Too hot for Bourbon, this is G&T weather

[BourbonJoe]

I love to drink bourbon but it's just too damned hot right now, so I switched to Gin & Tonic. Very refreshing in hot weather, especially loaded with fresh limes.

Joe :usflag:

[OscarV]

I know what you mean, I have drank more beer this summer than I have in the past year.

I also opened up my George Dickel No.8, it's good with lots of ice.

[ILLfarmboy]

Never developed a taste for beer and I'm not a huge fan of gin. When I want an 'adult beverage' during these dog days of summer I'm sometimes at a loss. And then I think hey I like Irish. Powers Gold on the rocks! but sometimes it's just too hot even for that. I need to order some more mead but I wonder about having it shipped in this heat. Some places like Hi-Times (I think) advise against or simply won't ship wine a great distance during the hotter months of Summer. Mead being a honey wine, I'm assuming the same precautions might be in order. I wish it was late September.

[mier]

You`re right,nothing can beat icecold mead!Perhaps maybe some Lambic,regular or kriek:drink:.

Eric.

[cowdery]

I have been drinking more "refreshing" cocktails this summer, both with bourbon and with other spirits. With bourbon it's usually bourbon and ginger ale or a sour. Also drinking margaritas and G&Ts.

[Jake_Parrott]

People! Drink rose! We just got our 2007 (!) Avondale rose in and it is dynamite.

[Although the non-Schnook side of me loves G&T too--but the gin must come from the freezer and the tonic from the 10oz bottles and ICE COLD before it goes in the drink]

[Gillman]

I'll tell you what's popular this season in Toronto "boites": Sangria. Made with decent wine it is a really nice cooling, tonic drink.

Although one would think this is an age-old Latin refresher, it turns out it was invented in the early 1960's, in Spain I think, but that's another story...

Gary

[Aged In Oak]

I second the G&T vote, but I think the BEST way to cool off in this weather (and still have your bourbon) is bourbon iced tea. Ratio of tea to bourbon varies depending on taste... two or three parts tea to one part bourbon seems to work well. If you've made strong tea, you can even do 1:1 and still have a pretty refreshing drink... just be careful about doing that if you pour yourself a tall glass!

Some mint leaves thrown in while the tea is steeping makes it even better!

[T47]

Mojitos for me...the perfect hot weather drink. I got the recipe from Wade and it has made me a popular guy in the neighborhood!

:toast:

[cowdery]

I'll tell you what's popular this season in Toronto "boites": Sangria. Made with decent wine it is a really nice cooling, tonic drink.

Although one would think this is an age-old Latin refresher, it turns out it was invented in the early 1960's, in Spain I think, but that's another story...

Gary

In Spain, at least in Madrid and other places I've been, the universal summer beverage is a modest red table wine mixed half-and-half with seltzer water, sort of like Sangria but without the fruit. It's usually included with a fixed-price meal, that or coffee. Maybe it's all year, but I've only ever been there in summer.

[BourbonJoe]

Chuck,

The Germans do it too, mixing a QBA Riesling with sparkling mineral water. This is called a "schorle". A very popular summertime drink in the Fatherland.

[Gillman]

All over Europe people always mixed wine with water and, later, soda; the Romans apparently thought it not appropriate to consume wine undiluted. Wonder what they would have thought of us 100 proof and + sippers.

Sangria probably emerged from earlier "cups" and other such mixtures or punches which combined wine or spirits, fruits, spices, and water or soda.

Probably in the area it emerged something similar was known, maybe under another name.

Gary

[Aged In Oak]

Chuck,

The Germans do it too, mixing a QBA Riesling with sparkling mineral water. This is called a "schorle". A very popular summertime drink in the Fatherland.

I think this is done with many beverages, including non-alcoholic. I have seen apfelsaftschorle, the apfelsaft being apple juice. I've never had the Riesling variety, but it sounds refreshing.

[mythrenegade]

I like G&T's as well. I currently use Stirrings mixers, but I'm waiting for the local Bevmo to get Fever Tree in, as I hear it's good. Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray 10 are the only gins I like. I don't care for regular Tanqueray.

Joel

[Dr. François]

It is now October, and it is still over 80 degrees in Michigan.

My whiskey-themed, hot-weather cocktails focus on bubbles. When I was in college, I used to make highballs from Canadian Club and Sprite. Thinking about it now, I just subbed ingredients on a 7&7.

Now that I am older, I go for something a bit stronger. This summer, up in the mountains, I mixed Rye with sparkling water with lemon or lime. I think my mix was around 1:4 with a healthy sliver of lemon. I found that the rye maintained its flavor and strength even when diluted.

[polyamnesia]

old august thread barely stretch into october...i know!

...but FINALLY, at least here in SE PA, cool weather is somewhat descending! our first real FROST occured yesterday morning...and after too many decades down south, i've had enough of the hot weather!

why is it that bourbon/whiskey is more or less more palatable, more enjoyable in cooler weather?

bourbon has been my favorite for some time, but i admit, i never drink it in the summer.....and this summer, i actually did fall for JB and JD (for cold cola cocktails) for the first time!

summer usually means golden colored beers and rum...

why is this so?

i know some bourbon aficianados don't let weather get in the way....

[Xibalba]

I'm the same, polyamnesia. My theory: the cold weather sharpens the senses, so we're more appreciative of the fine details of bourbon than the more obvious and 'louder' qualities of beer, for example. (I'm not disparaging beer, just saying that distillation makes the qualities of bourbon harder to detect.) Personally, my nose is probably clearer in the winter because I have allergies in the winter and use nasal sprays that make my sinuses more open than they are in the summer.

[polyamnesia]

hmmm....maybe the distillers should come out with a palate lozenge and sinus enhancer with each bottle....so we can really experience, heck, BECOME one with the spirit....:cool:

in all seriousness, i didn't realize rum was such a big northeast thing back in the early times of our country....something about a whiskey tax by politicians who were tied up in RUM money! can't where i read that the other day.....

anyways, i still think of rum and caribbean...and pirates....and other cliches/stereotypes. but i just don't drink it in winter!

[cowdery]

The heyday of New England rum was from about the mid-17th century until the revolution, so a little more than a century. Why did they ship molasses to New England rather than make rum at the molasses source and ship the rum? Probably for a lot of reasons, but one of them might have been the small chance a boat full of rum would have had getting past the pirates on its way to market.

They probably made rum in the Caribbean strictly for local consumption then exported the rest of their molasses to the nearest markets that would buy it for more than it cost to ship it, because otherwise it was a waste product, the profitable product being white sugar.

When the 13 colonies declared independence and stopped trading with the English and their Caribbean colonies, New England distillers stopped buying molasses and switched to other raw materials, mostly grain. Trading with England and English possessions was pretty much restored after the War of 1812, but the economics had changed and if people wanted rum, they imported rum, not the molasses to make it from.