With retirement comes the extra importance of the Pleasant Little Ritual. Once a month, I visit my bank to deposit checks, buy a roll of quarters, say "Hi!" to a real human teller, etc. Conveniently located across the street is the Avenue Pub, another one of my regular stops and this is where I adjourn after taking care of bank business. This cozy pub and restaurant is usually quiet during the day and I nearly always sit in the same place -- that little table in the corner towards the back -- where I always order the same thing: a bowl of chili topped with "everything" and a frosty cold Margarita on the rocks. If there is one area where I've done dedicated research, it is the Margarita. I've sipped my favorite drink from one end of the country to the other -- Chicago, IL, Santa Barbara, CA, Cresco, IA, an Amtrak dining car out in the middle of somewhere, and even a Florida kitchen where Char and George prepared my favorite cocktail just for me. From time to time, I've tried commercially-prepared, prepackaged "mixed" drinks but I had mixed feelings about them as they often had a weird, almost chemical flavor and strange aftertaste. When it came to prepackaged drinks, I guess I was like Elizabeth Taylor and men ... no matter how often she was disappointed, she must have always thought the next one would work out. The very concept of "alcohol already in it" just sang to me the other day and that's how I ended up with a pouch of ***Daily's Ready to Drink Frozen Margarita***. **WHAT THIS IS:** ***Daily's Ready to Drink Cocktails and Mixers ***are actually shelf-stable products which require no refrigeration until you prepare to enjoy them. The tiny print on the package was hard to read even before I was drunk. Almost lost among a list of additives unknown to the bartender at the Avenue Pub is 1% lime juice but instead of Tequila, the alcohol here is wine. (These are basically wine mixers.) When the time comes, you put the ***Daily's Ready to Drink Frozen Margarita*** in the freezer for eight hours, gently massage before serving, and run warm water over the pouch to speed up the thawing process. All of this results in a "slushy" type of cocktail. Because I prefer my Margarita on the rocks (not frozen) I only chilled it for a couple hours. **STATS:** The contents of each 10 fl. oz. pouch is a single serving packing 280 calories with zero Fats, 150 mg. Sodium, 44 grams Total Carbs, and 36 grams Sugars. **TASTE TIP:** The pouch is designed so that the cocktail can be sipped right out of the package but to do so is to miss out on a lot of the fun. I poured my ***Daily's Ready to Drink Frozen Margarita ***into a clear glass 16 oz. tumbler and enjoyed a few sips to analyze the taste for this review. I would have liked the drink just the way it was but I found that it could be further enhanced with the addition of a dash of [Simply Limeade][1] Juice. **MY VIEWPOINT:** A ***Daily's Ready to Drink Mixed Cocktail or Mixer ***is a sweet, sweet beverage but also flavorful and refreshing. The ***Frozen Margarita ***I enjoyed was a lovely color -- light green which was clearly artificial but added to the fun element and didn't detract from the taste or quality of the libation. Such a sweet drink serves as both a beverage and a dessert and was the perfect partner to a light supper sandwich made of whole grain toast spread with [Promise][2] and packed with two [Market Day Mini-Omelets][3] . ***Daily's Ready to Drink Mixed Cocktails *****or Mixers** are not the type of treat you should have every day and they wouldn't be special then anyway, but I can definitely recommend them for a Pleasant Little Ritual now and then, whether you are retired or not. , [1]: http://www.viewpoints.com/Simply-Limeade-review-a50e3 [2]: http://www.viewpoints.com/promise-Buttery-Spread-review-f4355 [3]: http://www.viewpoints.com/Market-Day-Mini-Omelets-review-aa390

AnnaBanana

Oak Park, IL