Drinks / easy recipe

Summer afternoon refreshment at its best: Fire Cider Lemonade with Berkshire Mountain Bakery ciabatta and butter.

 Fire Cider Lemonade

For a pint-sized drink:

Ingredients:

• fresh squeezed lemon juice from 3-4 whole lemons
• splash of Fire Cider
• raw honey

Mix the lemon juice and Fire Cider in a pint glass. Add raw honey to taste. Top with soda or plain water. It's that simple!

Bright & sunny sweetness outside Fire Cider headquarters.

Drinking vinegar for its myriad health benefits goes back to ancient Greece, no wait, even further, to 5000 BCE when Babylonians were using date palms to make vinegar. Warriors throughout history have used vinegar mixed with water for strength and energy. Vinegar drinks and vinegar tonics infused with herbs, roots, flowers, you name it, have been around for many centuries.

In New England farmers have been making a drink called 'switchel' to keep them hydrated and ward off heat stroke during the long, hot summer days:

"They drank a quenching beverage that functioned much like modern Gatorade: switchel, also called switzel or haymaker’s punch. It contained water, a sweetener—either molasses, maple syrup, honey or brown sugar—ginger, and cider vinegar. All the ingredients (except water) happen to be sources of potassium—an electrolyte. Molasses is especially high in potassium."

Apple Cider Vinegar is an incredibly medicinal food since it contains several different beneficial acids plus beta-carotene, amino acid, bone building minerals, enzymes, magnesium, potassium, pectin and tannins. No wonder humans have been using this super food since we figured out how to preserve apples in the form of vinegar! Here are my three favorite vinegar drinks, aka, switchels, to help keep you cool and healthy this summer:

Dana's Pomegranate Switchel

Ingredients to make one cup of Switchel concentrate:

• ¼ cup of Fire Cider
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger juice
• 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon raw honey

Shake well to combine all ingredients.

Serve about 2-4 ounces of concentrate over ice, top with soda water to make a pint.

Store leftover Switchel mix in the refrigerator.

Citrus Switchel

Makes 2 servings-

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or Fire Cider
• juice from 1/2 a grapefruit
• 1 1/2 tablespoons, or more to taste, raw, local wildflower honey
• Soda water or plain water
• 2 lime wedges

Combine the first 3 ingredients and makes sure to dissolve all the honey.

Fill two pint glasses with ice and split the switchel mix between the glasses.

Top with soda water and garnish with a lime wedge.

Dr. Earl Mindell's Switchel,  from his book 'Amazing Apple Cider Vinegar' which is also where I got some of the information for this blog post.

Makes 2 servings:

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or Fire Cider
• 1 1/2 tablespoons black strap molasses
• 2 cups warmed water (to melt the molasses)

Combine and pour over ice.

Let's start the weekend with a new, original cocktail recipe by Berkshire County resident and Fire Cider fan Paul Dodds. We think you'll love this cocktail as much as we do, happy weekend everyone!

Hornitos Tequila is a good start to a great cocktail.

Apples and Pears

• 3 parts Hornitos Añejo (or your favorite tequila)
• 3 parts Goya Pear Nectar
• 1 1/2 part Mathilde Poire Liqueur
• 1 part St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur
• 2 dashes Fee Bros. West Indian Orange Bitters (or your favorite Orange Bitters)
• 2 capfuls of Fire Cider (to taste really)
• Reed's Spiced Apple Brew - spicy ginger soda with real ginger-yum!

To make:

Add all ingredients (except Reeds Apple Brew) to shaker with ice and shake vigorously until foamy. 

Add 3 shots to a Low Ball glass with ice. 

Top with Reeds Apple Brew and gently swirl.

Garnish with Apple and Pear slices. Enjoy!

Garnish with a slice of pear, sip slowly and enjoy the extra sunlight this Sunday. If you make this cocktail, we'd love to see a photo. And remember, this Sunday we lose an hour of sleep but we gain an hour of sunlight!

