A Refreshing Summer Drink, Part Deux

Here's all the stuff you need. Note the lock on the cabinet, owing to Vicar's (not shown) ability to open doors even without an opposable thumb...

Two years ago to the day, I posted a suggestion for a great summer drink.

Here is another glorious and yet facile summer quaff: lychee soda.

You may be familiar with lychees as a dessert fruit served in Chinese restaurants. They are available canned or fresh. They are sweet and juicy, sublime in texture, and quite simply, edenic awesomeness. Coca Cola sells a lychee soda (available for sampling at the Coke Museum in Atlanta), but it is not available in the U.S. - unless you make your own!

And it's really (no, really really!) easy.

Here is what you need:

1) A double shot glass.

Your shot glass may differ based on regional exigencies...

2) Lychee syrup (I got mine from Hong Kong Market in Gretna, pics here).

Avoid the temptation to stick your tongue in the carton like a hummingbird...

3) Mineral water (or club soda)

4) Tall glass.

Plastic has advantages, right Mrs. H.?

5) Cat is optional.

It was nice of Athena to share her counter and to make herself available for pictures

Fill the double jigger halfway with the lychee syrup (or, following a sophisticated mathematical algorithm, fill a single shot all the way to the top - though such scrawny vessels intended to serve alcoholic beverages may actually be illegal in the New Orleans area, Napoleonic Law and all that...). Fill up the glass with mineral water. Pour in the lychee syrup. Mix thoroughly. Adjust to taste. Add ice if you wish.

Voilà!

This just may be the finest thing you will taste this side of heaven.

Lychees in their raw splendor

"Home sweet home," Athena is happy to be back on top of the Euro Pro toaster oven

Bonus: Click here for boring home movie footage of us buying lychees at Hong Kong Market.