Sweet & Natural

A nice mix of sparkling water mixed with mint syrup is particularly refreshing on hot summer days, especially when the temperature nears 100 degrees and you don't have air conditioning! Unfortunately, as Marie pointed out, commercial mint syrups contain synthetic food coloring. Normally I may debate whether or not these substances are bad for you, but in this case I defer to Marie. For one thing, it is unnecessary. The syrup does not have to be fluorescent green to taste good. More importantly, I was allergic to food coloring as a child. I remember breaking out in hives, and occasionally being brought to the hospital, from straying too close to the Kool-aid. Given this experience, why not use some of the large amounts of mint I have in the herb garden?

Mint Syrup Recipe:

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup chopped mint, packed

Bring the water and sugar to a simmer over low heat
Wash and chop the mint
Once the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from the fire and add the mint
Cover and let sit for 1 hour
Strain into a bottle
Refrigerate, it will keep for several weeks















Mint & syrup before covering

Never place the mixture over a fire after adding the mint. The essential oils of mint are quite volatile and will evaporate rapidly.















The highly technical filtering process

How did it turn out? Not that good. Too sweet, not enough flavor. Maybe I need to use more mint, or add some peppermint. I only have spearmint in the garden, and a mixture may add some nuances to the flavor. You can clearly taste the mint, but possibly not enough. I can also try letting it sit a little longer before filtering the leaves.















Homemade on left, commercial on right.

Or maybe I really do miss the bright green color!