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11 refreshing drinks to keep you cool this summer

Summer - sun, beach, parties... and heat! Here are a few fresh sips to help keep you cool for the summer.

White peach agua fresca

White peach agua fresca Source: Alan Benson

When the going gets hot, the hot gets drinking!
This refreshing summer spritzer is a little like a cocktail called a tatanka (no, not the wrestler!), which is just bison grass vodka (yes, there is such a thing) and apple juice.
Sparkling apple vodka drinks
Sparkling apple vodka drinks Source: Alan Benson
Kombucha - not just a hipster favourite! This fizzy fermented ‘iced tea’ is made by adding a SCOBY (short for ‘symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast’) to a batch of brewed tea. Steep with different fruits to change up the flavours!
Recipes for kombucha appears in popular cookbooks, such as Sarah Wilson's 'I Quit Sugar: Simplicious'.
Kombucha Source: Macmillan Australia
This is a grown-up version of a slushy - think more booze and less convenience store! Be careful, though, the lurid colour and its sweet deliciousness can trick you into forgetting this drink is laden with booze.
Raspberry vodka slushie
Raspberry vodka slushie Source: Benito Martin
This refreshing South African gin drink is infused with cucumber, intensifying the perfect flavour partnership between the two. Cucumber + gin = perfection!
Cucumber-infused gin and grapefruit spritzer
Cucumber-infused gin and grapefruit spritzer Source: Sam Linsell
A little sour and sweetened with herb-infused agave syrup, this is the perfect cocktail to accompany Mexican food. Pro tip: make the base ahead of time for a party, and top up with ice and prosecco as the guests arrive.
Sunset in Jalisco
Sunset in Jalisco Source: Benito Martin
Tükenmez is a sustainable home version of the kind of sherbet you used to buy in the street from hawkers with tanks on their backs – still seen occasionally in some parts of eastern Turkey. Think kombucha, but fermented with chickpeas instead of a scoby. Best part? You can keep it going for THREE WHOLE MONTHS!
Neverending sherbert
Neverending Turkish sherbert Source: Bree Hutchins
This beautiful amber Persian drink is a classy way to beat the heat! Perfumed with rosewater, this is sometimes served as a digestive elixir. For an indulgent treat, top high with Persian fairy floss.
Princess rosewater kefir
Princess Rosewater kefir Source: Murdoch Books / Rob Palmer
Upgrade your Piña Colada by roasting your pineapples - the sharp tanginess gets transformed, and mellows out to sweet, caramel notes that bring this classic drink to the next level!
Roasted Piña Colada
Roasted Piña Colada Source: Benito Martin
Jamaica - home of spicy jerk chicken, and also, spicy drinks! If you haven’t made the pepper rum, simply add a sliced chilli or two to this recipe. And if you're feeling reeeeeal fancy? A bit of salt around the rim of the glass isn’t out of the question either.
Spiced rum and grapefruit drink
Spiced rum and grapefruit drink Source: SBS Food
There's nothing that screams summer more than watermelon and cocktails. Based on a Bermudan trademarked cocktail, Dark ‘n’ Stormy, made with Goslings Black Seal Rum, it is a drink for the sailors, made with ginger beer to help with sea-sickness and rum to keep you nice.
Watermelon granita dark & stormy
Watermelon granita dark and stormy Source: Benito Martin
Agua fresca is a drink sold by street vendors throughout Mexico, and their carts are loaded with huge glass barrels of delicious thirst-quenching fruity flavours. One favourite is watermelon or strawberry, but right now we’re using white peaches from a nearby orchard.
White peach agua fresca
White peach agua fresca Source: Alan Benson

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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only.
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3 min read
Published 27 December 2017 8:14am
Updated 10 January 2022 6:15am
By SBS Food bite-sized
Source: SBS


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