Ginger Lemonade

Near the end of Passover, I broke down and bought a 12-pack of Pepsi Throwback, the one made with sugar instead of corn syrup.  I was really craving junk food.  If you can find it, kosher-for-Passover Coke is also sugar-based.  I don't drink that much soda, so this felt like a huge investment, but that's the only size it comes in.  Writer Smurf drinks the stuff; I'll have it on hand whenever they visit.

This made it obvious to me that I needed to find an alternative drink that felt like junk but wasn't.  This drink is inspired by one of Jamba Juice's new fresh-squeezed creations, an apple-lemon-ginger-ade.    They need to update their website; I was going to give a link.  I don't have a power juicer, so we're skipping the apples.  You don't really taste them in the Jamba drink anyway; they are just in there for natural sugar.  What you get is a bright lemonade with a strong ginger bite.  It just tastes good for you, especially on a hot day over ice.

This is almost identical to my regular lemonade recipe, with just a few alterations.  At the last second, I decided to sweeten with honey instead of sugar.  That's the golden color.  If you use sugar, it will look like regular lemonade.

Marisa over at Food in Jars gave me the idea of using quart jars to store and serve drinks.  They aren't doing anything else yet, and I finally got the fish stock smell out of them.  Canning jars are meant to be used and reused, or there's no point in investing in them.

4 lemons
2 Tb freshly grated ginger
4 C boiling water
*1/3 to 1/2 C honey, depending how sweet you like it

1.  Grate a palm-sized piece of ginger root on a microplaner or the smallest holes of a box grater to get the fresh grated ginger.  Peel off outer yellow rind of lemons with a vegetable peeler and place in a heatproof bowl with the ginger and honey.  Pour the boiling water into the bowl and stir to dissolve sugar.  Allow to cool to room temperature or cooler.  You can speed it up in the fridge.

2.  Squeeze the juice from the lemons.  You should get about 1 C.  Refrigerate until the mix cools.

3.  When everything has cooled, stir lemon juice into bowl.  Pour through a fine-meshed sieve into serving container and keep chilled until ready to serve.  Discard solids.  If it sits, you'll have to shake or stir it to redistribute the pulp and ginger bits.

Makes 5 cups, about 4 to 6 servings

Difficulty rating  π