Quarantine Drinks V.6: Playing with Rosemary

Hello all,

In this quarantine nightmare, among the many challenges, I've noticed that I just run out of stuff to make drinks with for our IG Live segments. Getting food deliveries is such a crapshoot so I just never know what I'm going to do. Today (Friday the 10th) was one of those days. I knew I wanted to do something comforting as it's Friday, cold, rainy and the apocalypse is still going on outside. So I opened my fridge and my spice shelf and my eyes went straight to the rosemary. 

In case you haven't noticed, we love using herbs with our coffee and tea drinks. Rosemary has been featured a number of times in our sig drinks, so I thought I'd do a few drinks with rosemary that might take you in different directions - a hot chocolate and a tea. But first, we need to make a rosemary syrup. 

Rosemary Syrup:

The secret here is that dried herbs work just as good as fresh ones. Maybe even better.

Take 4g dried rosemary. Steep it in 80g of hot water for 3 or 4 minutes. Strain over 50g of sugar (use more or less depending on how sweet you want the mix to be.)

Done. Easy-peasy. 

Rosemary Hot Chocolate:

Start with a good chocolate mix. We make our own here and sell it in these lavender hot chocolate kits! 

Warm up 6oz of milk (any milk will work, but I think almond would be nice with the rosemary). 

Add 1/2oz of chocolate. Add more or less depending on how thick you want this to be. 

Drop 2 oz of rosemary syrup into your mix. Shake this all up together. I used a protein bottle shaker, but anything works. (The protein bottle shaker is nice because it has that metal ball in there that manages to mix everything up while getting you a little bit of frothiness, too.) 

Add some cinnamon and flaky sea salt on top to really amp it up. 

Rosemary Orange Black Tea with Basil Seeds:

Start by hydrating your basil seeds (basil seeds are a lot like chia seeds, but better, IMO.) But instead of using water to hydrate your basil seeds, pour a few oz of the rosemary syrup into a bowl with 1 tablespoon of basil seeds and set aside for a few minutes. 

While that's hydrating, take 4g of black tea (or any tea, really) and put it in a teapot. (Pro-tip here - if you have a teapot with a built-in strainer, take it out. Put it right in the pot to steep and use the strainer when you're pouring this out.)

Take a zester and zest half an orange peel into the teapot. Add 100g of boiling water to this mix and steep the orange peel/black tea mix for 3 minutes. 

Take a heaping tablespoon of your basil seeds and put them at the bottom of your cup or glass. (If you're feeling fancy, but this in a cocktail glass of some sort.)

Slowly pour your orange/tea brew over a strainer into the glass. You sort of want the basil seeds at the bottom to make this a cool layered drink. 

Garnish with some honey powder on top. 

As always, please let us know if you make this at home!

Best,

B