the glass changes seasons while you hold it.
You pour cold, bright, herb-infused cider over elder flower ice cubes. The first sip is summer — crisp apple, lemony, a little green. Then the cubes start melting and that muscat-floral elder flower creeps in, and by the bottom of the glass the whole thing has gone soft and honeyed and autumn-ish.
Fall is arriving slowly, in your glass, while it’s 99 degrees outside.
An Iced Herbal Cider Recipe for fall
Ingredients
1/3 cups dried elder flowers
2 cups water, just boiled
2 tablespoons honey
4 cups apple cider, cold (pasteurized)
1/2 cup fresh lemon balm leaves, loosely packed
1 short fresh rosemary sprig
4 thin slices fresh ginger (optional)
1 cups sparkling water, chilled
1 small apple, thinly sliced, for garnish
Directions
1. Steep elder flowers: pour the 2 cups boiled water over flowers. Cover — this keeps the aromatics from floating off into your kitchen — and let it sit until it smells like flowers.
2.
Strain out flowers, stir in 2 TBSP honey while the infusion is still warm til it dissolves. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. Fill ice cube trays halfway, and freeze for an hour. Add a lemon balm leaf or elder flower and top off each cube tray, freeze for another hour.
4. Cold-infuse the cider: While the cubes freeze, drop 1/2 cup fresh lemon balm leaves, loosely packed, 1 short fresh rosemary sprig, and 4 thin slices fresh ginger straight into 4 cups apple cider, cold. Cover and refrigerate overnight, but remove the rosemary sprig after 3 hours.
5. Taste and strain: Taste it. Strain everything out and keep the cider very cold.
6. Build the glass: Fill a glass with 2-3 elder flower cubes. Pour the infused cider over them, top with a splash of 1 cups sparkling water, chilled for lift, and float a slice from 1 small apple, thinly sliced, for garnish with a sprig of lemon balm.
Take care of yourself with an herbal self care workshop on 9/17. Registration closes Monday.
Stock up your shelves from our apothecary sale, everything 20% off, through Monday night.