Grapefruit Soda with Honey, Basil & Fresh Lemon

I must start off today’s post by wishing a Happy 4th of July to all of our American friends on Saturday! (and an equally happy belated Canada Day to all our Canadian readers last Wednesday 🙂 )

As a culture, Canadians tend to scoff at light beer (light meaning light in alcohol and calorie content, not light in colour- we still love a lager). What kind of watered down, flavourless swill is that? We’re tough lumberjacks, EH.

I generally felt the same way until I found myself in Tucson, Arizona one summer during a record breaking heatwave (note: a heatwave in Arizona is not the same as a ‘heatwave’ elsewhere it’s… sort of like the surface of the sun?).

I don’t remember what kind of light beer they were drinking, but I do remember being- I’ll admit- kind of a snot about it. I talked some game. I did. I tossed my Canadian head and joked about ‘real drinks.’ I might have even used the term ‘piss.’

I was young, I was foolish. Forgive me.

Under a blazing sun, in inescapable heat… well, a light beer, frankly, is all you can take. Sure, a cold beer on a hot day is pretty much liquid heaven, but I don’t want that one bottle to bring down my already heat exhausted (and likely dehydrated) body. All of a sudden I got it. I got the point of light beer.

As I’m sure you’ve heard Chelsea and I mention countless times already now, Vancouver has been experiencing its own heatwave as of late. Actually, its been going for quite a while now. Uncharacteristically, summer started for us back in May and hasn’t let up since. Not that we’re complaining… 🙂

With a steady stream of hot, sunny days I have noticed my usual summer alcohol consumption has curbed. Sure, the first couple days were super novel and it was all gin and tonics and chilled rosé on every patio we could find! Summer! Heat! Celebrate! But then… well the beautiful days continued, and continued, and continued… and that kind of lifestyle just isn’t sustainable (no matter how much we both would like it to be).

I’m not saying Chels or I are going dry, but we’ve both admitted that breaking up the patio schedule with booze-free bevvies once in a while is- quite literally- really refreshing.

In typical Port and Fin fashion however, don’t think this means we’re sticking to water and Coke. Another opportunity to play with flavours, how could we resist?

Two kind of citrus (lemon and grapefruit) and muddled fresh basil, sweetened up with a little honey- and I do encourage you to use honey if you can, it’s got a distinctive flavour that sugar or other sweeteners lack which really makes a difference here.

Cutting the whole mixture with some sparkling water lightens the entire drink up, making it extra refreshing and that much more hydrating in the summer heat.

Of course, we’re not saying you can’t naughty up this drink. I won’t lie, I spiked this with vodka a couple weeks back for a dinner party and it went down really, really well.

Aaaand in typical Port and Fin fashion, there it is. We’ll always give you a boozy option, too. Just in case 😉