Ginger-Rose Lemonade Concentrate

This is quickly becoming a summer family favorite of ours.  It's spicy and refreshing and different!  I love the subtle floral flavor, it makes me feel like I'm at a spa.  Plus it's easy to make up a head of time, and store until you want to mix some up.  Great for picnics and social functions - we bring our big drink dispenser and mix up a gallon or two at parties for something different than plain old iced tea and soda.

clayirving/Flickr via Creative Commons

I got the inspiration for this drink at a food festival where they were selling Nimbu Paani at an Indian food stall.  Traditionally, ginger and lemon are supposed to be cooling, and good the the digestion.  Here's to your health!

Shopping List:
1 large ginger root
Rosewater (can be found at Middle Eastern groceries or health food stores.  Make sure that it's food grade, rosewater is also used in cosmetics.  I paid $6 for a bottle, but it goes a long way.)



From the Pantry:
sugar
lemon juice


Here's the recipe:


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In a saucepan, combine:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups diced ginger root
2 cups water

bring to boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.
remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
strain the solids out. (I used a bit of cheesecloth on a splatter screen, then squeezed the cheesecloth.  Careful, it's HOT!)

To the ginger syrup, add:
1 1/3 cup lemon juice
4-5 tsp rosewater (depending on your tolerance for, and strength of, rosewater.

Dilute syrup 3:1 to make lemonade.

Makes about 1 qt or 2 pints of syrup plus a little.  I make a double batch, then it makes 2 quarts plus a half pint.  One quart jar makes a gallon of lemonade or you could can this in pint jars, and then one pint jar would dilute down to a 2 quart pitcher or carafe.  We save the carafes from when we buy orange juice in those nice carafes with the wide mouth top!  Then we can put the carafe in the door of the fridge and save space (our pitcher doesn't fit in the door of our fridge).

If you desire to "bottle" this in canning jars, you should be able to process them with a boiling water canner, considering that there is more acid than canned fruit, and that processes with no unusual requirements.  I used the times for canning fruit syrup, since that seemed most similar.  Times below:

Quart jars for 20 minutes
Pint jars for 15 minutes