— Maria Allen

Okay, so, uh, no animal products in these beverages. All right? So I presume that would be dairy sort of products. Um, although we could presumably consider, you know, these plant-based milks, right? Um, let me, uh, come up with, uh, a couple of things that, that I like to do e even just for myself, and maybe you can enjoy this on your own too, Maria. One is, once you've got fantastic watermelons, uh, that you can access, um, put those in a blender as is, um, with a squeeze of lime juice. And that's it. Um, I have, uh, made, you know, shooters and, and, um, just refreshing drinks in the afternoon for lots of people. Um, simply doing that. Uh, not to mention it's one of my favorites. Um, as we get into the, the, uh, peak summer months, especially July and August around here, um, let's see, in addition, other, you know, like berry based blended drinks come to mind. And in this case, um, in order to lighten it up for a summertime outing, I, uh, you know, I, I'm gonna think smoothie as an inspiration, but rather than getting into these milk bases, um, I'm gonna use water instead. And so blueberry works nicely. It could be a blend, um, of berries, whatever it is that you want to try out water as a base. And then I like to add spices. Think about cardamom, green cardamom, and, uh, cloves can work, um, go light on the cloves. Um, ginger can work well and, um, a touch of turmeric, but do a tester first because it can also alter the color in a, in a certain way that you may or may not want. Okay? Um, not that the turmeric adds, well, if you add enough of it, especially in its fresh form, you'll get that distinctive earthiness of, of turmeric. But I just like turmeric, you know, uh, for its health benefits. Um, you know, I've been told, um, a couple of times by cooks in India, when in doubt add turmeric. And, uh, that sticks with me. And I think that's pretty good advice, even for beverages, for desserts, for whatever it is that you happen to be making. But, uh, anyways, a a blended berry based drink based on water with the addition of some spice would be nice. And when it comes to spices, don't add too much. You don't wanna make it too complicated. You start to lose the, the distinction, um, of those flavors that are so nicely presented in a, in a blueberry drink, for example. Uh, let's see. You can do a tea based drink, and it, it could be green tea, right? It could be black tea. And if you do something like, um, these of course have caffeine, so you want to be aware of who your audience is, or at least advertise it or label it as such. And, uh, as far as black tea goes, consider Earl Gray, um, you know, which has the addition of Berg Gumon. So it's got that little hint of, of, uh, orangy citrus notes, uh, which goes very nicely when chilled and turned into some sort of a beverage. And it could be non-alcoholic. And if you wanna try something alcoholic, uh, bar gumon, you know, flavored black tea in its Earl Gray form works well too. Uh, you can, uh, blend your own tea. So if you've got, um, uh, you know, uh, green tea, you can, uh, you can add lemongrass to it and, uh, um, give it a little spin, some spices. You can play with some spices as well, uh, to give it, uh, another dimension of flavor, another layer of interest. Um, if you think about, um, also mint, these, these aromatics, uh, that can go a long way in, in enhancing something simple, right? Like, uh, like black tea or green tea, but think about mint, um, muddled and, um, uh, allow it to, to steep, right in a green tea, for example. And also, uh, fruit waters, uh, can be very easy, right? To make it is just, it's just sliced cucumber, sliced berries, um, and, and put into water for some period of time. And you might wanna do some testing to see just the intensity that you want, whether it's overnight, uh, or just for a couple of hours for something lighter. And, um, and then you just serve the water, right? You, maybe you garnish it with a slice of, uh, um, cucumber, maybe the cucumbers combined with lemon verina or, uh, peppermint or something else. Um, think about chocolate mint as well, and how that might go with some of these, um, these different beverage bases. Okay? Um, so those are a few ideas that come to mind. Things that I've, I've, uh, enjoyed off and on, you know, in, in recent years, and, um, things that I have noticed that other people like as well.