Natural Ginger Soda Recipe

[philipCT]

I had lunch today at the Solitude Ski Area - at the Honeycomb Grill. The manager makes his own soda and, when I asked the waiter, he came out and walked me through this recipe. I gave it the name.

Solitude Ginger Simple Syrup
With thanks to Greg at the Honeycomb Grill
Makes One Quart

Ingredients

• Fresh ginger enough for 2-4 cups, cubed small
• 2 cups honey
• Fresh water

Instructions
Put two cups of honey in a 1-quart thermal container
Top off to quart level with water heated to about 150 F
Stir/agitate until honey evenly mixed

• Peel and cube (small) 2-4 cups fresh ginger (experiment to taste)
• Blanche ginger cubes:
• place in sauce pan, perhaps with a tiny bit of water to keep them from browning or toasting
• add medium heat for 5-8 minutes until thoroughly sweating, but not cooked

• Combine honey mixture and blanched ginger cubes into large sauce pan
• Add another quart of water
• Heat at a low boil uncovered for about 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally
• Cool and strain into a one quart container

Uses

• Put 1/4-1/3 cup in a glass, add club soda and stir for a refreshing and authentic ginger ale
• May also be used in mixed drinks like the dragonfly, gin & ginger, gin-gin mule, or foghorn

 

[philipCT]

Deafening response to this post, wow!!!

For what it's worth, I made this the other night. SWMBO brought the ingredients back and it took me about an hour all-in to brew up a batch of 1-1/2 qts of this simple syrup. A 30-minute boil only reduced the 2 qts to 1-1/2 qts for me. Don't know why but the result was good anyway. I suppose I could boil it down a little more and just have a more concentrated syrup.

Mixing in with club soda per the recipe worked flawlessly - tasted the same at home as it did out in Utah. I used 2-1/4 cups of cubed ginger and the ginger/honey balance seemed just about right. You can dial-up/down the flavor intensity just by adding more or less syrup to your drink. I found about 1/2 ounce made a nice light ginger-ale in an 8-oz glass with ice.

Rave reviews from my 10-year old and he's a very tough customer for anything new. Mixed up a Ginger-Bourbon for SWMBO and that got rave reviews too. She's got a broader palate but never hesitates to say so if one of my brews misses the mark.

This one's a gem! (even if I say so myself)

 

[MrFoodScientist]

Deafening response to this post, wow!!!

Welcome to the Soda sub-forum, it's kind of quiet around here.

A 30-minute boil only reduced the 2 qts to 1-1/2 qts for me. Don't know why but the result was good anyway.

Could be difference in elevation.
Base elevation at Solitude is 7,988 ft.
Norwalk, CT elevation is 36 ft.

 

[philipCT]

Welcome to the Soda sub-forum, it's kind of quiet around here.

Go figure

Could be difference in elevation.
Base elevation at Solitude is 7,988 ft.
Norwalk, CT elevation is 36 ft.

I had thought of that too - I know it generally takes longer to boil water at altitude, but I wasn't sure that would add up to a higher evaporation/boil-off rate.

But now you have me thinking (always a dangerous thing - need. more. beer.), daytime humidity there is about 14%, whereas it averages 65-75% here. I'll bet that's a factor.

 

[conneryis007]

For your next batch I would suggest adding fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice. I have also had great luck adding vanilla, cinnamon, clove and cayenne!