Green Tea Gin & Tonics + Key Lime Green Iced Tea
I planned all sorts of things for this summer’s trip to Tofino. Beaching! Sobo! Tacofino! Kayaking! Books! Long healthy runs on the beach (maybe)! A monster head cold was not part of the plan. It moved in, set up camp and is showing no signs of budging.
I have produced enormous quantities of phlegm and gone through boxes of Kleenex. At the beach, I’m the one with wads of damp Kleenex in the pockets of her fleece. Fortunately, my mom is here.
She’s making me poached eggs on toast, and ensuring I drink lots of water. But there’s only so much water I can muster, and so I started drinking her summer bevvy of choice, the one she brings out to the garden with her: a key lime, which are those little round ones the size of a large marble and come by the bag, squeezed over ice and then topped with green tea she steeps once in awhile and then pours into a pitcher in the fridge to chill. She rubs the cut halves of the limes over the rim for added flavour – like rimming a margarita – simultaneously scraping some of the pulp into the glass.
Damn, but it’s refreshing. And far tastier than water when you’re forced to chug a glass an hour. It’s tart, but clean – she doesn’t add sweetener, but you could stir in a spoonful of honey. This is what I do at night, when it’s hot green tea (or just hot water) and a squeeze of key lime in a mug by my bedside. I have been known to take this with a nap at 10am. This one, she’s a doozie.
Also, I decided it was as good an excuse as any to try this green tea infused gin I heard about at a tea tasting at Silk Road in Victoria last weekend – they handed out cards with recipes on it, and one of them was for Earl Green Gin & Tonics. Yes, please. Their Earl Green – tea of metamorphosis (appropriate, no?) is green tea with bergamot fruit essence, delivering the best of both tea worlds. You could, I’m sure, steep any loose tea you fancy would go in a g&t, and did you know you get more antioxidant benefits from the tea when you drink it with alcohol? It’s true.
Essentially what you do is steep leaves in gin – no need to heat it up – about 6 Tbsp. per 2 cups.
(I experimented with a smaller batch.)
Stir it in, let it sit for 20 minutes while you go to the ice cream shop, come back and strain it.
And that’s it – you have green tea-infused gin with which to make gin & tonics.
Hopefully without the phlegm.
July 29 2011 | beverages | 17 Comments »
