I celebrated the end of summer yesterday not by putting away my white clothes (which, given Spanish fashion standards, would have gone unnoticed anyway) but by going out for one last tinto de verano. In Spain, the idea of eating seasonally is taken quite literally—ice cream stores shut down from November to April, and you can’t find a cocido in July to save your life. They even drink seasonally.
Winter drinks are what you’d expect: hot chocolate and coffee, in its many, many renditions. Summer drinks are far more wide-ranging. There are granizados—basically lemon or coffee-flavored Slurpees. There is horchata, a sweet, milky liquid made from the chufa root. There are blanco y negros, made from coffee and ice cream. There are the Shandy-like claras. And then there is tinto de verano, which requires pouring a good dose of Sprite into a tall glass of red wine over ice. Sounds disgusting, but it’s actually quite refreshing. (Not quite as refreshing as the Vargas, which is served only in Córdoba. The Vargas often substitutes lemon soda for the Sprite. No one knows for sure where the name came from, but it appears to have something to do with an advertising campaign and a speech impediment.)
Despite 90 degree temperatures outside, everyone knows that both Vargas and tintos de verano are not long for this world. After all, it’s fall.
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