Blueberry Ginger Ade from Colony Meadery
carrie
Last week, I did what hopes to be the first of many tours of the Wednesday night Easton Farmers' Market, aimed at getting people oriented with what it offers your grilling and summertime cookout menus. If you took that tour, thanks! If you didn't, where were you? You missed a good time of me waxing and riffing about the lovely foods and drinks that are available at the Wednesday market. You see, people seem to come down there and eat dinner, and they aren't shopping as much as the market would hope. While dining al fresco is a rite of passage in the summer, and many people do wander off into restaurants downtown, I urge you to take 10 more minutes and wander around. Bet you can't walk away without popcorn, some tomatoes, or a bottle of wine. In past weeks vendors have been selling things such as mulberries and iced tea mix and sprouts and Meadow tea and fudge made with Weyerbacher beer and mead and inventive hummus and pesto selections. And that's not all of them. Did you see my butter post about Ironstone Creamery? We're going to do another one this week called Summer Sipping, and it's focused on beverages, both the alcoholic and non. After asking for a series of mixed drink ideas from the fine gentlemen at Colony Meadery, I got a brainwave: Ginger Ade. And then Greg Heller-LaBelle of Colony suggested blueberries, which you can get from Scholl Orchards this week. (No doubt this came to mind because Colony is making an appearance this weekend at Burnside Plantation for the Blueberry Festival, with Fred and Ginger mead with lemon zest and blueberries.) You can certainly opt for raspberries or strawberries, but there's something especially nice about blueberries with lemon and ginger. This drink requires a bottle of their Fred and Ginger mead, which is made with real ginger. Nothing fake here, people. It's the real deal.
Wait, you say. What's mead? Why, it's honey wine! It's a very old beverage, like cider, and one that's poised to make a comeback. The number of meaderies is slowly climbing. Trust me on this. Here's what you need:
Blueberry Ginger Ade
Serves: 1 thirsty person in serious need of a drink, or 2
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup Fred and Ginger mead from Colony Meadery
- 1/3 cup lemonade
- 1/3 cup sparkling European soda in Sicilian lemon (Wegmans sells them, so does Whole Foods. You can use seltzer or club soda instead if need be)
- 1/4 cup blueberries
Directions
Combine the mead and lemonade in a Pyrex measuring glass. Transfer to drinking vessel of your choice.
Measure the sparkling soda and then add to the mead and lemonade. Place the blueberries on top and let them soak it all up.
Ice is optional, but if you're going to be outside you might want to encourage it to stay cold. Cheers!
This will pour a pretty hefty drink, so it might be a nice thing to sip over the course of a meal and then some. Or share!
