Will ginger help my cold and general under-the-weather-ness, which has been lasting for more than a week and a half?
Jacob and I are in Shanghai right now, house-sitting, and the weather is pretty hot and muggy. I needed something ice cold to ward off heat fatigue, and something gingery to kickstart my immune system. A ginger-mint lemonade off the web sounded so good I bolted to the market to get ginger, lemons, and mint. I came back only to realize that the house, which belongs to Jacob’s boss, doesn’t have an ice tray. Bugger.
Another trip to the store later, I came back with some semi-fancy Japanese ice tray that makes round ice balls instead of cubes. (It was the cheapest one.) Oh well, ice is ice. A few hours later, after the water finally froze, I finally got to prepare the lemonade.
This was so needed on a hot afternoon. As to whether my immune system appreciated it, only time will tell.
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Other cold drinks for hot weather:
Mango Mojito
Yangmei Iced Tea
Coconut and Lime Lassi, Mango and Cardamom Lassi
Apple Soju Cocktail
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Ginger-Mint Lemonade
Adapted from Cork (Westmont, New Jersey) via Food & Wine Cocktails 2006
Makes 2 drinks
2 lemon wedge and sugar
Ice
12 to 20 mint leaves, plus 2 mint sprigs for garnish
3 ounces Ginger Syrup*
3 ounces water
3 ounces fresh lemon juice
*To make ginger syrup: In a small sauce pot, put in 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 5 or 6 slices of peeled ginger. Bring mixture to boil, remove from heat, and stir to dissolve remaining bits of sugar. Let it cool. Syrup can be stored in fridge for 1 week.
To make lemonade: Wet the outer rim of two glasses with lemon wedges and coat lightly with sugar. Fill the glasses with ice. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint leaves with the ginger syrup. Add ice, lemon juice, and water, and shake well. Pour the lemonade into 2 glasses and garnish with mint sprig.
This looks great – ginger, mint and lemon seems like such a good affinity of flavours. I’ll definitely give it a go, if it ever gets warm enough in London to need a refreshing drink!
I am so jealous of you that you are around by food all the time and even work within it!! I am from Hong Kong but living in the UK now. I am seriously missing the food in Hong Kong. My stomach was rumbling when I was reading your articles about the nice food and drink in Hong Kong.
you do make some delicious drinks! that looks lovely. so cooling and natural.
I love ginger and mint and can only imagine how good they taste in this lemonade! Just in time for summer!
I don’t know for how long I’ve been looking for a delicious recipe to use up all the mint growing in my herb garden (you can only have that limited number of mojitos before getting sick of them ;-))
Stumbled upon this recipe and now guess what’s cookin’ on my stove right now…the ginger syrup and I’m looking forward to try out the lemonade this afternoon ;-)Thanks!
my dad just left for shanghai yesterday! i wonder if he’s feeling the same way about the weather. i think i may just send this to him for refreshment!
I’m all over this. great combo.
Seeing that it is always hot in Trinidad I think I will have to learn how to make this. I can just imagine how how the hot minty sour taste explodes in your mouth!
Jolly good, I say, one can add tonic water, I mean, I like the bitter sparkling stuff myself :)
Ginger, mint, and lemon – this sounds like a winner! And round ice balls sound pretty cool, too. Beautiful.