

Y'all, if there is any phrase that could serve as the official one for 2020, it would have to be, "Whew. I need a drink!". So, while it's still basically burning up outside, I figured it would be (no pun intended) cool to share with you some alcoholic recipes that center around two themes—summertime and your sex drive. All of these either feature a fruit that is in season during the summer season or they're the type of drink that seems best served during the warmer times of the year. Plus, all of them have ingredients (including alcohol which automatically lowers our inhibitions) that can make you want to enjoy a sunset and then—an even longer night.
So, if you'd like to kick back and enjoy a drink that tastes good and will make your sex life even better, make sure to bookmark this article. That way, next time you go to the grocery and liquor store, you'll know just what to get to boost your libido way up!
1. Kiwi Blackberry Summer Sangria
(Recipe by Yummy Mummy Kitchen)
- A bottle of white wine
- 12 ounce can or container of berry juice
- 3 very ripe kiwis, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 cup of blackberries
- 1/3 cup of loosely packed fresh mint
Put all of the ingredients into a large pitcher. Stir until well mixed with a wooden spoon. Then refrigerate until you're ready to drink it.
I personally don't know anyone who doesn't thoroughly enjoy a tall glass of Sangria. Well, if you want to try one that will help to totally get you in the mood, this one will do it. First up, kiwi (for the record, some are in peak season from March thru June while others are from June thru August), is packed with Vitamin C. Not only does Vitamin C play a significant role in keeping your immune system nice and strong, it also helps to keep hormones like androgen, estrogen and progesterone balanced. Plus, Vitamin C has a pretty good reputation for boosting sex drives and increasing fertility as well.
Then, when you add blackberries (which are their ripest between June and August) into the mix, the Vitamin E (along with Vitamin C) that are in them can increase blood circulation throughout your body (including when it comes to your genitals), intensify your orgasms and can even make you hornier if your libido has been lower lately.
Oh, and of course, the white wine helps. That's because wine contains ethanol which is a type of alcohol that stimulates the part of your brain that regulates your hormone levels and elevates your sex drive.
(As a heads up, I changed the mint from ½ cup to 1/3 cup because too much menthol can actually decrease testosterone levels in some people. If you want to just use it as a garnish, that's cool too.)
2. Chilled Mexican Chocolate Cocktail
(Recipe by Rick Bayless)
- 2 ounces of chilled Mexican hot chocolate
- 1 ½ ounces of añejo tequila
- ½ ounce of ancho chile liqueur
- Shaved Mexican chocolate (for garnish)
Put all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake for 15-20 seconds. Double strain into a martini glass and then add chocolate for garnish.
OK, so I'm kinda already thinking that you've heard somewhere that chocolate is an aphrodisiac. The main two reasons why are because 1) chocolate contains tryptophan which helps to build serotonin; that helps to increase sexual arousal in both men and women, and 2) chocolate has the organic compound phenylethylamine in it; it helps people to feel more attached to one another. As far as tequila (which is made by steaming the agave plant) goes, well—if you've ever had a couple of shots of it before, you know how it can quickly get you to turn up! Many Mexicans consider it to be the strongest of all aphrodisiacs (chile). Chilling this drink makes it the perfect summer deck cocktail.
3. Champagne Ginger Cocktail
(Recipe by The Seasoned Mom)
- 2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup of water
- A pinch ground cinnamon (optional)
- A pinch ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1 bottle of summer champagne
Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl. In a small saucepan, combine ginger, sugar (along with the cinnamon and nutmeg, if you wish) and bring everything to a boil while stirring the mixture for two minutes. Pour the syrup through the sieve. Refrigerate the syrup in a glass bottle. When you're ready to serve the drinks, put a tablespoon of the syrup into a champagne flute and fill the glass with champagne. Serve immediately.
If you didn't know that ginger serves as its own aphrodisiac, now is as a good a time as any to bring that fact up. It's the kind of plant that is great for men as it relates to their strengthening their libido and improving their sperm quality. One study even revealed that ginger is a natural way to help treat erectile dysfunction. And, if you add it to a nice rosé—which is more "summery" than say, a red wine—it can feel light and festive. Oh, and while adding cinnamon and nutmeg is totally up to you, cinnamon is a sexy scent that is able to warm up your body in a way that simulates feeling aroused while nutmeg is a stimulant that has been associated with natural ways to treat infertility.
4. Grapefruit and Cucumber-Infused Cocktail
(Recipe by Modest Marce)
For the cucumber-infused vodka:
- 1 cup of vodka
- ½ cucumber, sliced
For the cocktail:
- 1 ½ ounce of cucumber infused vodka
- 1 teaspoon of white sugar
- 2 ounces of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
- 1 to 2 ounces of sparkling water
- ½ cucumber, sliced for garnish
In order to infuse the cucumbers with the vodka, place both ingredients into a glass jar and let everything sit overnight. The next day, strain out the cucumber slices. Put the vodka, along with all of the other ingredients, into a cocktail shaker. Shake for 30-40 seconds. Then pour the drink into a glass that is filled with ice and serve immediately.