Lambs wool, ready for mixing and drinking!

Those of you who get our monthly Fire Cider e-newsletter (sign up on our home page; it's really just a monthly discount cleverly disguised as news about Fire Cider!) know that we celebrated Dana's birthday early this month with a happy hour at our house. The kegorator Dana built this summer was perfect for serving a crowd!

I made bar snacks and also some Lamb's Wool, a hot drink my friend Kate always made at her holiday parties. This hot mulled cider gets it's wooly look from peeled, cored apples slowly cooked into soft, delicious clouds. Kate's family tradition has become one of my favorite hot drinks- the mulling spices add extra warmth, and the apples are delicious.

You can certainly enjoy this all ages beverage as is or add in the optional ingredients at the end to get the full warming effect! This recipe will yield about a gallon- we didn't have any leftovers!

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon apple cider, preferably from a local orchard that doesn't use chemicals!
• mulling spices to taste, we used: 2 whole star anise, 3 whole cinnamon sticks, 1 shy tablespoon dried orange peel, a few whole cloves, 5-8 whole allspice. You can throw them in loose or put them into a spice bag/tea bag first.
• about 5-6 peeled, cored apples

Optional:

• 16 oz bottle of Fire Cider
• 750 ml bottle of Bourbon or Whisky
• or...whatever you like to spike your cider with!

Method:

Peel and core the apples, leaving them as whole as possible. I peeled by hand, sliced each apple in half and scooped out the seeds and hard bits. A peeler/corer, the hand cranked kind, would be perfect here.

Add all the apple cider, mulling spices and apples to a large heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it go until the apples have really started to break down; they are about half way there in the picture. I left the lid on most of the way while they cooked, so just a little steam could get out.

You don't want to reduce your cider too much, or it will get thick. If that happens, just add more apple cider. When the apples are starting to break apart into wooly clouds, turn the heat to low and leave it there; it's ready to serve.

Grab a big mug and scoop in some cider and some apple pieces. Garnish with a fresh cinnamon stick.

Add a tablespoon or 3 of the Fire Cider and some Bourbon or Whisky to taste. Happy weekend!

Dana's kegorator filled with two homebrews and filtered soda water.

This cocktail recipe brought to you by The Religion Based on Drinking - a Facebook page that recently shared this arty gem of a poster on our page. It's really getting us in the Halloween spirit, pun intended! 

We love our friend Ben McHenry's take on this classic cocktail. During the summer time, any day can feel like a Sunday. Have a sip on one of these the next time you need to bring the weekend to you!

A more colorful, flavorful gimlet.

"Here's to Feeling Good, All the Time"

Our friend Stephanie sent us this recipe after she attended the demo Brian hosted last Friday at Provisions.  If you haven't been to this relatively new store on Crafts Ave. in downtown Northampton, you are in for a treat!

We think Stephanie's cocktail is just perfect for celebrating the beginning of spring, how 'bout you?

It's green so it must be good for me, right?!

Spicy Limeade Cocktail

• 2 ounces of vodka (I used Absolute)
• 1 ounce of Fire Cider
• 5 ounces of limeade (I used Simply Limeade brand. If you're really motivated you could make your own by creating a simple syrup, then adding it once cooled to fresh-squeezed lime juice.)

Combine all ingredients, shake or stir, and serve on the rocks. Add a sprig of fresh cilantro if you like.

Note: I really didn't measure--I just made it to taste. But I would say this is probably a good starting point.

Variations:

• For a refreshing drink, anytime, just omit the vodka and add a few ounces of soda water instead.

• Substitute 2 ounces of your favorite tequila in place of the vodka.

Here's our signature Fire Cider Cocktail brought to you by Brian...

Scorched Earth, simple and refreshingly good!

The Scorched Earth

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce Fire Cider
• 2 ounce Citron Vodka

Shake with ice and serve in a rocks glass with fresh ice or strain into a chilled martini glass. Can also be made as a shooter.

Garnish with lemon peel or lemon wedge.