5:00 Fridays

I bet you are expecting some red, white, and blue whiz bang fireworky cocktail as a nod to America's birthday, right? Well, though I adore birthdays, I loathe the predictable. Instead I'm bringing you a little taste of summer. Nothing says summer in the South like sweet tea. McDonald's even sells sweet tea in these parts. You get like a gallon of tea that's served in some engineering feat of a cup that holds 12 bladders worth of tea and still fits in a standard size car cupholder. For a buck.

Now the 4th of July is one of my favorite parts of summer, even though it marks the halfway mark to summer's end. I get teary listening to patriotic songs and weepy looking at all the flags and buntings hanging from crisply painted white front porches, screen doors hanging askew so they flutter ever so slightly in the passing warm breeze. July 4th is also a nod to the bounty and beauty of summer. We swim. We barbeque. We slip n slide. We bike. We entertain. We picnic. We wave at parade floats. We hum songs we learned in grade school that we pull from our cobwebbed brains. We reach into a packed cooler, perhaps one too many times. We laugh. We frolic. We catch fireflies. We drink in summer's delights.

Some cocktailing friends introduced me to this sweet summer libation. It's from a restaurant called Porter's in Raleigh. And as usual, I have no connection to the joint, nor are they paying me. I just write about what I love.

And I love a summer drink.

Here's my take on Porter's Arnold Porter:

You basically just take your classic Arnold Palmer and give it a good jolt of electroshock therapy.

Make a batch of sweet tea. Pour a couple ounces into a tall glass loaded with ice. Add a shot of Absolut Citron. Top off with some sour mix and handful of fresh mint. Squeeze in a couple lemon wedges and muddle it all up. Slap a lemon slice on the rim of the glass and you're all set. You must drink this one with a straw. Slowly.

In the words of my friend who turned me onto this taste of summer in a glass, "Oh, this is one of those really dangerous drinks!"

If you're really feeling dangerous (you cougar, you!), use Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka instead of sweet tea. And don't be a dumbass and drive, mkay?

Happy 4th of July! I'm not letting summer go without a fight.