For the most part, the top of the year through August is the best time to slice open a couple of grapefruits. On the libido-boosting tip, it's a fruit that is loaded with Vitamin C, folic acid and antioxidants. The combination of those nutrients is able to increase your sex drive. Plus, if you're a woman who has been experiencing a low level of estrogen, this is a fruit that can actually alter the enzyme aromatase, so that the testosterone in your system can be turned into estrogen. The cucumbers in this drink contain Vitamin B3 to keep you and your partner's hormones well-balanced. If you wanna kick things up a couple of more notches, try some Lust Vodka. You can read why I say so here.
5. Spicy Ancho Chile Daiquiri
(Recipe by Vine Pair)
- 1 ounce of rum
- 1 ounce of Ancho Reyes Verde
- 1 ounce of lime juice
- ½ ounce of simple syrup
- 1 cup of ice
Combine all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake them for 30 seconds and strain them in a serving glass. Add a fresh chile (if you'd like) for garnish.
Limes are at their best if you cop them between May and October. Since they're considered to be a citrus fruit, they can help your sex life out because they've got vitamins B and C, along with potassium and folic acid. Vitamins B and C are great for maintaining overall sexual health, folic acid keeps women's reproductive health intact and potassium can help to keep your blood pressure low so that blood circulation flows freely and your partner's erections remain strong and long.
6. Gin Cocktail with Honey and Lemon Cordial
(Recipe by Simply-Delicious-Food)
- ¾ cup fynbos honey
- 2 cups water
- ¾ cup muscovado dark brown sugar
- Juice and zest of 4 lemons
Put all of the ingredients into a saucepan and bring them to a boil. Turn down the burner and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes until it turns an amber color. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to completely cool down. Then strain the lemon zest. Pour the liquid into glass bottles and refrigerate until the drink is cold. (This should last for a couple of months if you keep the bottles in the refrigerator.)
Lemons are also a citrus fruit. But aside from the other libido-boosting benefits that I've already mentioned, there are a few more reasons to want to get more lemons into your system when it comes to improving your sexual health and, ultimately your sex life. Lemons are able to assist in detoxifying your system; the less toxins you've got, the easier it will be for your blood to flow through your system. Lemons also contain anti-inflammatory properties that can support your man's erections to last longer. Lemons can kick your metabolism into overdrive and, thanks to the citrate that's in them, lemons can help to reduce any bodily pain or discomfort you might be feeling too. Plus, if you add a little bit of honey into the mix, honey can make the drink and its after-effects that much sweeter due to the B vitamins in it that will assist in the production of your partner's testosterone as the boron that's also in it will elevate your estrogen levels, just a tad.
7. The Summer Fling
(Recipe by I'd Rather Be a Chef)
- 1 bottle of rosé
- 10 strawberries, sliced
- 1/2 lemon, sliced
- 2 1/2 cups of lemonade
- 1 bottle champagne or cava
Put the sliced strawberries and lemons into a glass pitcher. Then add the champagne and lemon, cover the pitcher, and put the mixture into the freezer so that it can marinate for at least 4-5 hours. Next, fill your champagne flutes up halfway, topping your glasses off with champagne or cava.
Honestly, May and June are the time of the year when you're almost guaranteed to get a deliciously sweet batch of strawberries, pretty much any time you go to the store. But if you purchase some now until summer ends, you should still be alright. Good thing too because strawberries top the list of being a super sexy fruit. Besides them being sexy to watch someone eat, strawberries are another fruit that are high in Vitamin C. Not only that, but strawberries are full of zinc; zinc can help to increase your vaginal lubrication while keeping your partner's sperm nice and healthy. The aphrodisiacs in these types of berries can increase blood circulation too, including the blood that goes down to you and yours' genitalia and—well, we already discussed that that can do. #wink
8. Saratoga Cocktail
(Recipe by Cold-Glass)
- 1 ounce of brandy
- 1 ounce of rye whiskey
- 1 ounce of sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
- A couple of orange slices
Combine all of the ingredients into a glass bottle. Then pour into a chilled cocktail glass that's filled with ice cubes and garnish it with a slice of orange.
This drink gets its own shout-out because bitters are also a wonderful detoxifier. As a bonus, bitters have also been attributed to helping to alleviate back pain and stomachaches. This is great to know if your head wants to get some, but your body isn't totally into the idea—just yet. A couple of glasses of this and you could be good to go in under an hour or less. So, drink up while the summer is still super hot (and can get even hotter), sis!
