Essential Beach Drink Recipes

If you just read the previous post, you'll probably need one or two of these. Everyone of these secret drink recipes was purchased from professional bartenders that frequent 5 five star resorts in Barbados, Antigua and Havana for enourmous tips. Some of these tips included don't spit in the wind and the revered favorite, buy AT&T. Don't share these secret recipes with even your closest friends - save them for that rich old aunt.

Mojitos
A popular Cuban drink, mojitos will leave your mouth minty fresh. The mint sprigs give the rum an added kick of flavor that helps it go down nice and smooth.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz light rum
12 mint or spearmint leaves (8 crushed)
Juice of 1/2 lime
Jigger simple syrup
Club soda
Lime wedge
split of sugar cane

Mix the rum, crushed mint sprigs, lime juice and sugar in your shaker with ice. Shake well and pour into a glass. Add a splash of club soda. Garnish with a lime wedge, sugar cane and mint sprig for an extra taste.

Mai tai
A potent cocktail that will leave your taste buds feeling wonderfully refreshed.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz light rum
1.5 oz dark rum
0.75 oz triple sec
0.75 oz amaretto
3 oz lime juice
0.75 oz simple syrup
Pineapple garnish
Mix all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into a glass over crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple slice.

Sangría
A must for all wine lovers, this traditional Spanish drink gives wine a fun twist. Traditional Sangría is made with red wine, but you can substitute the red for white wine and you'll have Sangría blanco.
Ingredients:
1 thinly sliced orange
1 thinly sliced lemon
2 tbsp sugar
1 bottle chilled dry red wine
4 oz cognac
2 oz triple sec
2 tbsp orange juice
8 oz cold seltzer or club soda
Ice cubes

In a bowl, crush and mix the orange and lemon slices with the sugar. It's recommended to use a wooden spoon. Then add the red wine, cognac, triple sec and orange juice. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a serving bowl or pitcher. Chill until ready to serve; stir in seltzer and add ice cubes just before serving.

Sex on the Beach
A great choice to celebrate a cool summer breeze, or to relieve those unbearably hot days. This fruity drink will leave your taste buds refreshed and wanting more.
Ingredients:
1 oz vodka
1 oz peach schnapps
Orange juice
Cranberry juice
Combine the vodka and peach schnapps in the shaker. Fill with equal amounts orange and cranberry juice. Shake well and serve with ice.

Piña Colada
Bring back the feel of the Caribbean with this tasty pineapple-coconut flavored drink. A perfect drink for those lazy days relaxing by the pool or beach.
Ingredients:
1.5 cup ice
1/2 cup frozen diced pineapple
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz coconut cream
1.5 oz white rum
1 oz dark rum
Pineapple slices
Mix the ice, frozen pineapple, juice, coconut cream and the white and dark rums into a blender. Blend until smooth. Garnish with pineapple slices.

Banana Daiquiri
Fruit smoothies, move over. Daiquiris allow you to get creative with your favorite fruits, giving any party an added tropical flair. While the Banana Daiquiri comes highly recommended, you can easily substitute the banana for your favorite fruit, like mango or strawberry.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz light rum
1.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.75 oz triple sec
Ripe banana
Lime wedges

Fill the blender with ice and add the rum, triple sec, lime juice and banana. Mix until smooth. Garnish with lime wedges. If you want to be more creative with your fruits, like in a "Banana Strawberry Peach Daiquiri," just add the extra fruit.

Margarita
You can never go wrong with the classic margarita, but the frozen versions are especially invigorating on a warm summer night.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz tequila
0.75 oz triple sec
Splash of sour
Dash of lime juice

For the classic margarita, mix the ingredients in a shaker. Serve on the rocks with a salted rim. For the frozen margaritas, blend the ingredients with ice and add your favorite fruit, such as strawberries.

Red Death
If rum and tequila make your stomach turn, this cocktail may be for you. It came recommended as "the best drink ever," so it is definitely worth the try. While it may look like a lot of stuff to mix, the combination is quite refreshing.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz vodka
1.5 oz triple sec
0.75 oz lime juice
0.75 oz Southern Comfort
1.5 oz amaretto
0.75 oz sloe gin
Lime juice
Orange juice

Mix the first six ingredients with ice, add a splash of lime juice and top off with orange juice. Shake well. Strain into a glass over crushed ice.

Uncle Sam watches alarmed as Asian Skies brew Storm Clouds

Ocean liners of the early 20th century bridged the Atlantic Ocean in 5 days. Zepplins, for their eery, short lives until the Hindenburg lite up the skies of Lakehurst Naval Air Station, in 2 days. Planes in hours as few as 3 for the Mach 1 crowd cruising in claustrophic luxury on the Concord.

Each evolution in transportation technology seemed to shrunk the size of the planet.

Evolutions in communication technologies compress the shrinking planet furhter. TV, Satellite TV and the internet shrink the planet small. Like a cotton shirt that once wore cozy, the world now wears tight and rough.

Ignoring neighbors on this new tiny planet is no longer possible. The internet brings a technology that equals the playing field among countries and emerging countries have emerging energy needs.

The last superpower looks eastward and sees storm clouds gathering quickly as the future brings 300 million Chinese drivers by 2013. There isn't enough oil or production capacity to meet that future demand and prices for oil and all those things that need oil will rise in anticipation.

This Asiatic storm will rain inflation on the world for years before it strikes.

The DOW will drop and drop and plane - it feels like circa 1972, the day before the first U.S. energy crisis. Young adults who never saw anything, but a bull market will be held to their equity holdings like Ahab to Moby Dick and will go down hard financially. They will drown being pulled down by equity loses and their credit card debt, a debt that will grow heavier as inflation brings higher interest rates.

Homes with three generations are just not for immigrant families anymore as sons and daughters return home with spouses and grand kids.

Citizens will flock to churches as the hard times wash over the U.S. These new members will demand less myth and less dogma - big changes visit U.S. Christianity. Gay marriages become ho hum. The nativity scene is looked upon as a quaint tradition. Fundementalists feeling threatened become fearful and hostile, but the center moves leftward and churches that stand still lose membership and become irrelevant (see PCUSA decline in attendance over last 5 and 10 years compared to United Methodist).

But what does 2020 bring?