Fizz, Fruit and Friends: How To Curate a Next-Level Picnic

We’re calling it: it’s officially picnic season. The sun’s out more often than not, bright and balmy evenings have returned, and the end-of-year festivities are in sight. Is there a better way to celebrate than tucking your rug under your arm and grabbing your basket full of food and a nice cold esky, before meeting your friends for a tasty time? (Hint: there isn’t one.)

Sometimes, though, picnicking can be more of an ordeal than it has to be – particularly when you haven’t prepared well. Thankfully, there are ways to ensure you have an excellent time on your next picnic. Maximise the good times with these four steps.

You want all your food to be easily manoeuvred to your gob – no fiddly snacks with too many ingredients, no dishes that require firm pressure on your cutlery to eat. Your meal will be in your lap and your legs most likely crossed, so you want the rest to be as easy as possible.

A plate of Gildas, perhaps? Make the skewered, salty snacks ahead of time (after checking whether your friends like anchovies). Then pick up a slab of fresh bread rolls, plus a funky cheddar, some nice ham, iceberg lettuce and tomato. Pre-slice your veggies and cheese, butter your rolls and fill your basket. You’ve just created a winning grab’n’go situation.

It’s fizzy drink season, team. There’s simply no better option when you’re lying on a lawn. Bubbles – whether soda or booze – are basically hardwired in our brains to signify celebration and that’s what picnics are about – whether it’s a birthday, Christmas, the sunshine or simply the fact you’re spending time with mates.

A top drop for all kinds of celebration is Yellowglen Liquid Fizz, a brand new cuvée rosé that sparkles with notes of ginger, rosewater and lychee. It’s a crowd-pleaser – important if you’ve got a motley crew hanging out. It leans towards the sweeter side without being moscato sweet, is light and refreshing, and has more sessionability: important on warm days when you want to stay out as long as you can. Pink, zippy and as suited to a diehard wine drinker as a total newbie? Tick, tick, tick. Just make sure someone brings an ice-filled esky.

With that bubbly number poured around the rug, you’ll want a few fresh sweets too. Ditch the fruit salad (it tends to get sweaty) and stick to some fancier, dressed-up versions. Cold slices of watermelon drizzled with a squeeze of lime. New-season mangoes spiced up with Tajin. Hunks of pineapple topped with chopped mint. Arrange the bite-sized pieces on a large platter and you’ve got a fresh dessert ready to be passed around the circle. A few berries in your glass of Liquid Fizz wouldn’t go astray either.

Your guest list is important, but this point circles back to the food and drink. If you’re the captain of this picnic, make sure no one’s doubling up: make life easy and delegate a plate per friend or family. Lock down your menu, okay it in the group chat, then hand out tasks. Ensure someone’s doing the bottle shop run (to grab a bottle or two of Liquid Fizz) and someone else has the esky full of ice and you’ve set yourself up for a slice of the good life.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Yellowglen Liquid Fizz. Liquid Fizz is now available to purchase online and in-store at Dan Murphy’s and BWS.