The Last Lazy Drink of the Summer
Pour cola into your red wine, with or without alcohol, and go about your days unburdened.
This summer I’ve been taking the easy route to making drinks. I argued why wine and tonic should be the drink of the summer and in favor of the Arnold Palmer. Now I’m going to add one more super simple drink to the list: red wine and cola. Otherwise, known as the Calimocho, or Kalimoxto if you’re Basque.
The recipe is simple: pour cola into your red wine and add ice. If that isn’t the laziest drink that exists, then I give up. I once called the Rum & Coke the drink of the shiftless, idle, and indolent in a Washington Post article written by
(who also wrote about red wine and cola for his newsletter):"Rum and Cokes are downed quicker and with less thought than cocktails that require patience and precision," says Derek Brown, cocktail impresario of the Passenger and the Columbia Room. "That's why I dub the rum and Coke the drink of the shiftless, idle and indolent." He adds: "I believe I've done more stupid things on rum and Coke than any other beverage."
But I take it back. The Calimocho more rightly deserves the title.
While the yoke of shaking, stirring, muddling, and every manner of mixological preparation has captured our precious hours, the Calimocho is the great liberator from bar labor: "deus nobis haec otia fecit" ("God has made this leisure for us"). Yet, those of us who take down a Calimocho too easily can save ourselves from the resulting stupidity by adding non-alcoholic red wine. I have the perfect one.
Surely, for whom I work, has made a Bubbly Red in a can with just a touch of sweetness and spice. Instead of the very sugary Coca-Cola, whom I’ve also worked with, I use Ollipop Vintage Cola. The pair make a tolerable sweetness level and delicious zing. But, to be sure, I squeeze both a lemon and lime wedge in the drink.
Yes, I know, more work. But it’s still very little.
That completes my trifecta of lazy drinks, and it should last the laziest among you until the summer’s end. Otherwise, I’ll start thinking of more complicated drinks this fall for those of you who are, well, far more complicated. Please feel free to drop requests in the comments.
Kalimox-no
One Serving/ 10-12 ounce Collins Glass
4 oz. Surely Bubbly Red Non-alcoholic Wine
4 oz. Ollipop Vintage Cola
Lemon Wedge
Lime Wedge
Build, add ice, and serve.
Derek Brown is an author, NASM-certified wellness coach, and founder of Positive Damage, Inc.
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Love those unburdened days.