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Summer is about warm sunny days spent at the beach, park or in the garden and steamy nights full of fireflies and mosquitoes. Cold, refreshing drinks don’t only cool us down when we are overheated, but also replenish all of the much needed nutrients lost when we have been in the sunshine working all day. These drinks are both refreshing and nourishing. Replenish our depleted reserves, while also tasting amazing. I published these recipes many years ago and I thought I would share again as it heats up and I'm in the kitchen concocting things to cool down and refresh.  Fizzy Kombucha Lavender Lemonade Juice of 4 lemons 2 cups/475 mL kombucha (citrus is nice) 1/2 cups/118 mL lavender honey 1-2 cups/235-475 mL of water Mix your fresh lemon juice and lavender honey in a small pitcher. Add the kombucha. Stir gently. If you plan to drink straight chilled with the kombucha, then add the water to taste. If you plan to pour over ice, you can leave a little more concentrated, drinking chilled no ice, you may want the higher water amount. Be sure to taste and add more water or honey as needed - depending on how big and juicy your lemons are and the flavour of your kombucha you may want to tweak just a bit to taste. If you are making a pitcher for a party or picnic, the best bet for optimum carbonation is to pre-make the lemon/honey/water base and keep it chilled, and then add the kombucha to the base blend right before serving! Serve cold. A few lavender buds and a slice of lemon make a nice garnish. Lavender Honey To make lavender honey, gently warm your 1/2 cup/ 118 mL of honey (LOW - no boiling!) with 2 Tbsp of dried lavender buds added. Let sit for 20-30 minutes on *very low* heat and then strain. The honey will be infused with the lavender aroma and flavour. Tip: Add your honey to the lemon mix when slightly warm so that it will stir in and not sink the bottom. Whisking while slowly pouring it in helps too.  Chia seeds are not only for cheesy ceramic sheep planters. It is a very nutrient rich seed, which has the interesting ability to swell and plump up on its mucilaginous outer layer while keeping a nice crunchy seed inside. Chia contains fibre, protein, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and so much more! Chia frescos are very common in certain parts of the world - a Mexican food cart with a large pitcher of lime chia fresco is a beautiful sight on a hot day. This is delicious, refreshing, and helps revitalize. And don’t worry, it is nutritious, but you won’t believe how good it tastes, even with the seeds in there! Chia Fresca 2 cups/475 mL coconut water or plain filtered water Juice of 1 lime 2 Tbsp chia seeds 2 tsp honey Mix your ingredients together, stir or shake well (a canning jar with a lid is a good container to use so you can just shake shake shake) and let sit 20 minutes or so for the chia to swell. Serve chilled with a wedge of lime.  Herbal ShrubSipping vinegars, also known as shrubs or in some variations as a switchel, have been around for a long time. A few hundred years ago vinegar was used to preserve fruit for the off season and the resulting beverage was called a shrub. Switchel was another drink from that era, made from ginger, honey, vinegar, molasses, and water - also called haymaker's punch - and was often taken to the fields by farmworkers. The ratio is basically 4:1. 4 parts honey/vinegar with 1 part herb. I measured by cup for this reason. With medicinals it is preferred to weigh not measure, but this is a beverage with some boost, so using cup measures will work just fine. {ingredients}
Bring to a boil on the stove top and reduce heat immediately, stirring. Simmer, covered, for 40-45 minutes or so. Let sit for 10 minutes off the heat. Strain this into a large bowl through a few layers of damp cheesecloth. Don't squeeze it or you will end up with a cloudy liquid. While the mix smells great, don't stick your nose in the pot because the vinegar will be a bit intense. And don't worry - the resulting drink doesn't taste like vinegar…you only get that strong aroma since you are simmering it on the stove! You should end up with around 1.5 - 2 cups of liquid (herbs will absorb some, some will reduce in cooking process - so it can vary). Add fresh vinegar to get you to two cups if necessary. Mix it with equal quantity of raw honey. It should be 2 cups herb infused vinegar, 2 cups raw honey. Add 1-2 Tablespoons of molasses. Shake or stir very well - it will be completely separate when you pour the honey in at first (see below) - but if you shake or stir