Beverages — “28 to Make”

28 to make is a creativity challenge from CreativeLive. Participants create and share a quick sketch every day for 28 days. I’m doing the same but with words.

Each day in February, I’ll set a timer for 20 minutes and write a “sketch” inspired by the prompt for the day.

Day 1: Sketch your Beverage.

Here a few words on my favorite drinks.

Perrier

Perrier is the perfect seltzer water, and it’s the only thing I can drink out of a green bottle without incurring consequences (more on that in a second.)

It has the literary endorsement of one of my favorite authors, Ian Fleming, who remarked: “expensive soda is one of the few ways to improve a poor drink.” Of all the brand mentioned in his James Bond novels, it was one of the few that readers in his day could actually afford

San Pellegrino is too salty. La Croix would be fine if I could remember which flavors I like, but since I can’t, drinking it is like Russian roulette and sometimes I get the one that tastes like Hawaiian Tropic sunblock.

Espresso

I make it at home in a Bialetti stovetop Moka Pot. It works as a base for all kinds of hot and cold coffee drinks. Contrary to popular belief, espresso doesn’t require superior beans or a good grind as long as you use a dark roast, so it’s a good way to save money on coffee.

I carry that heavy, clunky espresso pot on hikes and trips into the backcountry. To me, the morale boost of good coffee is worth the weight and room it takes up in my pack.

Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Coffee

“America runs on Dunkin’” and so do I. I’ll drink their iced coffee any time of year, any time of day. I crave it when I travel abroad.

On a road trip down South, I learned the hard way that I have to explain what “black” means when I order.

“Black, as in no cream, no sugar.”

“You don’t want sugar?”

“No sugar, just coffee.”

“And ice…”

“Yes. And Ice.”

Jameson (But Not Anymore)

My last adult beverage was a Jameson on the rocks on July 19th, 2014 in an expat bar in South Korea.