier. They will be under the new category of BEVERAGES.

This new section will slowly cover all of the BEVERAGES I can think of over the course of the next ten months. Trivia: Did you know why sodas are referred to as being soft drinks? Its designation is made because they have no alcohol in them and therefore children can drink them. As soon as you mix rum into Coke-a-Cola, it is now a cocktail or hard drink. When you mix Rum into Coke, it’s called a Cuba Libre. A diet Cuba Libre is made with Diet Coke and if you ask for a Virgin Diet Cuba Libre it is just plain diet coke. This is all thanks to the television show The Big Bang Theory.

The first list is one of breakfast beverages: Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice, Tomato Juice, Apple Juice (yuck), Milk, Chocolate Milk, Coffee, Iced Coffee, Tea, Iced Tea, and even Hot Chocolate. You know how to make coffee, but how about iced coffee or flavored coffee?

The second list is the lunch menu: Iced Coffees, iced teas, lemonades, spiked lemonade, refreshers, beer, and seltzer.

Dessert beverages: Milkshakes like strawberry, banana, and chocolate. Then there are egg creams, floats, cocktails.

Party Cocktails: Pina colada, Whiskey sour, Tom Collins, Martinis, Long Island Iced Tea,  

Summer Smoothies are good for breakfast, lunch or just as a cool refreshing drink.

Cocktail mixology 101– Tools – Gadgets – blender, bottle and corkscrew, cocktail shaker, ice bucket, pitcher, shot glasses, drink glasses, mugs and wine glasses…

Liquor: Whisky, brandy, gin, scotch, tequila, rum, vodka and liqueurs to name a few…

“Mixers” Sodas: Club, coke, sprite, ginger ale. Fresh fruit juices, like lemon, lime, orange…

Garnishes can include : Olives, cherries, fruit, celery or even cocktail onions in martinis.

BEER: Is one of the oldest beverages know to human beings. It dates back to 5000 to 4001 BC. Why? Perhaps because this is when agriculture spread from Western Asia to Southern and Central Europe. Perhaps it could be said, that agriculture spread to produce beer!

In Germany, they take their beer making very seriously. Reinheitsgebot is a beer making law that was introduced in 1516 by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. This German law allows only hops, barley, water and, yeast in every Stein. Even though you will find more than 1,200 breweries, producing some five thousand different types of beer, none of it is “craft beer” with any added flavorings like orange, lemon or lime. Here in America, you can find all kinds of craft or specialty beers.

Some beer types and tastes here in America include:

            Ales: These range in alcohol levels but usally remain high in alcohol content when compared to Lagers. They can be sweet, tasty beers or hoppy bitter as in IPA.

         India Pale Ale: Some people liked the higher alcohol and hoppier stronger flavor at the time in the 1800’s. The true reason for the increased hops in bees from Europe was that IPA’s were formulated to survive long voyages by sea better than other styles of the time. I am not a fan of the very hoppy IPA’s but you should at the very least give them try with the right food.

                        Berliner Weisse: This is my beer of choice now. These are wheat based beers and very pale. To me they have a very smooth and refreshing flavor. They include the brands: Blue Moon, Shock Top on the lower end of the mass produced beer and Wiekerke, Hoegaarden, Leffe and Franziskanner on the higher end.

            Lager: This is what I grew up drinking. Budweiser Beer being the most popular in America at the time. It is now owned and brewed by Anheser-Bush InBev that is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. Lager beer is still the most mass produced beer in the world.

        Pilsner is encompassed in the lager family of beers. The brands include: Stella Artois, which is imported from England, and Peroni, from Italy, which pairs terrific with Italian food. 

            If your tastes dictate drinking only one or two beers once in a while, then specialty beers might be for you. These are more commonly known as “craft beers”. They include things like coffee, fruit, and smoke. Some of the most popular name brands include Yuengling, Boston Beer Co., Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn Brewery, Dogfish, Harpoon, and Summit Brewing Co..

Wine types:

            White Varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigo or Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvigon Blan or Fume’ Blanc like the one I had with the shellfish.

            Red Varieties: Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Syrah, Merlot.

Other:

                        Sparkling

                        Fortified: Vermouth, Marsala, Sherry, Madeira

                        Ports

                        I have a wonderful recipe for SANGRIA that I will post soon!

Serving and storing wine:

            White wine and Champagne should be chilled. I serve it in an ice bucket.

Drink Basics: Garnishes…How to make, Simple Syrup.

Summer drinks: Shakes, Frozen Margaritas, and Pina Coladas.              

Wintertime beverages: Hot Totty, Spiced Cider, Egg Nog and Mulled Wine.

Year Round: Screwdrivers, Bloody Marys, Margaritas, Mimosas, and Bellinis

This is just the tip of the iceberg, or is it ice cube? We (Jules, Sam and myself) will be writing all about all these things and more as we explore BERVRAGES through out the rest of the year!

Enjoy, imbibe and explore….drinks. Until we meet again, be well.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)