Today's cocktail: Bacardi

Today's ingredients: white rum, lime juice, grenadine

Today's vocabulary: subtractive color

I've long held a palpable dislike for the color yellow. Never thought it looked right, and it may be entirely mental, but I won't say I haven't felt some physical discomfort in the presence of too much of the color. Yellow houses? You have to be kidding me. Yellow clothes? Good for newborns for about a minute. Yellow submarine? Not a Beatles fan (seriously). It's like anything yellow is just trying too hard to be happy, screaming to the world, "Hey! Look at this! It's happy! You could be, too!". Bah humbug. I'll take some nice earth tones any day over that mess.

Come to find out, yellow is part of the subtractive color system. What does that mean? Not much unless you're a graphic designer, stage lighting technician (it's called "amber" here), or ophthalmologist. It does, however, start to explain my slightly less-demonic distaste for pinks and light blues. Now, don't get me wrong: I can appreciate pastels, usually when used in chalks and watercolors, but not really in many other contexts. Take cocktails, for example: pink = fruity = girly = too much trouble. That said...

I give up. Warm weather is upon us, and it's time to start breaking out "cooler" types of concoctions, drinks that will help push away the heat of the day, refresh you, and still taste okay if they warm a little (unlike my lawn-mowing beer, which you have to shotgun before it tastes like, well, anything). So, with that in mind...

Bacardi

It's pink. Oh man, is it pink, and not in that soft, Easter bunny way. This is approaching T-Mobile magenta, though not quite, BUT... we'll give it the benefit of the doubt here since it's pretty darned easy to make:

• 4.5cl / 1.5oz Bacardi white rum
• 2cl / .67oz fresh lime juice
• 1cl / .33oz grenadine
• Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice cubes, shake, and strain into (chilled) cocktail glass.

That's cake, and that's about all there is to say about this one. The lime juice will be the primary flavor, grenadine will be the primary color, and white rum will simply provide alcohol content. All in all, it's still a dead-simple, light, refreshing cocktail to break out if you're sitting on the porch swing, patio recliner, or carport couch. Depending on how hot the day is or if you hold the glass by the bowl and not the stem, a single small ice cube won't hurt it. Whiskey stones will look a little drab in there unless you have some lighter-colored ones on-hand. As far as I know, they don't make yellow stones, so you're safe there.