Recipes for homemade cordial?

[Mr Mark]

I'm trying to reduce my beer consumption and started making my own non-alcoholic and healthy soft drinks.

Here's my current favourite - Ginger cordial
Ingredients
200g or about 1/2 lb fresh root ginger
2 of lime/lemon/orange (unwaxed)
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1.8 l / 3.5 pints water

Instructions
Peel ginger and slice very thin
Peel zest from citrus (avoid too much pith)
Juice citrus.

Add sliced ginger, zest, sugar, juice, cream of tartar and water into a large pot (avoid aluminium). Being to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Simmer for about 20mins. Cool and strain.

Cordial keeps several days in refrigerator.

Great about 50/50 with soda water.

Anyone have any other cordial recipes?

edit
I sometimes add some dried juniper berries. And thinking about some lemon grass too.

[Chesleygirl]

Do you mix it with any kind of liquor?

[Mr Mark]

Do you mix it with any kind of liquor?

Nope CG - that's the whole point, I want something that's interesting to drink but non-alcoholic. And buying store cordials are often expensive, boring, and full of high frustose corn syrup.

That said, the Ginger Cordial above would work really well with a nice botanical Gin or light Rum... :-)

[Chesleygirl]

I might try it with light Rum, since I have some in my cabinet.

[sparkytheop]

Mostly I'm replying to save your recipe...

As for non-alcoholic drinks, we make ginger ale, kvas, and kombucha (alcohol content is minimal, and commercially sold as non-alcoholic).

kvas (we use glass flip top bottles): https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/02/19/angelinas-easy-bread-kvas-recipe/

ginger ale... I was using "Peter's pickle" tops and the recipe from peterspickle.com, but the website seems to be no more.  I'll have to look to see if I saved the recipe.

[sparkytheop]

Turns out I did save the recipe! (I tend to email them to myself since websites have gone away in the past).  I always do the "self carbonation", using the flip top glass bottles (my local beer supply store had the bottles much cheaper than anywhere I could find online).

Supplies needed:
1 quart mason jar
airlock
bottles if you want it to make it bubbly

Ingredients:

3/4 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup sugar
water
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (I've found champagne yeast/yellow packet results in a better flavor)

Instructions:

Sanitize your mason jar and Peter's Pickle fermentation kit (the fermentation kit is a style of airlock, so use any kind)
Fill the mason jar with ginger root, sugar, yeast, and lemon juice.
Pour water until nearly full. (Approximately 30oz or 0.9L)
Stir the ingredients and leave at room temperature for about 2 days.

Bonus step for carbonation: Pour the ginger ale from mason jar into a soda bottle with 1 tablespoon sugar and close the cap. Check every 12 hours until you get your desired carbonation level.

Refrigerate and enjoy!

[bwall]

What is the purpose of cream of tartar?

[Mr Mark]

What is the purpose of cream of tartar?

Yeah, damn good question! Short answer - it was in several of the recipes I found. :-)

I suspect it serves a dual purpose - it stops the sugar recrystalising when you refrigerate the cordial, and gives it a bit of acidic bite.