really well for a minute or more, it will combine. You may need to stir before each use. You can store in your fridge for about 8 - 12 weeks or so. To drink, add 1/4 cup sipping vinegar to a glass, fill with sparkling water, club soda, or seltzer. Try mixing a bit into your pitcher of iced tea. Mix with sparkling wine or champagne. Or, take as a tonic by sipping a tablespoon or so in a small shot or cordial glass. For kids, the best is 1/4 cup of your shrub in a glass with ice and sparkling or soda water. Combining the concept of alcohol free tincture or oxymels with the day to day deliciousness of a shrub means you can have a tasty refreshing fizzy soda with the benefits of the herbs! Other Cold Summer Recipes I Have Posted Previously:
Iced Hibiscus Tea Juniper Sage Soda Banana Maca Frozen Smoothie This is the time of year where I want to use the herbs as I pick them as they smell so AMAZING, I want to make things that everyone loves and that don't take too much time, and that are cooling and delicious. If they can be poured into a popsicle mold and frozen as well, that is a bonus. While I do love a nice iced herbal sun tea, different drink mixes using the amazing variety of summer herbs keep it interesting!
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Everywhere you look in winter there is another recipe for an eggnog or boozy drink. This version is not only alcohol free, but dairy and egg free as well. Not that you couldn't add a swig of something, but it is absolutely delicious and warming all on its own.
Vegan NogPrint |
{wholly rooted}Egg & dairy free nog recipe - using medjool dates, it is even low glycemic. {ingredients}
Pour your coconut milk into a pot along with the pitted dates. We don't do dairy in the house, as my older son has a severe allergy. And quite honestly I don't want any of us in this house to follow down the road of our genetic lottery of diabetes, so I love recipes that are not only dairy free, but also use low glycemic sweeteners. The dates also are what gives the drink that thicker creaminess. If you use rice milk, it will be a little thinner, obviously, but hemp, cashew, coconut and other thicker milks have the perfect thickness! 
I love lavender. I used to be so sensitive to it that I definitely couldn't handle any artificial lavender anything, and even the flowers would be too intense for me. As I have cleared out all artificial fragrances in all of my home/body/bath products for years now and have gone exclusively natural and organic, I have found that I can now tolerate real lavender and even love it. I grow a lot of lavender every summer and dry it in my dehydrator for use in recipes - both for culinary and bath/body herbal use. A favorite way to use lavender is by infusing honey with it. There is some magic alchemy that lavender gives to the already aromatic honey. It is a great flavor combination. Lavender also works well with citrus. Since I love making all of my own beverages of course I have a favorite lavender lemonade recipe.
Fizzy Kombucha Lavender LemonadePrint |
{wholly rooted}The classic lemonade is refreshing and delicious. This recipe adds kombucha for a fizzy probiotic healthy punch, making it taste like a fizzy soda treat. If you make your own kombucha, you are set. If you are using store bought kombucha, look for a brand that has a nice carbonation and with a flavor that goes well with citrus and lavender! I like ginger or citrus kombucha with mine. {ingredients}
Mix your fresh lemon juice and lavender honey in a small pitcher. 
Tip: Add the honey to the lemon mix when slightly warm so that it will stir in and not sink the bottom. Whisking while slowly pouring it in helps too.
Lavender Infused Honey: To make lavender honey, gently warm your 1/2 cup of honey (LOW - no boiling!) with 2 Tbsp of dried lavender buds added. Let sit for 20-30 minutes on *very low* heat and then strain. The honey will be infused with the lavender aroma and flavor. More about: Kombucha Lavender Lemons 
I have always been happy drinking water all day. My husband, however, likes having iced beverages with many flavors, and isn't much of a water drinker. So these days I make shrubs, switchels, fruit syrups to use with carbonated water, and of course iced teas. I prefer mixing some herbal goodness with my drinks, so this recipe combines the great properties of turmeric, ginger, hibiscus, citrus and rooibos with some fresh local honey to make an extremely delicious tea. This has so much flavor and is so refreshing - and with no caffeine we can drink it in the evening as we sit on the deck admiring the sunset.
