Foodie Friday: The Almighty Swank

Swank for the pur­poses of this post is a drink, not a com­pany or a Hilary or a hus­tle. Although there is some­thing to be said for Urban Dictionary’s take.

Alto­gether, Swank–the drink rises above all else to defy definition.

Food Enthu­si­ast Cyn­thia Nel­son did a rather suc­cinct piece on Caribbean-style Lemon­ade, which is as she rightly stated, per­haps the best sub­sti­tute for what I know and love as Swank, but she also referred to as Lime Water, and Wash.

Not sound­ing too appeal­ing to the unini­ti­ated. Well, Swank is nei­ther com­edy nor tragedy. It is delicacy–easy, lip-smacking debauch­ery. If you have high brow ten­den­cies, turn away now.

Swank feels like so much acci­den­tal over­dose of sugar and water. In fact some call it sugar water to some­times den­i­grate it, but mostly that was what it was.

Swank is a lot mem­ory. I don’t know when last I have had the plea­sure. Maybe when my brother lived with me, and that was an acci­dent too, because the boy just had a ten­dency to make his tea, and my drink long as we would say back home. And of course, any­thing on the watered-down side was always lov­ingly called Swank in our house.

I couldn’t shame him though, because just like any true Swank he was mak­ing the best out of his skill set and the ingredients.

Swank is a “refresh­ing” liq­uid com­bi­na­tion that have brought many back from the brink. Con­sider the mem­o­ries of Roy J, my co-worker hail­ing from Guyana, who you met here:

“After a hard day’s labor under the sun, you’d come home and this drink, swank–it would be kept in earthen jars back in the day you know–it was just the most refresh­ing thing. This was before folks like my grand­par­ents had refrig­er­a­tors. And it could be lime and water where they would add a lit­tle essence for a spe­cial fla­vor, or it could have been just the sugar water, but it was always just what the doc­tor ordered.”

Swank is prepa­ra­tion. Whether it’s a sour orange, or some other hybrid mixed to taste with water and plenty sugar, or a Quench Aid (Kool-Aid) mix, or even the sugar water basics, you have to learn to work with what you got.

So bear with it, but what­ever you do, please don’t knock it until you try it.

Have you ever had swank? What does your ver­sion of swank taste like? How do you mix it up?

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