SUMMER is no time to take the high road as they say. It is simply too hot. Moreover, in direct proportion to the rise in mercury, the body's thirst factor skyrockets and hence the cocktail comsumption quotient comes into play. It is now that you can stand by your morals and medical research or say to hell with the stipulated 3.6 glasses of red wine per week and just give in to sin. Now damning the consequences, if you are going to be drinking something it might as well be something that tastes nice, and cocktails — as it happens —taste nice. Sure, some of them are pink and have little umbrellas floating in them, but overall, they score high on the pleasureometer.

Drenched in sun-kissed juices, iced till the glass is beaded and packed with the slow punch of masked alcohol, a cocktail tastes soooo good that even before you take the first sip your imagination runs riot. And as it hits the back of your throat, trickles into your veins, and kickstarts your brain, you can be wherever you want. Warm sand between your toes or sledding down a snow-covered mountain.

So what better way to cope with the heat than to shake up a pitcher full of cool, hot-weather concoctions to savour on sultry summer evenings? To help you in this slightly arduous but extremely rewarding task is compiled a list of cool — in both terms of the word — drinks. Summer sippers to sin with. The best bases to make them with are cooling agents such coconut water, kokum — yes, the same Konkan flavouring agent, fresh juices, lime, mint, aamla — which cools the system and has plenty of Vitamin C to boot that acts as a natural astringent and helps to digest the liquor, and even wine.

When you have straight up and on-the-rocks drinks, the alcohol content in them creates fever and exhaustion in the body. But a cocktail with, say, coconut water provides the body with nourishment. And you won't wake up the morning after feeling, well, zapped! There won't be that heavy-in-the-head feeling that comes with a hangover . Lemon is another ideal ingredient for a summer sipper. Whether you are having a Patiala peg or a Parsi one, the lemon will cut into the alcohol, and tomorrow won't be a bad day for sure. Regular alcohol drinkers have no clue about this. They sit in AC barrooms and sweat through their drinks, not realising that the heat is coming out of their bodies! But mix a cocktail with a cooling agent and even if you get high, the next morning, you will wake up feeling as fresh as a child!

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