Category: Blogs

As much as I’ve tried to be a tea gal, the truth is… espresso will always be far superior in my eyes. Sue me! I’ve bought the ceremonial-grade powder that costs way too much. I try to romanticize it with a mason jar and glass straw. I gaslit myself into thinking the grassy taste was “earthy” and “elevated.” But no matter how hard I committed, I found myself missing that rich, bold hit of espresso. Especially on hot summer mornings when hot coffee feels a bit too heavy and iced tea just isn’t giving me the jolt of energy I desperately need.

Then, one day in our work chat, I saw the phrase “Espresso Lemonade” hit my screen. It felt like a threat—are we just mixing anything these days? Where’s our decorum? But with my coworkers raving about it, I gave in. And thank God I did. Espresso Lemonade is that girl.

Why Espresso Lemonade works

If you’re side-eyeing right now, I get it. Espresso and lemonade sound like they belong on opposite ends of the beverage spectrum. But together? They’re surprisingly balanced. The tangy citrus cuts through the espresso’s boldness in the best way, giving you a drink that’s bright, slightly sweet, and insanely refreshing. It’s like an Arnold Palmer’s cooler, indie older sister.

Unlike your usual milky go-tos, this drink skips the cream and hits different on hot days. It’s light. It’s zippy (this word just feels right; you’ll get it once you try it). It’s thirst-quenching. Compared to the other iced bevs we’ve always known and loved, Espresso Lemonade is kind of the underdog that steals the show. The Addison Rae of the beverage world, if you will. Hot lattes can feel a bit rich. Espresso Lemonade? It hits all the right notes.

The key ingredient: NESCAFÉ Espresso Concentrate

Pulling a shot of espresso at home is… ambitious. I am not in the pay grade to buy a $$$$ machine, so NESCAFÉ’s Espresso Concentrate is the hack that makes this trend way more accessible. It’s a game-changer for anyone who wants coffeehouse vibes without the expensive equipment.

Here’s why it’s different: It’s made with real espresso, but you don’t need a machine to use it. Just twist, pour, mix with your drink of choice, and you’ve got a barista-level bev. You get that deep, rich espresso flavor in seconds, and it’s shelf-stable before opening, so you can keep it on hand for whenever the craving hits. No stress, no burnt espresso taste, just you and your little diva drink against the world.

NESCAFÉ

available in black, vanilla, and caramel flavors

How to make the perfect Espresso Lemonade

OK, girls, here’s how you make the magic happen:

• Fill a glass with ice (duh, but necessary)
• Pour in 6-12 ounces of your favorite lemonade (store-bought or homemade—whatever’s easy)
• Add 2 tablespoons of NESCAFÉ Espresso Concentrate
• Stir gently and garnish with a lemon slice or sprig of mint if you’re feeling a little bougie

And you can customize it however you please:

• Prefer it sweeter? Use their sweet vanilla flavor.
• Want it bubbly? Use sparkling lemonade.
• Need more punch? Go with 2 tablespoons of espresso concentrate.
• Not a fan of pulp? Strain your lemonade before mixing.

Take a peek at NESCAFÉ‘s recipe page for more ideas on how to use my new go-to pantry staple.

More NESCAFÉ Espresso Concentrate recipes I’m trying this summer

Once you’ve fallen in love with Espresso Lemonade (you will), try branching out. With black, vanilla, and caramel flavors, this concentrate is super versatile—here are a few other drinks to whip up.

• Espresso Tonic: Pour 2 tablespoons of your favorite Espresso Concentrate over tonic water and ice for a fizzy, sophisticated twist on your coffee break.
• Iced Espresso with Oat Milk: Smooth, creamy, and endlessly customizable—this classic is perfect for any mood.
• Dirty Iced Matcha: Blend matcha with your milk of choice, then top with 2 tablespoons of Espresso Concentrate (sweet vanilla is a great pick) for a bold, layered sip.
• Espresso Martini: Shake up 2 tablespoons of Espresso Concentrate with vodka and coffee liqueur for a rich cocktail that’s both velvety and buzzy.

All in all, I ride for Espresso Lemonade. With NESCAFÉ’s Espresso Concentrate, it becomes a low-effort, high-reward kind of drink that hits every single time. Light, refreshing, energizing—what more could a gal want? So if tea’s not doing it for you and hot coffee feels like a little too much, give Espresso Lemonade a shot. ​ Feel free to DM me to say thank you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

McKenna Pringle, Branded Content Editoral Assistant

As the Branded Content Editorial Assistant, McKenna collaborates with our sales team by creating both written and social media content, collecting and analyzing performance data to report back to our partners, and assisting our editors with their everyday tasks to ensure a smooth and productive process.

This post is sponsored by NESCAFÉ but all of the opinions within are those of The Everygirl editorial board.

Feature graphic images credited to: Hannah Dempsey | Dupe, Avery Estabanes | Dupe, Rachel Milton | Dupe, Kellie Daniel | Dupe, Vittoria Tomassini | Dupe

Sign up for The Agenda — Them’s news and politics newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

A federal judge has expanded an injunction against the Trump administration’s anti-transgender passport policies, temporarily blocking their enforcement for trans, nonbinary, and intersex people who have or need a U.S. passport.

In an order issued Tuesday evening in the ongoing lawsuit Orr v. Trump, Massachusetts District Judge Julia Kobick expanded the preliminary injunction she issued in April, which required the State Department to issue passports that match the plaintiffs’ gender identities.

