Seasonal Produce

Drinks and cocktails, like the seasons can be divided into four distinctly different types or roles they play in influencing or satisfying our changing wants and needs. They can be cooling or warming, or they can be enlivening or calming. As the availability of fresh ingredients changes throughout the seasons, so too does the type of drink change and the role it plays in satisfying our thirst.

WORDS BEN DAVIDSON

The relevance of seasonal cocktails is that they reflect what’s in season and the style of drink relative to what our bodies need at that moment. Do we need to be cooled down or warmed up, or do we need to be enlivened or calmed down? Those decisions underpin our cocktail choices and the ingredients we use throughout the year.

SUMMER DRINKS & COCKTAILS

Summer drinks and cocktails are all about cooling flavours, high in acidity and served ice cold. Citrus fruits like lime and lemon play a major role in summer cocktails. Summer drinks tend to have a higher water component in their make-up - think thirst quenching long drinks, light spirits, fresh fruit flavours, sparkling waters and mixers that hydrate the body while cooling the mind.

The spirits best suited for summer cocktails are what you would call the ‘light spirits’. These include vodka, gin, light rum and young tequila. They could also include mezcal, pisco, grappa and other un-aged spirits. Also great for summer cocktails are lower alcohol ingredients like fortified wines, vermouths and sparkling wine. These spirits and ingredients provide a lightness or subtlety of flavour that is supported by the other refreshing ingredients in the recipe. For example, it’s the reposado tequila that provides the base agave and vegetal flavours that combine beautifully with the lime and passion fruit in the Passion Fruit Tommy’s Margarita. Also it’s the herbaceous and savoury notes in the gin that combine with the cooling flavours of cucumber, lemon and elderflower in the Cucumber and Elderflower Collins that make it so thirst quenching.

The choice of vodka in the Fresh Berry Caipiroska allows for the fresh berries to shine, balanced with a touch of lime and sugar, without any heavier spirit flavours getting in the way. Summer is the time when seasonal berries are affordable, so it’s best to make the most of them when you can!

Even if you do prefer to dabble in the dark spirits, they can also be used during summer when combined with a matching flavour like in the Stone Fruit Sour where a Scotch whisky can be made into a cooling cocktail with fresh peach, cherries and fresh lemon juice.

In general, there are so many different ingredients to utilise during the summer months when there is a need for refreshment and balanced acidity to replenish the body with salts, minerals, and electrolytes.

SUMMER PRODUCE

Australia has an abundance of fresh seasonal fruit available in summer. Keep an eye out for any of these in your local supermarket. Using fresh produce that is in season, will make a big difference in the taste and balance of your cocktail.

SEASONAL PRODUCE

BERRIES blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry STONE FRUIT cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots

CITRUS limes, lemons, pink grapefruit, oranges TROPICAL mango, passion fruit, pineapple, guava MELONS honeydew, watermelon, rock melon

EXOTICS lychee, kiwi fruit, rambutan, gooseberry, mangosteen, currants