The Coral Gables Times

Bar OUTDOORS / An expert explains the fine points of making summer coolers and lighthearted aperitifs / Chill Your Glasses First

Bar OUTDOORS An expert explains the fine points of making summer coolers and lighthearted aperitifs Chill Your Glasses First BY STUART LEVIN Director of The Four Seasons Restaurant in New York ■ THE LONG, hot summer is the season of the long, cool drink, and with just a little imagination anyone can come up with an array of drinks, coolly colorful and delicately flavored, as refreshing to eye as they are to the palate. One of the easiest ways of giving an original look to even the most classic drink is by varying the glass you serve it in. Instead of using the standard highball glass, try red or white wine goblets, tulip champagne glasses, or even pilsner glasses. Frost glasses ahead of time by wetting them and placing them in your freezer for about an hour before you mix and serve the drink, and for an extra icy touch, dip the wet rims in finely powdered sugar before freezing them. Since sugar dissolves slowly in cold liquids, it's advisable to sweeten sweet drinks with a simple sirup made by boiling two parts water to one part sugar for two minutes. The sirup can be bottled and stored in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it. Or for added fruit flavor, sweeten drinks with the sirup drained from canned fruits. Garnish your drinks with slices of citrus fruits or with corkscrew curls of peel cut from limes, lemons, or oranges. Sticks of fresh fruit such as pineapple, mint leaves frosted with sugar, maraschino cherries (red or green), and slices of cool cucumber are other final touches exceptionally well-suited to summer coolers. And to achieve the kind of professional look you see in the drinks opposite, prepared at the Four Seasons, you'll find an electric blender and ice chopper invaluable aids. To make the assortment complete, we've planned some of these drinks as aperitifs, others as after-dinner coolers, but all are guaranteed to revive wilting spirits and calm heat-frayed nerves. 12 Suburbia Today, June 1962 PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANTHONY CUTRONEO Creme de Menthe Frappe Champagne Cassis Salty Dog Mint Julep Scotch Mist White Wine Spritzer Apricot Sour Gimlet Planter's Punch