I spend most of these warm summer days indoors, writing frightening verse to a bucktooth girl in Luxembourg. But on those occasions when I feel the need to leave the creature comforts of recirculated air and travel outdoors through this Dante Alighieri-inspired heatwave, I always make sure to take the time to hydrate. Sometimes more than once.
According to EMSA, over the past month, paramedics have responded to over 50 heat-related calls and while I am no doctor—not in the legal sense, at least—I’m sure many of those events could’ve been easily remedied with an ice-cold 16 oz. plastic cup of varied refreshment, adding flavorful coolant to the flesh radiator that is the overheated human body. Over the past few weeks, I’ve sampled numerous chilled beverages in the Metro area and, while by no means scientific, here are the five most refreshing drinks I’ve personally cooled off with this summer.