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By Root 177 0

is pure genius—and yet the reality of a commercial wine cooler is pathetic. You must remember those: they’re a candy-colored, sweetened gateway booze for seventh-graders. Whatever’s in them, it sure ain’t wine. Eager to reclaim wine coolers for adult consumption, we concocted this strawberry formula made with fresh berries buzzed in a blender, and encouraged by our success, went on to create the honeydew and tangerine variations that follow. Like a good sangria, these recipes marry the flavors of the wine and the fruit in a way that’s balanced, luscious, and off-dry, but still interesting, with the flavor of real fruit and a nice kick. They’re super-colorful too. For larger parties and barbecues, we prepare all three variations, whose pink-green-orange colors look coloring-book cute. Enjoy, but definitely keep an eye on the kids. (See photograph.)

1 pound fresh strawberries (not frozen), rinsed and hulled

2 ounces vodka

Generous pinch of kosher salt (essential, not optional)

Two 750 ml bottles off-dry white wine, such as an American-grown Riesling, chilled

1 Keep 6 strawberries for garnish. Combine the rest of the strawberries, the vodka, the salt, and 1¾ cups of the wine in a blender, and puree on the highest setting for about 1 minute, until smooth and frothy. Strain the mixture through a coarse-mesh strainer or colander into a quart-size pitcher to remove any large bits of pulp. Agitate and press the mash in the strainer with a wooden spoon to release as much liquid as possible. (Chef gets first dibs on the strawberry pulp foam, which is best eaten directly from the strainer.) Serve immediately, or if time permits, cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2 To serve, fill 6 large wineglasses with ice cubes and pour in the strawberry mixture until each glass is only half full. Top each glass with a couple splashes of cold wine, stir with a clean index finger, and garnish with a split strawberry on the rim of the glass.

VARIATIONS

honeydew wine coolers Substitute 1 pound cubed honeydew melon (about 3 cups) for the strawberries.

tangerine wine coolers In this blender-less variation, we use 2 cups of hand- or machine-squeezed fresh tangerine juice blended with ½ cup water in place of the strawberries. Mix this directly in the pitcher with the vodka, the salt, and the 1¾ cups wine, and skip the straining step. If you have access to a blender and don’t mind cleaning it, then pulse the mixture for a minute to aerate the brew and thicken the cooler before pouring it into the ice-filled glasses, and topping them off with the cold white wine.

red strawberry wine coolers Instead of topping up the glasses with the white wine in the final step, top them with a couple splashes of a chilled dry red wine to intensify the color, reduce the sweetness, and bring out a more complex, sangria-like flavor.

APPLEJACK PUNCH

serves 4 • TIME: 5 minutes

Our apple cocktail marries two of the Western Hemisphere’s finest spirits, applejack and rum, in a drink that is fundamentally dry and elegant but has a nice sweet-and-sour kick. The apple impression comes through in a subtle way—a shot of pure juice reinforced by the faint apple flavor of the applejack, which is simply a brandy distilled from apples, akin to Normandy’s calvados or Brittany’s lambig.

Applejack is America’s oldest native-grown spirit, much more significant to the cultural life of the early republic than we might imagine, considering its barely perceptible standing today in a crowded field of vodkas, gins, and whiskeys.

None other than George Washington himself was responsible for turning the state of Virginia on to applejack in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and in the 1830s Abraham Lincoln served applejack—among other beverages—in his Springfield, Illinois, tavern. Today Laird and Company, of Scobeyville, New Jersey, is the sole American firm producing apple brandy, and most retailers and many bars stock a bottle of Laird’s Applejack (though you may have trouble convincing the proprietor to locate it). Using a French apple