Drinks

Spicy Fruit Punch for winter days

- Tobia 2 Comments
craftaliciousme seeking creative life Spicy fruit punch

After being locked up for the last few days I needed to get outside today. I knew it got cold but I was still a bit surprised how cold it was. Winter was in the air. I could almost smell snowflakes but not quite yet. When I was strolling the streets I thought to myself this will be a really cold long winter. We hadn’t had those in a while. I am looking forward. Just need to get used to the cold. Cold air makes everything feel fresh and new. However when I came home I was chilled to the bone. Time for a spicy fruit punch to warm me up.

Good thing I had all the ingredients already at hand. Let me invite you for a glass and if you are not able to stop by let me share the recipe with you.

What you need:

♥ bag of homemade chai tea
♥ redcurrant juice
♥ mint

Preparations are quite simple. Boil the chai tea in water and let simmer for about 30 mins. Add approx. same amount of juice to the concoction. Heat up. Fill in glass and decorate with min leaves.

craftaliciousme seeking creative life Spicy fruit punch

If you enjoy this recipe you might also like Kuuma Karpalomehu – Finnish Hot Cranberry Juice. Now I wonder what your favorite hot drink during winter time is. Let me know so I can give it a try.

Happy winter,

Tobia

spicy fruit punch for cold winter days

Red Currant Summer Drink {Lemonade Party}

- Tobia Leave a comment

How is your summer treating you so far?

It’s been a while since we had some lemonade up on the blog. And by now you know that I love love love lemonade and that I hardly drink anything else during summer besides homemade lemonade and some iced tea.

So today I have some red currant lemonade for you.

red currant syrup

What you need:

♥ 400 g red currant
♥ 10 tbs sugar
♥ 750 ml water

Clean and wash the berries and put them in a big pot. Add sugar and let sit for a bit so that the berries can get juicy.

Add water and start boiling. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Berries will loose their color and look very dead.

Put berries in a strainer and catch all liquid. Then put liquid back on stove and let simmer until it’s syrupy.

Wash your bottle with hot hot water. Fill in syrup, close bottle and turn upside down to seal.

yummy red currant syrup

Enjoy your homemade red currant lemonade!

Happy brewing,

Tobia

P.S. For more lemonade recipes check out my lemonade party.

Green Tea Nectarine Slush

- Tobia 6 Comments
green tea nectarine slush

Remember my New Years resolution? Well I do and I feel a bit ashamed that my #2 goal has been putting more distance between me and fulfillment.

And during this kind of weather I’m just craving ice cream any time of day. So I came up with a healthy solution

Green Tea Nectarine Slush

green tea nectarine slush

You need:
1 liter of green tea – I prefer a bit stronger taste for this one
2 nectarines
Sparkling water

First you have to freeze you tea aka make green tea ice cubes. Now the hard part: wait
Cut up nectarines and put in blender, add about 8 ice cubes and 150 ml sparkling water. Blend till ice cubes are slushy and enjoy.

I bet this would taste good with watermelon or cherries… What fruit would you use?

Have a great weekend,
Tobia

Pink Pink Pink Lemonade {Lemonade Party}

- Tobia Leave a comment

Wow now this post has been one year in the making. No, no it doesn’t take a year to make but it’s been sitting in my drafts file for about a year. But when I wanted to go take some pictures I had to realize – all gone. Nada… And since I believe some things are seasonal I just didn’t make another batch. And you had to wait until 2014 to have the opportunity to actually read about this great lemonade… But now lets get started:

I have to make a confession. I kinda love the United States. Surprise surprise.

By now you probably have read that I lived in the U.S. for a year. And after I tried all the different drinks I realized – they are actually too sweet for my taste. Of course I still love some Mountain Dew (never ever pour it into a glass – it looks like poison!) or a Dr. Pepper. But ALL THE TIME? Not really. I really don’t like plain water that much either. So I was kinda happy when I realized Iced Tea is nothing like Ice Tea we know from Europe.

But it was a new love when I had my first pink lemonade. I was in heaven. (And I don’t want to know how much sugar there is in one drink. No really don’t want to!)

homemade pink lemonadeBy now there are stores you can get Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper or even Snapple but I’ve not come across pink lemonade. (Ok, now that’s been a year I’ve seen some but they are not great, way too much sugar!) So all this lemonade making from scratch started when I was looking for some homemade lemonade recipes. It took me a while to realize that grapefruits are the basis of pink lemonade (duh me!). Then it was simple to get my recipe:

homemade pink lemonade

You need:

♥ 3 grapefruits (approx. 500 ml juice)
♥ 125 g sugar
♥ 125 ml water

First the boring part: you need to grate all the grapefruits so you end up with lots of zest. This may take a while (to be precise 2 episodes of CSI NY). But it’s essential for the intensive flavor. Then press all grapefruits.

homemade pink lemonade

Pour juice, water and sugar into a pot and start boiling. Let simmer for a while. Still hot pour into glass bottle (make sure to rinse with hot water before), screw tight, turn upside down (to seal the lid with vacuum) and you are done. So simple, so yummy, so refreshing on a hot summer day.

homemade pink lemonade

Have you ever made lemonade yourself? What’s your secret recipe?

More lemonade cravings? Follow me:
♥ Rhubarb Lemonade
♥ Mint sirup
♥ Homemade ginger ale
♥ Cucumber lemonade

Last Minute Christmas Present * Vanilla Green Tea

- Tobia Leave a comment
gift idea homade vanilla green tea

Hey there,

are you in the middle of a christmas rush? Getting the tree decorated, the gifts wrapped and shopping lists written? I am still wondering if we should get a christmas tree. I love it when we have one but I really don’t feel like decorating this year. And I don’t have any candles yet and that can be a pain in the a** one day prior. But gift wrapping is on my agenda today.

And I do have a quick last minute christmas present. For all those surprise visitors or if time runs out or if you plainly forgot. Here it comes:

Vanilla Green Tea

♥ Green Tea (I got mine here)
♥ Vanilla bean

last minute christmas present

All you have to do is scrape out the seeds and mix well with the green tea. (Best practice: Put it in a jar and shake like crazy!) Now cut up the vanilla bean in tini-tiny pieces and mix under your green tea. And you are done…

last minute christmas present

Now you have all the time to decorate your gift box or container. Need ideas? Check out my Pinterest board Gift Wrapping Mania. You could also sew little tea bags like I’ve done last year with my chai tea. Whatever you come up with – have fun and enjoy our 4. Advent.

On a side note: this would be a wonderful gift for yourself. I bet you deserve it!

Cheers, Tobia