Caffeine-Free Hibiscus Iced TeaPrint |
{wholly rooted}Iced tea is a summer staple and this recipe combines a wonderful rich colour of hibiscus with a healthy boost of turmeric and ginger. This is has a rich twangy flavor, perfect for hot summer days or steamy evenings. Green rooibos is a caffeine-free herb that has a mild green-tea like flavour and contains antioxidants as well as minerals and flavonoids. I like using green rooibos because caffeine-free means we can drink iced tea into the evening! {ingredients}
Using a half gallon canning jar or heat safe pitcher add your hibiscus, ginger, turmeric, citrus peel, and rooibos. 
I love drinks that are not too sweet and that are very refreshing. Today is going to get into the 80's and I have already been outside watering the garden, opening up the greenhouses and watering all of the seedlings. The first thing I wanted when I came inside was a cold glass of iced tea. Yum. This is one of my favorite cold drink recipes and the smell and taste of it just feel like summer to me! More about these ingredients: Green Rooibos Tea Benefits and Use Health Benefits of Hibiscus The Amazing and Mighty Ginger 6 Health Benefits of Turmeric 8 Healthy Lime Facts 
Turmeric has been used traditionally not only as a flavorful spice/seasoning, but also for its health benefits. Turmeric contains curcumin, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The addition of ginger gives this drink a warm spicy flavor, and is good for digestion and also an anti-inflammatory. I consciously add anti-inflammatory foods to my diet as much as I can to help support anti-inflammatory processes in my body, and having a drink with both ginger and turmeric is an added bonus. The taste is rich and creamy with a hint of a musky chai-like undertone. It is delicious. This rich golden milk is great during seasonal transitions when it can go from warm to cold in one day or when you get inside after a cold day in the snow, and a steaming mug of spicy milk tastes and feels wonderful. 
Spiced Turmeric MilkPrint |
{wholly rooted}While using fresh turmeric is best, it can be hard to find at the market during certain times of year, so this recipe uses powdered. This is delicious on a cold winter day. {ingredients}
Warm the coconut milk in a saucepan on the stove. 
I love using turmeric and ginger as much as I can, and this drink is so delicious and rich and spicy. I do like coffee (we roast our own beans) and I love herbal tea (I grow and dry my own herbs all summer long to make herbal tea blends), but I also like having a hot drink that has a different flavor in my winter mug rotation! 
This is the time of year for apple orchards, cool autumn days, and falling leaves. It is also the time for simmering pots of cider on the stove, infused with spices to warm the body and make the whole house smell amazing. We are lucky to live near many apple orchards - the closest is just 4.5 miles away. Just about every weekend from late September until November we are picking up gallons of freshly pressed cider and bushels of apples to make and bake with. As it gets dark earlier and earlier, we tuck in more in the evenings and play board games, cards, and even poker together. It is a family ritual to have a cup of steaming cider while we play and I make this almost daily. 
Chai Spiced CiderPrint |
{wholly rooted}This mulling spice blend is based on aromatic chai. These spices are wonderful with cider, and add even more depth and flavor to your hot cider recipe. Double or triple the recipe and put it in a crockpot on low or pour warm into a punch bowl - perfect for parties! {ingredients}
Pour your fresh apple cider into a pot. Cider in the fall is one of those family rituals that makes the season feel complete to us. The house fills with the amazing aroma of apples, cinnamon, and other spices. It warms us after an evening walk on a chilly night. It simply means fall is here. Enjoy! 
In this house, we love making our own beverages. We make infused water, shrubs, syrups, switchels, and teas. My husband even roasts his own coffee beans. I drink a lot of water, but having a variety of beverages is nice - so many flavors! Every summer I find myself making this blend of juniper, ginger, sage, and lime. This combination is tangy, sweet, and earthy. Very different, and *very* good.
