Simple Mint Fizz

Mint in your garden is one of those things that seems like a good idea at the time, but then one morning you go out there and notice that you have not a patch of mint, but a field. When I was 12, my mum and I discovered such a field of mint on the little hill shaded behind the carport, where we never went. It stretched for about four metres, and the mint was waist high. Hmmm. We harvested piles of it and made tsatsiki to go on Greek burgers (Mum, please post the recipe!), we preserved the leaves with egg white and sugar... everything. 

So when I was presented with an ever-widening patch of mint leftover from previous tenants, I decided to hack it back right away. The simplest thing to do with my pile of mint was to make some simple mint syrup. I'm nearly seven months pregnant now, and getting incredibly sick of insipid options for non-alcoholic drinks, so I wanted to make something interesting to drink. I completely underestimated how incredible fresh mint syrup would be... this is not so much a recipe as a starting point. It would be brilliant with vodka, not that I would know. *sigh*. I made up a jug of this for a garden party and everyone came back for more. 

You could use the syrup over a cake, ice cream, all sorts of things. 

Simple Mint Fizz

Simple Mint Syrup

1 cup water 

1 cup granulated sugar

Three big fistfuls of fresh mint leaves, washed

-

Tonic water

1. Boil the water with the sugar, stirring continuously until it's dissolved. 

2. Take the pot off the heat, and push the mint into the sugar water, reserving a few leaves. Leave it - as long as possible, but at least until it's cool.

3. Strain the liquid into a container. You can now keep this into the fridge for quite awhile. Mine has been in the fridge for weeks, but don't quote me on that. The syrup works best after it's had a night in the fridge really.

4. To make the fizz, put some ice in a highball glass, pour in half a finger of mint syrup, then fill with tonic water. Taste it, add more syrup if you like it sweeter. Garnish with a couple mint leaves and you're good to go.

Comments

[Francis Norton]

Sounds tasty - may have to try the vodka (or gin) version!

I have two other suggestions to relieve your boredom -

[1] Rock Shandy: 1 part fresh orange juice, 1 part fizzy lemonade, a dash of Angastura bitters - not too sweet and very refreshing (this is the version I came across in Zimbabwe, apparently it varies from country to country)

[2] Apple zinger: 1 part cloudy apple juice (Liddle does a good cheap one), 1 part fizzy water, a splash of lime cordial - ahhhh.

Rock Shandy (or a Virgin Mary) would be my first choice in a bar, Apple zinger is normally my first choice at home.

All the best!

[Erin]

Thanks Francis, these look great... I've never mastered the use of bitters but they've always intrigued me. Maybe this will give me the inspiration to try it out.