The hottest drinks for summer

Its hot hot hot down here in the Algarve and when the heat is on the hot need hooch.The love child of rosé and slushies,"Frosé" took the world by storm last summer but it is still set to hold its own in summer 2017.You see the colour and assume that light,ballerina slipper pink means it’ll be “dry” and that deep magenta “I’d wear that as a lipstick” will be "sweet". So not so.Taste and try before you buy and then make it and see.Yes its pink but more like my accidentally sunburnt nose.In place of the peaches you could use 1 cup of frozen seedless watermelon chunks.

Frosé
6 large or 12 tiny peaches with dark red skins
lemon zest 2 strips made with a potato peeler
vanilla pod ½, split lengthways
cinnamon stick 3cm
750 ml Quinta do Barranco Longo rosé 
caster sugar 175g
Put everything into a saucepan, and add water to just cover the peaches – 500ml or so. Bring it to a simmer, and cook until the peaches are tender and the skins ready to slip off. This may be as little as 3 or 4 minutes if they are ripe, 15-20 if they are firm.

Use a slotted spoon to lift them from the syrup and leave to cool until you can just handle them. Remove all the skin with your fingers and return it to the liquor; put the peeled peaches, covered, in the fridge and save for another occasion.

Allow the syrup to simmer with the skins in it for at least 20 minutes longer (to extract all the colour and flavour), and taste for sweetness. If it's too watery, boil it down a little or add more sugar to taste. Strain the rosy pink liquid, let it cool, then pour it into a deep tray that will fit in your freezer (metal is best). Place it in the freezer and check after half an hour. Once ice crystals start to form, stir every 15 minutes or so with a fork or sturdy balloon whisk until you have a satisfyingly thick slush. If it gets too hard, thaw it a little before serving – it can be stored this way (frozen solid) for weeks.
When ready to serve remove the slush from  freezer and fill the glasses 1/3 full of tonic water. Spoon the slush onto the tonic water and stir it into the tonic until you have filled the glasses almost to the top.

And while I am on the subject of rosé drinks (whose colour is about as beautiful as can be, especially on a sunny day, lets talk about the other drink putting smiles on everyone´s faces this summer - The Rosé-Aperol Spritz

 A colour so vivid it doesn’t need an Instagram filter.

A traditional Aperol spritz is Aperol + Prosecco, splash of soda, orange slice, and that is a thing of beauty and refreshment. The rosé spritz recipe adds passion fruit juice  which is sweet-sour so it doesn’t make the cocktail too sugary. You’ll still need a little sugar to balance out the bitterness of the Aperol, and lime juice for tartness that keeps the cocktail from being monotonous. You can play around with other combos (Mango! Lychee! Guava!) but  it’s hard to top passion fruit.Try and go for tropical juices, but not pineapple (too acidic), and keep an eye on juice colour that's as close to clear as possible or the drink will get cloudy like a summer rainstorm. This recipe calls for sparkling rosé, but get this—if you make this exact recipe as I did with regular, non-sparkling rosé wine and tonic water, it´s even better. No matter what, though, garnish with an orange slice and switch your email to sleep setting or out-of-office automated reply.

Rosé - Aperol Spritz

4–6 servings

¾ cup passion fruit juice, chilled
¼ cup Aperol
¼ cup fresh lime juice
4 teaspoons sugar
750ml bottle sparkling rosé, chilled
33cl  tonic water
Orange wedges (for serving) 

Whisk passion fruit juice, Aperol, lime juice and sugar in a large pitcher until sugar is dissolved. Stir in rosé.Serve spritz in large ice-filled wine glasses. Garnish with an orange wedge.