My husband spent some time as a child in Germany, and so grew up on a little bit of syrup or fruit juice in a glass topped with seltzer water. These days we have a soda stream. We make all of our own syrups, but the little machine is a great fast way to fizz our own filtered water and use it to make drinks. This drink syrup is a base. You make the syrup, store it in the fridge, and when you want a drink, you make it right then. It is very easy. You simply add some ice to a glass, add a few tablespoons of the drink base (to taste), and top with seltzer water. It is cold, fizzy, and flavorful. DIY soda! And all homemade. Delicious! {Try making a cocktail version using syrup, gin, and seltzer!} DIY Soda: Juniper-Sage SyrupPrint |
{wholly rooted}Make your own syrup base and then use for homemade sodas. Add a little of the syrup base to a glass with ice, pour in seltzer water or club soda to fill, and enjoy! {ingredients}
Make sure you crush the juniper berries a little to release their flavor. 
Making your own drink syrup is very quick and easy, and homemade sodas taste fantastic! {{Juniper berries are the seed cone produced by juniper. When dried they have a fresh green piney aroma and flavor. Juniper berries are used a lot in scandinavian and european cuisine to flavor meats and fermented veggies - and juniper berries are the main flavor in gin. You can find dried juniper berries in the spices or dried herb section of most grocery stores. Online they can be found at places like iherb, Williams-Sonoma, Mountain Rose Herbs, Penzeys Spices, etc. }} 
This is the time of year I most often start in the garden early before it heats up. My boys wake up early and so I start them some breakfast, and then head outside. When I come back in I am often craving something cold. This breakfast smoothie is of course yummy for the whole family, but is a nice adult flavor too. It tastes like a rich chocolate banana milkshake - of course without any dairy. Really good. The cacao and maca also give me a bit of an energy boost for the day, without having a coffee and the chia addition not only adds some nutrients and fiber, but make the smoothie feel even more like a meal. My boys love love love smoothies too, but they usually prefer cherries/peaches/greens/juiced things/coconut yogurt types of sweet fruity flavors, and not seeds or cacao. Crazy boys. 
Blue-Banana Mocha Maca SmoothiePrint |
{wholly rooted}An icy morning smoothie packed with nutrients and antioxidants with a rich wonderful flavor. Forget the coffee - start the day with a cool, filling smoothie. {ingredients}
First soak your dates. I will place them in some kettle water first thing when I am making the boys breakfast. Or, soaking overnight even works. 
Quite honestly, I rarely if ever eat breakfast. Which is bad for me with how my blood sugar works. I make food for the kids and wander off to work in the garden, clean up, or work on projects for a bit while they eat. Making a smoothie though, is easier for me (for some reason). And after being in the garden something cool encourages me a bit more. As does something that takes just a few minutes to whiz up. This has enough in it that it is a good breakfast, and gets me through to lunch time!  Sipping vinegars have been making a comeback within local artisan food communities. Sipping vinegars, also known as shrubs or in some variations as a switchel, have been around for a long time. During Colonial times, vinegar was used to preserve fruit for the off season and the resulting beverage was called a shrub. Switchel was another drink from that era, made from ginger, honey, vinegar, molasses, and water - also called haymaker's punch - and was often taken to the fields by farmworkers. A switchel was used like gatorade or sports drinks today - to refresh, cool, and replenish. I like them because the flavor options are endless, and they are a nice way to combine the medicinal or immune system boosting power of herbs with fizzy delicious better-than-a-can-of-soda-could-ever-be flavors. In this house we have some intolerance to corn syrup and manufactured citric acid so we don't do canned sodas. BUT we sometimes still love fizzy drinks. Water kefir, honey sweetened fruit syrups, and shrubs are our favorite homemade concoctions. This blend contains a rich combination of flavors. Elderberry, holy basil, astragalus, rose hips, ginger, citrus peel, and hibiscus. I like this in spring when we need a little immune system boost and support after a long winter and with the start of spring cold & allergy season.   holy basil-elderberry shrubPrint | from whollyrooted.comThe ratio is basically 4:1. 4 parts honey/vinegar with 1 part herb. I measured by cup for this reason. With medicinals it is preferred to weigh not measure, but this is a beverage with some boost, so using cup measures will work just fine. {ingredients}
