What do you do when it’s too hot to cook? Get take-out? Go to a nice, air-conditioned restaurant? Hide in your living room with a bowl full of cold cereal swimming in a white oasis of milk?

I know one thing that goes well with hot, sticky, sweaty, summer heat: alcohol.

Well, that and lemonade. I think more people would probably think of lemonade first. And why not? It is the quintessential summer drink. Kids on street corners have been hawking it for years on summer breaks, hoping to make it big on Mommy’s supply of powdered Country Time. With bubblegum dreams and candy bar wishes, they eagerly pour cup after cup, clueless that their customers are more likely making pity purchases than quenching their parched palates.

I’m a little more grown up than that girl who used to drag her desk down the street to provide perky portions of palate-pleasing punch (I was a little more partial to Kool-Aid at the time). And thanks to some friends who shared their secret last year, I’ve found a great way to make a more mature lemony brew for summertime salvation.

Blueberry vodka and lemonade. Does it get more perfect than that? Okay, raspberry vodka is pretty good in it, too. But I tend to prefer the blueberry sort. Just take your favorite lemonade–be it homemade or not–and add some blueberry vodka over some ice cubes (freezing blueberries into the ice makes for a nice presentation, especially when the ice begins to melt and you get purpley streaks in the glass). Adjust the liquor to your tastes. The great thing about this drink is that if you want to feel it quickly, it goes down easily. YUM!