Warm weather calls for cool drinks

“The snozzberries taste like snozzberries,” said Willy Wonka about his flavored wallpaper in both the 1964 children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl and the 1971 film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” starring Gene Wilder. Johnny Depp’s Wonka never gets the pleasure.

There is, of course, no such thing as snozzberries; the fake fruit is used as a metaphor for the absurdity of the Wonka universe. But there’s an element of truth to that saying, because sometimes the fruits we enjoy taste very different. We in California get used to seeing all kinds of fruit year-round, but when fruit is really in season, it’s an altogether different experience. Take blackberries or strawberries, for instance. This time of year, they’re practically like candy. But the unusual thing about berries is that they’re actually more acidic than we sometimes realize. (It’s the proper sugar to acid balance that makes them delightful.) This manifests itself when making fresh fruit drinks. Often if you don’t add a sweetener, they just don’t taste right. And in some cases — like with a whiskey smash — it’s really the acidity that matters, not so much the sweetness.

Whereas something like watermelon is far sweeter than we imagine, which is why fresh watermelon juice needs no sweetener at all. In fact, it often benefits from a little bit of acid, such as citrus or a spirit.

Cocktails are all about balance, and sometimes nature takes care of that balance for us. Here are three reimagined classics, all locally balanced for your consumption.

Recipes

Pink Hemingway

Ingredients

2 ounces Batiste White Rhum

¾ ounce Maraschino liqueur

¾ ounce fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice

½ ounce Sonoma Syrup Co. Pomegranate Grenadine (No. 28 Classic Grenadine)

5 fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed

Directions

Combine all ingredients in an electric blender cup. Add ice in equal proportion to liquid. Start blending on low and increase speed until well combined. Pour into a serving glass — the consistency should be thick but still pourable — the goal is to be able to pile it up over the rim of the glass without it running over.

Note: Before people write in indignantly about a Hemingway strawberry daiquiri, first recognize that the only two differences between Hemingway’s preferred “Papa Doble” and this drink are the five strawberries and the grenadine.

Blackberry Smash

Ingredients

2 ounces Moylan’s Sanctioned Sherry Cask Bourbon or any port or sherry-finished whiskey

1 ounce simple syrup

¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice

7 large ripe blackberries (2 reserved for garnish)

5 large spearmint leaves (peppermint leaves are smaller than spearmint)

Soda water

Directions

Place the mint, lime juice and simple syrup in a mixing glass and crush lightly with a muddler and then dry shake (no ice). Strain the liquid into a new mixing glass, add blackberries and crush with a muddler. Add whiskey and ice and shake until well combined. Pour the entire mixture into a serving glass, adjust ice to fill the glass and then top with soda and stir. Pick the two remaining blackberries and place them across the top of the drink.

Note: Muddled mint certainly adds flavor but often looks unattractive in drinks — overmuddled mint looks a lot like cooked spinach. When there are other ingredients that need more muddling, it’s best to muddle them separately from the mint or other fresh herbs. It’s well worth the extra step.

Smoked Spiced Melon Margarita

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces Santo Spirits Mezquila

¾ ounce good-quality triple sec (such as Cointreau, Combier, etc.)

¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice

5 1-inch chunks of fresh watermelon (rinds completely removed)

3 quarter-sized jalapeno rings

½ ounce aquafaba

Tajin for the rim

Directions

Place watermelon cubes in the bottom of a mixing glass and crush with a muddler until pulverized (an electric blender also works well). Add mezquila, triple sec, lime juice, two jalapeno rings, aquafaba and ice and then shake until foamy. Strain into an ice-filled Tajin-rimmed cocktail glass. Garnish with the remaining jalapeno ring.