These grilled shrimp are the kind of low-effort, high-reward dinner that tastes best eaten outside—you can practically feel the beach breeze in every bite. A confetti-like chimichurri packed with parsley, garlic, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and Fresno chile adds a splash of color and bright, fresh flavor that perfectly complements the charred shellfish.

Jumbo shrimp can go directly on the grate, but if you’re working with smaller ones, thread them onto skewers to keep them from slipping through. Tossing the shrimp with oil before grilling helps prevent sticking (without fussing with the grate) and encourages those smoky, lightly blistered edges everyone wants from grilled shrimp. Serve with grilled bread, steamed rice, a big green salad, or whatever else your cookout heart desires.

If you’d rather consume your electrolytes in gummy form, allow me to introduce you to Plant People’s Wonder Hydrate. These lychee-flavored gummies have a small amount of electrolytes per two gummy serving, so they’re best used as an everyday boost rather than for post-exercise rehydration. Oh, and they taste really good. So good that we’ve taken to passing the bag around at the office when we’re in need of something sweet in the afternoon.

For the coconut water fiend: Coco5

If you, like me, crave ice-cold coconut water the minute you feel parched, you’ll love Coco5. Made up primarily of coconut water concentrate and filtered water, you can essentially think of this as a coconut water-based sports drink. Coco5 makes use of the electrolytes found naturally in coconut water (like potassium, calcium, and magnesium) and adds salt for an extra hydration boost. Available in six flavors, I thoroughly enjoyed the taste of each one I tried. The passion fruit flavor tasted remarkably of passion fruit for something that doesn’t have, well, real passion fruit in it, and I liked the addition of citric acid for the welcome tartness it brings.

For athletes and intense exercisers: Gatorade

There is a time and place for this OG sports drink. It contains more than triple the amount of added sugar as Liquid I.V., with 34 grams per 20-ounce bottle, but for serious athletes, pro football players, and the like—that is, people who are exercising for hours at a time every day—Grasso says that sugar is absolutely necessary.

A lower-sugar alternative to Gatorade: Gatorlyte

Another option from the Gatorade family is Gatorlyte. With far less sugar than traditional Gatorade (12 grams versus 34) and more sodium (490 milligrams versus 270), it’s a great pick for those looking for a widely available, ready-to-drink hydration solution. Do note that the extra sodium does mean Gatorlyte tastes a bit saltier than normal Gatorade.

The best hydration powder for kids: Hiya

Each spring Spencer Huey brings thousands of homegrown heirloom tomatoes to a parking lot in Berkeley, California, for a one-day community sale. “I grow 50 varieties of tomatoes and 2,500 plants,” says Huey, a cook at Chez Panisse and creator of the Tomato Club substack. “It’s a little crazy.”

Fortunately, there are plenty of enthusiasts who share his devotion. As temperatures rise, heirloom tomatoes—open-pollinated varieties grown from seeds that have been passed down for generations—headline backyard plots, farmstands, Michelin-starred kitchens, and beyond. For devotees, the juicy flavors, rainbow colors, and irregular shapes and sizes of heirloom tomatoes are worlds away from the blandly homogenous red armies sold in supermarkets.

But what are heirloom tomatoes, exactly? And how are they different from the ones your nearest grocery chain stocks all year long? Here’s everything you need to know.

What are heirloom tomatoes?

Heirloom tomatoes are flavorful varieties grown from seeds that farmers have saved and handed down from farmer to farmer, usually for at least 50 years. “They’re created by a specific community or culture because they like the traits, the color, or the way the tomato tastes,” Huey says.

To be clear, the tomatoes themselves aren’t antiques. They’re called heirlooms because their seeds predate the grim march of industrial hybridization. In the 20th century, many farmers began crossing tomato varieties to create hybrids that looked uniform, resisted disease, and could withstand long-haul shipping to retailers miles away. Taste was less of a priority.

Meanwhile, “heirloom tomatoes are grown for flavor,” Huey says. Their generations-old seeds are open-pollinated—fertilized by insects, wind, and the like—rather than being manipulated by breeders.

The term heirloom isn’t regulated, though. A savvy marketer can use that word to sell any fruit or vegetable, regardless of whether its seeds were around during the Nixon administration.

Most tomatoes you’ll find in the produce sections of grocery chains are hybrids. They tend to be uniformly red and evenly sized, with thick skins designed to withstand transit.

Heirloom tomatoes are more diverse. Some are the size of cherries or golf balls, while others are charmingly bulgy and weigh up to three pounds. Depending on the variety, they may taste intensely sweet, tangy, smoky, savory, or almost citrusy. Colors include scarlet, orange, green, yellow, blue, deep purple, or a combination; insiders describe the stripey ones as tomatoes with “shoulders.” In any case, expect heirloom tomatoes to have thin skins and juicy, flavorful interiors.

Are heirloom tomatoes genetically modified?

One reason why heirloom tomato varieties vary so much is that they’re not genetically modified. Their generations-old seeds haven’t been altered by human hands eager to sell more produce to far-flung shoppers year-round. Open-pollination preserves the plants’ distinctive family characteristics, so heirloom tomatoes taste like, well, tomatoes.

This 15-minute meal is our take on the viral “smash taco” trend. Similar to Turkish lahmacun in architecture, miniaturized and on a tortilla, the concept is simple: Spread a thin layer of ground meat on flatbread, then cook.

This version uses seasoned pork and flour tortillas and is dressed like al pastor tacos with pineapple, onion, and lime. (If you’re not a pork person, swap in ground beef, turkey, or chicken.) Instead of searing meat-side down in a skillet, then flipping to crisp the tortilla (which looks cool on camera but takes a while and runs the risk of the meat sliding off when turned), here you’ll make eight at once in the broiler on a wire-rack–lined baking sheet. Make sure to press the filling all the way to the edges of the tortillas; as the meat broils, it may shrink a bit, but will be no less tasty. This recipe makes eight small tacos, which comfortably serves two to four depending on how hungry everyone is. On the plus side, since they take barely 5 minutes to cook, it’s a snap to make another batch.

Whether I’m traveling for business or for pleasure, my itinerary is basically a string of restaurant reservations. And after a couple multi-course tasting menus, I need to move by body. Balance, right? But when I’m traveling with just a carry-on (see above), luggage space is precious, so I choose workout apparel that does double-duty. Sleek sneakers look cute when walking around town but also work in the gym, and my favorite Left On Friday bike shorts fold up super tiny in my suitcase. —AS

A wireless headphone adaptor for the plane

The AirFly Pro 2 seamlessly connects wireless headphones (or earbuds) to the in-flight entertainment system without glitching or cutting out. Plus it’s got a decently long battery life and is small enough to pack right inside my headphone case, so I never forget it. No more fighting with tangled cords when I lower the tray table to eat my in-flight meal or attempt to extricate myself from the window seat to pace the aisles in my compression socks. —Kelsey Youngman, senior cooking editor

The only good neck pillow

The Trtl Neck Pillow genuinely changed the way I fly. I can actually sleep on planes now. It holds my head securely in place (no more jolting awake mid-bob) and offers real support without feeling bulky. The soft fabric adds a bit of warmth on colder flights, and it packs down flat, making it easy to slip into a carry-on. —Ali Inglese, senior director of video