This drink is heavenly!
If you can find the new, light green growth on spruce trees, consider yourself lucky!
With the tree owner’s permission, pick some. For one batch you’ll need 3 cups.
I read somewhere it’s actually good for the tree to have the shoots picked away. Over time it’ll make the tree grow denser.
This recipe gives you about 12 – 14 cups of ready drink, that’s about three big bottles. You can easily double the recipe.
This drink is not canned. You will have to store it in the refrigerator and use it within a couple of weeks.
Update: For this drink you can also use new shoots from the Douglas Fir! The tips are just as delicious and nutritious as the spruce tips!
Ingredients:
3 cups (6 dl, 150 g or 5,5 oz) of spruce shoots
1 lemon
13 cups (3 liters) water
1 1/3 cups (4 dl) sugar
yeast – fresh: 1/2 a pea size – dry: just a pinch
Bring the water to a boil.
Give the spruce shoots a quick rinse in cold water and place them in a pot.
Wash the lemon. Peel it with a potato peeler, then remove the white rind and throw it away.
Slice the lemon. Add the slices and the yellow peels to the boiling water, along with the sugar. Stir and simmer for a minute until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the hot brew over the spruce shoots.
Let cool to “yeast temperature” – lukewarm for fresh yeast, warmer for dry yeast.
Take about a cup’s worth of the warm mead and dissolve the yeast in it. Add it back into the mead. Stir.
Cover the pot with a kitchen towel and leave it over night.
Next day:
Strain the mead and pour it into clean glass bottles. Refrigerate. It will be best after 3 more days.
Serve chilled!
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