Purple Delight Recipe | Black Grapes and Pomegranate Cooler Recipe | Summer Cool Drinks

Purple Delight Recipe
 Black Grapes and Pomegranate Cooler #Recipe

Purple Delight is a summer cooler drink made with fresh grapes and pomegranate juice. It is spiced with pepper powder, roasted cumin powder and black salt. Fresh and tangy, it is just perfect to keep you cool during summers.

Colours are an important spice of life.  Imagine your life without colours – boring right? I believe it is the same with our food – it should be colourful and pleasing to eyes. When I was thinking about all the cool drinks I was indulging in this summer, I realized they were all of the different colours. My Kairi Panna is a soothing shade of green as I use a lot of mint in it; the Masala Chaas is, as usual, white, my Herbal Iced Tea was a bright shade between orange and brown. That’s when I thought of creating a different coloured drink to sip on.

I had lots of black grapes and pomegranate in my refrigerator and with these two star ingredients; I set on to make a drink. When I was done, I was pleased with the result at hand, so much so that I took it to a friend’s place for her to taste. She has become my unannounced official taster for most experiments in my kitchen. When she okay-ed it, I made it again the next day and while sipping on it, this name – Purple Delight came to my mind.

The other day when I met her and amidst our usual banter, I told her I have named the drink – Purple Delight and she was into a riot of laughter.... which reminds me of another spice of life - laughter. Laugh as often as you can and be with friends who can make you laugh out loud.

The pomegranate juice typically has a slightly bitter note in the end which compliments beautifully with grapes juice which is sweeter. A dash of lemon juice adds a subtle tang to the overall flavour and the spices add some earthiness. If you want to try something different from your regular lemonade, try it for sure.

Purple Delight Recipe | Black Grapes and Pomegranate Cooler 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup black grapes

1/2 cup pomegranate pearls

2 tbsp sugar syrup (optional)

1/4 tsp black salt

1/4 tsp black pepper powder

1/4 tsp roasted jeera powder

Soda water to top up

Lots of Ice cubes

2 tbsp Chopped grapes and pomegranate pearls for garnishing

Process:

1. In a blender jar add the grapes and pomegranate pearls and churn till pulpy. Sieve the mixture to extract the juice.

2. Add the juice to a large jar; add sugar syrup, black salt, black pepper and jeera powder. Stir well. Add this to 4 medium glasses.

3. Add some ice cubes to each glass. Top up with soda water. Garnish with chopped grapes and pomegranate pearls. Serve chilled.

Notes:

1. The black grapes I used were quite sweet. If you are using grapes that are tart, adjust sugar syrup quantity accordingly.

2. It is best to consume it fresh and chilled.

Thank you for stopping by. Cheers!

Herbal Iced Tea Recipe | How to Make Herbal Iced Tea from Scratch | Summer Cool Drinks Ideas

Herbal Iced Tea #Recipe

Herbal Iced Tea is a thrist-quenching summer drink. With lemongrass, ginger and mint, this herbal iced tea is full of flavours. I have used sugar to sweeten it, but you can use honey or any other sugar free sweetness as well.

I have never been an iced tea person. I do order it some times at food joints, but it has never been one of my go-to cool drinks. But, after trying this recipe I am a convert. I wouldn't mind saying that this herbal iced tea has become one of my latest favorite chilled drinks to beat the heat this summer. 

Long ago, I had tried a fruit punch recipe that used tea decoction and it turned to be a super flop. Since, then I was wary of trying any drink recipe with tea decoction in it. But, when I chanced upon a herbal iced tea recipe in one of the cookbooks I own ( did I tell you I am a hoarder of cookbooks?) I decided to give it a try.

The recipe involved making a herbal decoction first - a combination of lemongrass, ginger and mint. The recipe did interest me; but I had an even better reason to try it. Sometimes back I had planted lemongrass and mint in my terrace garden and I was delighted at the idea of using my garden produce.

The best thing about this recipe is that you can prepare the herbal decoction in bulk and freeze them in ice trays and use them when needed. You can play around with the ratio of the herbs, depending on which herb flavor you want to be prominent.

Here is how you can prepare the herbal decoction for iced tea:

1/2 cup ginger, washed, peeled and grated.

1/2 cup lemongrass leaves, washed and chopped

1/4 cup mint leaves

1" cinnamon stick

Process:

1. Add all the listed ingredients in a saucepan and add 500 ml water. Bring it to a boil and then simmer it on medium heat for 15 to 20 mins.

2. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan. Let it cool completely before straining. Strain and set aside the herb extract.

3. You can add another cup of water to the residue and simmer it for 15 mins. The decoction prepared the second time will be milder in flavor. You can combine both the extracts thus prepared or you can store them separately. If you do not need to use the entire decoction in one go, freeze them in iced cube tray. When frozen fill them in a zip-lock bag.

Herbal Iced Tea Recipe

Makes 2 tall glasses

Ingredients:

2 teabags 

100 ml boiling water

10-12 herbal ice cubes or about 60 ml of the herbal extract

3 tbsp simple syrup ( sugar syrup prepared by mixing and boiling equal quantity of sugar and water till the sugar is dissolved)

300 ml chilled water

Ice cubes, mint leaves and lemon slices to garnish (optional)

Process:

1. Add the tea bags in boiling water and let it steep for 10 mins. Take the tea bags out and set aside the tea decoction.

2. If you are using herbal ice cubes, add them to the warm tea decoction so that they melt faster. Else add the herbal concoction equally into two glasses. Pour prepared tea decoction. Add simple sugar syrup and top with chilled water. 
3. Add ice cubes, mint leaves and lemon slices as desired. Stir and serve chilled. 

Notes:

1. Add a squirt of lemon juice for Herbal Lemon Iced Tea.
2. You can add the herbal ice cubes to your regular lemonades for added flavor.

Check out some more summer drink ideas

Sweet Lime Soda,
Ginger Mint Lemonade,
Makhanya Lassi, 
Blueberry Lemonade 
Strawberry Lemonade

Thank you for stopping by. Cheers!

Fizzy Strawberry Lemonade Recipe | How to Make Strawberry Lemonade | Summer Drinks

Fizzy Strawberry Lemonade #Recipe

This Fizzy Strawberry Lemonade Recipe is a pretty instant one. Whenever you feel the summer blues melting you down, sip on this and chill.

Summer is here in full spat. The sun shines brightly all day and keeps the mercury soaring relentlessly. Of course, there is some respite in the evening when the cool breeze blows, but for the most part of the day, you can feel the heat all the time.

In order to enjoy summer make summer bearable, we can obviously enjoy chilled drinks. Coz, when the rain hits (which should happen in a couple of weeks), you won't be able to sip on chilled drinks as much. For those will be the time when you will want to gorge on some Onion Bhajji and Masala Chai. So, for now, keep your spirits up with this 'Fizzy Strawberry Lemonade'.

Kairi Panna Recipe | How to Make Kairi Panna | Green Mango Mint Cooler | Summer Drinks

Kairi Panna #Recipe

Kairi Panna or Panha is a sweet and tangy Indian summer drink made primarily from green mangoes, mint and some spices. It is one of the most popular drinks preparation using raw mango in India. With mint as one of its main ingredients, it is said to be very cooling and soothing for the body.

Summers are already here in India and the mercury doesn't show any signs of relenting. What can come to our rescue in such times are obviously chilled homemade drinks. This summer it is time to stay away from bottled high sugar drinks and go for homemade thirst quenchers like this mango mint cooler, a.k.a Kairi Panna.