Beat the Heat with Two Refreshing Drinks

Tags

cold drinks, frozen berry, healthy drinks, hibiscus drink, Infused lemonade, lemonade, middle eastern, Ramadan drinks, traditional drinks, كركديه, ليموناده, مشروبات رمضانيه, عصائر

Beat the heat with these two refreshing drinks, Berry Lemonade and Hibiscus Drink.

As heat begins to rise up in summer, the best way to cool off is with refreshing cold drink. Two delicious homemade drinks that I often makes and my family love it.

While Ramadan this year falls in the summer season, drinks takes a much concern of the Iftar table to refresh after fasting and to quench our thirst.

Why Ramadan is so special to me?
There are many drinks that makes Ramadan so special since certain foods remind us of old traditions that we pass onto our children in order to keep our heritage alive. When we used to buy traditional Ramadan ready-made drinks from street peddlers and local markets. Among some of the traditional widely served drinks during Ramadan there is the Qamardean juice, Licorice juice, Tamarinds, and Karkade drink.

Hibiscus Drink (Karkade)

It’s known as a herbal tea, consumed cold or hot. Usually made from steeping hibiscus flowers (Roselle) In boiling water. The strained steeped juice known as karkadé in Levant, and flor de Jamaica in Latin America and US. Dried hibiscus flowers often labeled Flor de Jamaica, have long been available in health food stores in the United States for making this tea, especially in California and other areas influenced by Mexican customs.

Why drink it?
Hibiscus helps lower body temperature, as well as blood pressure. As it contain vitamin C, it’s also known to strengthen your immune system.

Ingredient:

• 1/2 cup hibiscus dried flowers
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1\2 teaspoon orange blossom water

1. Rinse dried flowers in cold water.
2. Heat the water in a saucepan. Once it begins to boil, add the dried hibiscus flowers and the orange blossom water (or any flavouring you prefer).
3. Immediately remove from heat, once boiled, and let the flowers simmer for 10 mins. Pour the water from the pot into a pitcher using a strainer (lined with cheese cloth) to separate the flowers from the water. (Be sure not to pour any of the flower sediment into the pitcher).
4. Refrigerate until chilled

Berry Infused Lemonade

Simple and classy way to introduce the freshly homemade lemonade. The berry adds a lot of flavors to the drink, you can add your favorites. Here I used the frozen triple berry, raspberry, strawberry and blueberry. It also adds a nice red color that you’ll like, the density of the color depends on the amount of frozen berries you add. You don’t have to crush the berries to release the color or flavour, you just let it steep while chilled in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup of frozen berries
1. Combine the sugar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar. Allow the syrup to cool to room temperature then refrigerate until chilled.
2. In a pitcher, combine the chilled syrup, the lemon juice and remaining 7 cups of water.
3. Add the berries, combine well with the juice, chill until served.

شراب الكركديه

١/٢ ك زهور الكركديه الناشفه
٣ ١/٢ ك ماء
٣/٤ ك سكر
١/٢ م ص ماء الزهر

نغسل الكركديه بماء بارد. نغلي الماء ونضيف الكركديه نتركه بالماء الساخن ينتقع لمدة ١٠ د نصفيه بقطعة قماش ونضيف السكر وندوبه نضعه بالبراد لحين التقديم مع كمية من التلج

الليموناضه المطعمه بالتوت المشكل

١ ١/٢ ك سكر
٨ ك ماء
١/٢ ك عصير ليمون فرش
١ ك فراوله و توت مشكله
نعمل قطر بكوب ماء وكمية السكر ونحركه حتى يذوب السكر نتركه يبرد. نضيف باقي كمية الماء والليمون ونحركه. نضيف قطع التلج والتوت المشكل من دون هرسه . نحفظه بالبرد لعدة ساعات قبل التقديم نحركه ونضيف المزيد من التلج