Add your dried herbs to a pot with 2.5 cups of vinegar. I used 2.25 cups of raw ACV (apple cider vinegar) plus .25 cups of coconut vinegar (it has a mellow sweet flavor with a lot of minerals), but you can use all ACV if you prefer. Do not use the plain white distilled vinegar you use for your cleaning or pickles. It will be gross. Champagne vinegar is an OK substitute, but ACV is your best bet.   To drink, add 1/4 cup sipping vinegar to a glass, fill with sparkling water, club soda, or seltzer. Try mixing a bit into your pitcher of iced tea. Mix with sparkling wine or champagne. Or, take as a tonic by sipping a tablespoon or so in a small shot or cordial glass. For kids, the best is 1/4 cup of your shrub in a glass with ice and sparkling or soda water.  Combining the concept of alcohol free tincture or oxymels with the day to day deliciousness of a shrub means you can have a tasty refreshing fizzy soda with the benefits of the herbs! Holy Basil (ocimum sanctum) is a great adaptogenic herb that I think is underused. It has a peppery floral aroma when dried, and I think has a great flavor, especially when combined with citrus or berries. I often use it in tea blends, syrups, and vinegars. It is a nice all around herb for support.
 Warm creamy beverages are popular in this house. I have a husband who works from a home office and is on his feet in video conferences quite literally all day long. He has Raynaud's Phenomenon, meaning his fingers (and toes) turn white and then blue from even a mild chill. BUT, if he drank hot coffee all day long he would bounce off of the walls. So I like to rotate by making my own tea blends, coffee drinks, warm ciders, and this. Maple Maca Mocha. It is so delicious (and in summer is fantastic iced). The main ingredient, Maca, is considered a superfood. It gets that moniker from its adaptogenic properties and the fact that it is super high in minerals, sterols, essential fatty acids, fiber, protein, and amino acids. Maca is a root vegetable which has been used in South America for ages as a food staple and herbal boost for stamina, stress, and energy. If you look at PubMed, you can see many studies have shown that Maca can indeed increase stamina, reduce muscle fatigue after workouts, lower anxiety and depression, and may boost hormonal function and sex drive (woo hoo!). So not a bad ingredient to add in a frothily delicious drink on a chilly morning!
{how to} Warm your coconut milk in a pot on your stove. Add your scraped vanilla bean and whisk to get it all distributed. You can place the whole bean shell into the pot to infuse more vanilla flavor too (just pull it out before serving). Whisk in all the rest of the ingredients. Keep whisking. Keep whisking. Let it warm up on the stove for 5-7 minutes, whisking every minute or so. DO NOT boil. You just want to warm it enough to dissolve the cocoa/maca/spices and get to a nice drinking temperature. Remove from heat. Whisk again and remove your vanilla bean. Taste it. I like mine just like this. My husband likes a little more sweetness, so I add coconut palm sugar to his to taste. If you like, zest a little organic orange over the top. Drink! This makes 2 large mugs of Maple Maca Mocha (say that fast three times). Maca is in the Brassicaceae family, so if you have allergies to mustards, crucifers or cabbages, etc. you should probably avoid it.
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denise cusackI am a certified aromatherapist, clinical herbalist, permaculture designer, organic gardener, plant conservationist, photographer, writer, designer, artist, nature lover, health justice activist, whole foods maker, and mother of two young adults in south central Wisconsin. 
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©2007-23 Denise Cusack, all photos and text. Feel free to share my posts on FB or Twitter or online media or pin on Pinterest (thank you!), but please keep the links back to my website intact (meaning please do not take or copy my images off of this website and share them unattributed or without linking back here or use them without permission). Thank you! :)
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