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It's kinda wild that, in 2025, my byline will have appeared on this platform for (what?!) seven years. And yeah, when I'm not waxing poetic on here about sex, relationships and then...more sex and relationships, I am working as a certified marriage life coach, helping to birth babies (as a doula) or penning for other places (oftentimes under pen names).
As some of you know, something that I've been "threatening" to do for a few years now is write another book. Welp, October 2024 was the month that I "gave birth" to my third one: 'Inside of Me 2.0: My Story. With a 20-Year Lens'. It's fitting considering I hit a milestone during the same year.
Beyond that, Pumas and lip gloss are still my faves along with sweatshirts and tees that have a pro-Black message on them. I've also started really getting into big ass unique handbags and I'm always gonna have a signature scent that ain't nobody's business but my own.
As far as where to find me, I continue to be MIA on the social media front and I honestly don't know if that will ever change. Still, if you need to hit me up about something *that has nothing to do with pitching on the site (I'm gonna start ignoring those emails because...boundaries)*, hit me up at missnosipho@gmail.com. I'll do what I can. ;)
Eva Marcille On Starring In 'Jason’s Lyric Live' & Being An Audacious Black Woman
Eva Marcille has taken her talents to the stage. The model-turned-actress is starring in her first play, Jason’s Lyric Live alongside Allen Payne, K. Michelle, Treach, and others.
The play, produced by Je’Caryous Johnson, is an adaptation of the film, which starred Allen Payne as Jason and Jada Pinkett Smith as Lyric. Allen reprised his role as Jason for the play and Eva plays Lyric.
While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Raven-Symoné & Her Wife Miranda Get Real About Intimacy & Why They Sleep In Separate Bedrooms
Raven-Symoné and her wife Miranda Pearman-Maday are proof that doing marriage your way is the only way.
In a recent solo episode of their podcast Tea Time w/ Raven & Miranda, the couple revealed that they've started to share separate bedrooms, and no, it's not because they're having problems. In fact, the decision has actually brought them closer. "Let's normalize it," Miranda said of sleeping in separate bedrooms, calling it a move that improved their relationship and their marriage for the better.
"We really function in better in separate spaces, especially when it comes to sleep," she explained on the podcast. "And I was like, 'We should have separate bedrooms.' And then we can decorate our bedrooms as we want, number one, which is great because you had a different vibe, so we both wanted to have different style of bedrooms. Now we get to have that. And we aren't fucking up each other's sleep schedules. Primarily, you're not fucking mine up, which is getting up at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. Raven, babes, you love to sleep in the reverse orientation."
She wasn't exaggerating either. Raven admitted that she has always had an issue with sleeping in normal orientation, dating back to her childhood. "When I was younger, I've always had a problem with staying in one orientation when I slept. My mom said that she would not like to sleep with me. And I would kick people when I sleep with them. And so I remember when we got engaged. We slept in my old house and you told me that when you woke up, my ass was in your face because I had turned my body around."
"One night, you literally flipped. I thought you were awake because it was so, it was so violent. Like you were sleeping on your side away from me. You flip yourself up and over, you like kinda sit up, and you had no clue where you were because you put your entire ass on my face. Both cheeks were suffocating me. Boom, it was impact," Miranda recalls. "And I was like, this is, this is going to be a challenge."
Suffice it to say, the incident became an issue. One that they needed to find a solution for. "So now," Raven said, "we've decided I'm sleeping in a separate room from you." The compromise? Whenever they need each other, "We text," Miranda added.
Despite where your mind might go when you hear "separate bedrooms" in someone's relationship, the pair assured that the move has helped their intimacy more than it's hindered it. "I will say it has upped my [feels] for you," Raven told Miranda. "There's a little bit of, I believe, in absence makes the heart grow fonder. We work together, we live together, we eat together, we cook together, we drive together. It's like, I'm going to have a little time to myself, and I think that it's actually helping."
Even with the perks of better sleep and better intimacy that have come with their decision to separate their marital bed, Miranda admitted that if someone had suggested to her separate bedrooms a year ago, she would've panicked.
Together since 2015 and married since 2020, Miranda revealed that the would-be solution initially had her questioning, "Does this mean divorce?" But she chalked that up to programming. "I was very much from a space where I was taking my information from heterosexual [relationships], [and feeling like] this is the best way," she said.
Raven also took the conversation deeper, pointing out how many people conflate sex with love, especially when it comes to intimacy. "I also think if you are basing your entire relationship on sex, then you're not really understanding what intimacy is. You're not understanding what deep love is because you can have a deep, loving, intimate relationship with someone and not have sex. Sex is like a cherry on top. You know what I mean? That's like a oooh, it's built up so much I got to release."
She continued, "I don't think sex defines a relationship. I think sex is lustful. And I think that a deep marriage and a deep intimate relationship is where I can literally be just looking at you, and I can be like... And you know what that means."
"And I know what that means," Miranda echoed.
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