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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Hannah Crosbie

YOU WONT BELIEVE: Why summer s a time to pass the port - What They Never Told You

Not just for Christmas: a white port and tonic cocktail (with salted almonds) as a summer cooler.
Not just for Christmas: a white port and tonic cocktail (with salted almonds) as a summer cooler. Photograph: StockFood GmbH/Alamy

Some drinks are so inexorably tied up with specific seasons and circumstances that it’s hard to imagine them anywhere else. Like bumping into a teacher outside school or witnessing someone take off their shoes during a flight. It’s legal, sure, but there’s always a moment of deep discomfort and confusion before acceptance. And that’s pretty much how I imagine many people feel about drinking port in summer. Or, indeed, at any time of the day that isn’t evening, or served alongside anything that isn’t an intriguing, veiny cheese.

Consider Porto, the city responsible for bringing the drink to the rest of the world – do you think that, when the temperatures creep up, everyone there stops drinking the stuff? No, they find new ways to enjoy it. Improvise, adapt, overcome.

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