World Drinks

World Drinks

     I tent to like drinks that sweet, refreshing and sometimes fizzy.  When I was younger, I drank soda. However, realizing that it was bad for you, I stopped.  I mostly drank water and 100% fruit juices on occasions.  But every now and then I wanted something refreshing and fizzy but I did not want regular artificial soda. However, the well made ones, I wanted were just too expensive.  So I would buy syrups by Monin and just add seltzer or club soda to it..  Then I realized that many of Monin's syrups were not that healthy either, because of the artificial flavors and coloring.  So for a while I just missed the drinks I wanted.  

     A while ago, I came across a recipe about making your own strawberry syrup.  Which just involved strawberry, sugar and water.  No artificial flavors or any coloring.   So using that recipe I made strawberry syrup, which I used to make soda.

Strawberry Soda

The soda was very tasty and did not take that long or cost a lot.  The recipe for making the syrup was quite simple too.  

The recipe involved cleaning, hulling and cutting up the fruit and placing into a soup pan.   Add water  and put the pan over high heat and bring it to a boil.  Stir the mixture and turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 15 minutes.  After about the 15 minutes the fruit will lose all it's flavor and color into the water.  Strain the mixture discarding the pulp.  Add the sugar (based on your taste).  Bring the liquid to a boil on high heat.  Once it boils reduce the heat to medium for  5 minutes until the liquid as reduced.   At this point, skim the foam from the liquid, if there is any.   Let the liquid cool and there you have your syrup.  I just added club soda and garnished with pieces of strawberries.  

     Another syrup that I have been drinking since I was young is grenadine.  For a long time I used the grenadine from Monin, until I read the ingredients.  Grenadine is a syrup that is made from pomegranate, and is used to make many types of drinks.  However many grenadine manufactures don't use pomegranate to make their grenadine just  coloring.  I stopped buying Monin but I wanted my grenadine.  So I researched and found that grenadine is not that hard to make.  The recipes I found were usually written by bartenders since they use it so much.  The traditional recipe for grenadine usually uses molasses but some have used pomegranate molasses or fruits (mango and pineapple for a tropical hint).  Also there is orange blossom water, which I did not have the first time I tried it but it was still good.  There are different techniques to making grenadine. One is to heat your mixture  but not boil  and another is to boil it to reduce it further.  

Grenadine

Recipe:

2 cups 100% Pomegranate juice (can be concentrate)

2 cups sugar (white or cane. I used raw organic)

2 oz molasses (regular or pomegranate)

Few drops Orange Blossom Water

In a pot you will mix the pomegranate fruit and sugar.  Add the molasses and drops of orange blossom water and mix well.  I am not sure which method is best whether to simmer it to reduce it or just heat it enough to dissolve the sugar. What I did was simmer it to reduce it.  I have also seen a recipe where you add some lime zest or dried hibiscus to add another flavor and a deeper color.  If you add either, you are going to need to strain the liquid then you can store in a nice bottle in the fridge.   

Honey Lemon

I found another good recipe for a citrus syrup.  It was posted by ochikeron on youtube.  She has a great channel with amazing recipes that are quite easy.  She makes things seem so simple and effortless.  The recipe was for a honey lemon.  To make the honey lemon, you just need lemon, honey and a jar to store  it.  

Recipe;

2 organic lemon

300g of honey.

Wash and sanitize your container. Wash and dry your lemons.

Slice the lemons into thin slices. Put the lemon and pour honey over it alternating.  Store the jar in the fridge. shaking the juice once a day.  Remove the lemon slices after three days or it will become bitter.

I used the honey lemon for drinks and the honey lemon cupcakes that ochikeron also posted.  I also made another one that had lemon, lime and oranges which reminded of the syrup agrume from Paris.  

Thai Tea

    Another drink I really like is Thai tea.  I like it warm, cool and with Boba (Bubble/Tapioca).  Thai milk tea with Boba and pudding is great.  Thai tea is a special tea mix of tea and other spices.  I would make the mix myself but some of the spices are kind of expensive.  So for now it just make sense for me to buy the mix.  To make the Thai iced 

Recipe:

1/2 cup Thai tea mix

Evaporated milk

Water

Sugar

Bring the water to a boil.  Add in the tea mix and sugar, stir and allow to cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Filter the tea and cool in the fridge (when I am in a hurry or can't wait I skip the fridge part).   Pour into glass with ice and add condensed milk.  Enjoy.

Thai milk tea w/ Boba

    When I want it warm I just add condensed milk and enjoy.   To make Thai milk tea with Boba.  You just follow the instruction for the iced tea and add the boba to your drink.   There are different types of bubble/boba/tapioca balls that can be found at asian food markets.  I got the ones that says it will cook in 5 minutes.  For the Boba you need to boil 5 cups of water and add 1/2 cup of the boba with 1 tbs of brown sugar (more based on taste). Cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes.  Drain, let cool and add to your tea.  You can used some other teas or add some juice for a flavor you would like to try.  

Ginger Beer

Ginger beer I had in Hong Kong

    The first time I ever came across ginger beer was in Hong Kong.  When I tried it, I hardly every dank anything else except this apple and jasmine drink.  I came back to New York, I could not find ginger beer anywhere.  Until I stopped in at a Pret a Manger store and saw it in the fridge.  But the can was around $4. Then, by accident I came across a youtube video about making your own ginger beer.  The recipe was simple enough but the process was long and used machines I didn't have.  But I wondered why it never occurred to me that I could try and make my own ginger beer.  Finally, I find recipes and processes that were much simpler.

Recipe: 

8 oz of finely chopped ginger (I used zester)

64 oz hot water

16 oz of sugar (I used raw)

2 lemon juiced

8 oz of water

1/4 oz active yeast

In a sauce pan put the water, ginger and sugar.  Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Strain the ginger  liquid.  Let the liquid cool until just warm.  I used two 1 liter soda but you can used a larger one.  Use a plastic bottle with a screw top because of the carbonation that might cause a glass bottle to explode.  Divide the ginger liquid between your two bottles.  Also divide your yeast between the two bottles. Shake well to mix.  Add water to the mixture, leaving about two inches of space.  Shake well and store in a dark cool place.  You will leave the bottle for about 48 hrs then put it in the fridge to stop the carbonation before drinking.  Check the bottles at the 24 hrs mark releasing some of the carbonation slowly by slowly un-screwing the cap.  You can drink it at the point if you like the amount of bubbles. Just cool it first.  There will be sediments at the bottom of the bottle.  You can drink or toss it. 

   My liked the way my ginger beer came out although it was darker because of the raw sugar and had a more intense ginger flavor.  But Since I can't have the one from Hong Kong, mine is just as good.  Even better.  

   I also used this same process to make PINEAPPLE BEER.  I just substituted the ginger for some pineapple I had and voila!