Kubick’s expanded injunction now blocks the Trump administration from denying passport gender marker changes to all trans, nonbinary, and intersex people who want an M, F, or X designation that differs from their assigned sex at birth, and who “do not have a currently valid passport, need to renew their current passport because it expires within one year, need to make changes to their passport to have the sex designation on it align with their gender identity or to reflect a name change, or need to apply for another passport because their passport was lost, stolen, or damaged.”

The State Department and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expressly directed under the injunction to “to process and issue passports […] consistent with the State Department’s policy as of January 19, 2025,” and to allow passport applicants to self-declare their gender even if that information is “different from the sex assigned to those individuals under the [Trump] Passport Policy.”

Excluded from the class certification are all plaintiffs in the similar lawsuit Schlachter v. U.S. Department of State, which is currently being argued by attorneys for Lambda Legal. Kubick also did not specifically include intersex people in the class of those seeking X gender markers, writing in her opinion that because the only Orr v. Trump plaintiffs seeking X gender markers were endosex nonbinary people, it was “not clear that non-binary class representatives could fully represent the interests of intersex class members.”

“[T]he plaintiffs have introduced uncontroverted evidence of the harms that transgender and non-binary people face if they are required to use passports bearing sex designations aligning with their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity,” Kubick wrote in her opinion, citing expert testimony that mismatched documents put trans people at heightened risk while traveling and have negative effects on mental health.

At first glance, it seems like Silicon Valley executives have the perfect life, what with the unimaginable wealth and power and such. But what if they’re sad they don’t get to put on big boy pants and pretend they’re warfighters? What then, America?

Thankfully the Army has invented a way to give tech execs participation trophies—surely that is the best and most noble use of our armed forces. 

A new Army initiative titled “Detachment 201: The Army’s Executive Innovation Corps” promises to “fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation.” 

Will they do that by tapping 18F, the federal agency dedicated to working with other agencies on technology products, staffed by people with expertise in both government and tech? Heavens, no. Not since President Donald Trump disbanded that agency because Elon Musk thought it was too woke. 

No, instead they will do it by making some tech execs part-time lieutenant colonels in the Army Reserve while retaining their current full-time jobs. Welcome your newest recruits: Andrew Bosworth, CTO of Meta; Shyam Sankar, CTO Palantir; Kevin Weil, CPO of OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, OpenAI’s former research chief and current advisor to Thinking Machines Lab. 

The whole thing feels like nothing more than a make-believe outing meant to make some tech bros feel important. The Army already does these sorts of direct commissions, where civilians are directly appointed to officer positions. But that’s usually used for people wanting to serve in the medical corps, not for getting a pretend Army gig to steer federal contracts to your private company. 

The Army announced the initiative the same day the four execs were sworn in, which makes it look a lot like they invented this “detachment” as a way to bring Silicon Valley moguls in-house without officially doing so. This way, the Trump administration didn’t have to appoint or hire any industry titans, and they didn’t have to give up their incredibly lucrative day jobs. 

“Detachment 201” would look a lot less sketchy if the Army hadn’t only tapped executives from companies that have donated millions to Trump. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman dropped a million on his inauguration, as did Palantir CEO Alexander Karp and Meta. Palantir even went above and beyond, sponsoring Trump’s pathetic military parade. 

These four execs were sworn in on June 13, and it only took until June 16 for the Defense Department to announce it had awarded a $200 million no-bid contract to OpenAI to “develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains.” 

Just in case this conflict of interest wasn’t blatant enough, Katrina Mulligan, former chief of staff to the Army secretary, posted more big news on LinkedIn Monday, announcing that, since being rewarded its $200 million contract, OpenAI is now bringing her on to run a new initiative, “OpenAI for Government,” which will supposedly “help accelerate the U.S. government’s adoption of AI.”

Similarly, Palantir has already been the recipient of more than $100 million in taxpayer dollars since Trump took office in January. And just last month, The New York Times published a detailed account of government use of Foundry, a Palantir tool for organizing and analyzing data. As everyone knows, this is because the Trump administration wants to create a unified master database of government data to better torment immigrants. But Palantir wants you to know it’s definitely not building a unified master database, and how dare you ask. 

Meta, meanwhile, hasn’t yet reaped its rewards, but don’t worry—it’s getting there. The company is actively courting the military for contracts and has partnered with Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries to design, build, and field products for the military to “provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield.”

In other words, they’re building a VR helmet to sell to the military.  

Notably absent from the list of Big Special Boys with Big Special Army Jobs is Musk and any of his companies. In the halcyon days of the Trump-Musk alliance, he was getting literal billions in government contracts, awarded with no oversight and no regard for the obvious conflict of interest. 

SpaceX was on track to help build the Golden Dome missile shield, a Trump fixation and boondoggle that will not work but will nonetheless cost somewhere between $119 billion and $6.4 trillion. But now there’s nary a mention of SpaceX while Golden Dome missile shield partner Palantir’s star is rapidly ascending. 

Clearly, Trump’s gratitude for the $250 million Musk spent to get him elected is now exhausted, in part thanks to their tacky, messy blowup, but also because Trump requires constant infusions of both money and fealty. 

But other billionaires are eager to fill that void and ready to reap the riches. And, unlike Musk, they get to play soldier, too!

Campaign Action