Bebidas refrescantes..

DINING & WINE

Reflections in an Ice Cube: The Drinks of Memory By PETE WELLS Published: June 27, 2007

ON the most bruising summer days it's hard to imagine ever staring down a stove again. Those are the times when stirring sugar into cold tea feels like all the cooking anyone can handle — and that sweetened drink seems like all the nourishment anyone will ever need. After all, the body can burn spare fat cells for days, but it hits real trouble after a few hours without liquid. No wonder the right summer drink at the right moment feels like a lifeline and can stamp itself on the memory for years. What follows is a series of summer-drink memories brought back from impressively hot places like Iraq, Mexico and Manhattan. All but one ends with a recipe for a favorite summer refresher, and the one that doesn't is about beer. Even when the temperature passes 90 it's difficult to argue that opening a beer constitutes cooking, but the results can be more satisfying than some things that take up several pages in a cookbook.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times THE LIVIN'S EASY The icy drinks of summer are soul mates for meats hot from the grill. Dexter Filkins, Elaine Sciolino, Sam Sifton and others tell tales from the drinking side of the bar.

More on Drinks for Memories.... Iced Coffee? No Sweat Chapter 1: I Drank the Water Forbidden Pleasure in the Desert The Cherries of Persia A Taste of Freedom For a Future That's Always Rosy Dry Dock It's Not

Copyright by the New York Times 2007