Summer Sips

I should have been making hatch marks to tally the number of Tecates I've swilled this summer. While that's the official beer of summer '09, there are a number of other drinks that have tasted like the season.

• Cheap, ideally twist-top wines consumed out of Solo cups while soaking up the summerfuntime at free concerts in Millenium Park. Euphoria.


• Sangria at a burger and beer joint. Hackney's really decent sangria just has bits of apple and orange in it and always makes me want another.


• The iced coffee sweetened with local honey that I brew and fridge each week. Always consumed out of a blue travel mug I've had for ages, this coffee makes me attuned and appreciative of the city I pass through between bus stop and revolving door.

Finally, I have to snag another of Mario's Italian Lemonade before the season is out. More than just Italian ice, there's chunks of fruit frosted in those little paper cups too. Check out delicious cantaloupe Italian lemonade.

what we do when we're alone

While I have had some lovely drinking experiences this summer (including a hefty liter of German beer The Brau Haus and a few amazing Belgian beers at The Hopleaf), it's too late to write about those. The precious immediacy is past.

Now I'm drinking my way through a bottle of Trinity Oaks' Pinot Noir, a cheap wine that was on sale at Whole Foods. There is little to recommend it beyond its low low price and claim that the company plants a tree for each bottle of wine purchased. That makes me feel good as I engage in hedonism/laziness watching episodes of old episodes Check, Please! on my laptop and gorging myself on finger foods.