I haven’t touched on the topic of what to drink when you’re enjoying your post-apocalyptic spam, so I think today I’ll go there. 😉
There are several really tasty, easy to make drinks for when you’re doing a lot of labor or it’s extremely hot, but you don’t have access to Gatorade or its equivalents. I would hazard to say that they’re much better for you, as well.
Sekanjabin
This is what we refer to as “Viking gatorade” because it was popularized by the Vikings. It originated in Persia as a mint based drink, but the Vikings played with it, and I played with it more. It is basically a simple syrup that you add to water to make it more palatable. The vinegar and sugar help balance your electrolytes, and the ginger makes it just “warm” enough (from your body’s standard) to drink even in very hot weather without causing yourself cramps. Just a note, the Vikings and Persians both added crushed mint to this. I don’t, so it isn’t included in my recipe. Feel free to add it to yours!
Ingredients
- 4 cups red wine or apple cider vinegar
- 4 to 8 cups sugar/honey/sweetener/blend of choice
- 2 tbsp minced or grated ginger
- fruit of choice (I like lemon, strawberry, and blackberry, or a mix, but you do you)
In a pot, add the vinegar. You can even mix red wine and apple cider vinegars for a different flavor if you like. Get the cheap stuff, by the by. This is not something where the vinegar has to be bougie. Bring the vinegar to a low boil, then begin to add the sugar, a cup at a time. I usually use four cups of a mix of sweeteners, but always use at least one cup of real sugar to help it become syrup. Stir in between, preferably with a wooden spoon. When all the sugar is in and has dissolved, add in your ginger, and your fruit. When it comes to fruit, you can use fresh, but frozen works better because it sort of dissolves in the vinegar. I’ve done it with fresh, though; just cut it up into chunks so the “meat” of the fruit is exposed.
Simmer your fruit stew for a minimum of 20 minutes, and likely much longer. You should reduce the amount of liquid in the pot by AT LEAST one third. It’s usually easy to tell, because it leaves a sugary ring on the edge of your pot. What you want is a syrup, not a liquid, so wait for it to really begin to thicken up. You want it to have the texture of a light corn syrup or maple syrup, but not be as thick as molasses. Allow your syrup to cool for several hours.
Once it’s cool, strain the sekanjabin through cheesecloth or a lint-free towel, and store in jars. I usually purchase the apple cider vinegar that comes in a glass bottle (it’s cheap), and so I pour it right back into the bottle and put the diffuser thingie back in. That way I can easily shake out just enough to sweeten my water.
To use, add about a tablespoon of syrup to 8 oz of water, stir, and enjoy. You may want to add a bit more or a bit less depending on both your tastes and the intensity of your sekanjabin. Store your sekanjabin at room temperature for up to a week, or in the fridge pretty much forever (I’ve never had it go off).
Note: it’s pronounced seh-KAHN-ja-bin
Shrub
I’m not sure where the term “shrub” came from, but it’s a more modern (think 17th and 18th century) version of the sekanjabin. It’s a little quicker to make, but much the same.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh blackberries – rinsed, drained, and lightly crushed
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme, or to taste
- 2 sprigs fresh sage, or to taste
- 1 cup white vinegar
Wash and sterilize a bowl or jar. Add blackberries, then cover them with sugar. Add the thyme and sage. Stir well to combine. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until a pool of juice and syrup forms around the blackberries, one to two days.
Remove the thyme and sage from the bowl. Place a fine mesh strainer over a separate bowl and strain the blackberry mixture. Press lightly on the solids to expel all the juice.
Sterilize a glass jar or bottle. Pour in the juice and add the vinegar. Cover with a lid and shake gently to dissolve any remaining sugar. Let rest until flavors intensify, at least one day.
Serve it the same way you did with the sekanjabin. Store your shrub in the fridge at all times.
Haymaker, aka Switchel
This is another 18th century drink, designed to allow people to drink it chilled without getting cramps. For those of you who’ve never worked hard on a farm in the blazing hot sun, if you drink cold water right from the stream while you’re really hot and sweaty, you will cramp up. It’s horrid. Also, your body doesn’t absorb it quite right, and so it isn’t as hydrating as it should be. Enter the haymaker, so named because it would be given to people who were haying their fields. It could be made in advance and stored in the cool stream. The ginger lets you drink it cold, no matter how hot you are.
Ingredients
- 2- to 3-inch piece fresh ginger
- 2-1/4 cups water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons honey
Use the side of a spoon to scrape the skin off the ginger. Cut the ginger into very thin slices. You should have about 1/4 cup of sliced ginger. In a medium saucepan, bring the ginger and 2-1/4 cups water to a boil. Remove from the heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. For a gentler, less-spicy switchel, don’t boil the water; combine the water and ginger in a jar and let them infuse gently on the counter for a few hours.
In a quart-sized glass canning jar or other lidded glass container, combine the honey and vinegar. Add the ginger and water. Cover with a lid and shake to combine the ingredients. Cover the jar and transfer to the fridge. Drink once cold or let the ginger infuse for up to 4 days (until it tastes good to you), at which point you can strain out the ginger. The longer the ginger infuses, the stronger the flavor will become.
The switchel is best stored in the fridge and enjoyed within 7 days (including infusing days), though it is often good for longer.
To serve switchel, pour it into a glass filled with ice. Drink it straight (which will be more concentrated and spicy), or top with still or sparkling water to dilute and soften the flavor. Stir and enjoy.
Strawberry Soda
You might think that, come the zombies, there will be no more soda. You’re very wrong! You can easily make soda at home, without any of the red dye #3!
Ingredients
- 1 cup sweet strawberries, cut into small 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup sugar, granulated
- 4 cups water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice OR juice of 1 lemon
Stir the water and sugar together in a jar with a capacity of at least six cups. The sugar will dissolve fairly quickly. Add the strawberries to the jar. Stir. Close the lid on the jar or cover with a cloth secured tightly with a string or rubber band.
Stir the contents daily.
After about five days, depending on your kitchen environment, the drink will start to bubble. Continue to allow it to ferment and taste it daily. During hot summer weather, it’s usual to let the soda ferment in the jar for eight or nine days. Warm weather speeds up the fermentation. Cold weather slows it down.
When you like the flavor, strain your drink through a sieve placed over a large measuring cup or a bowl. Set these berries aside. Stir the lemon juice into the drink. Use a funnel to fill clean, flip-top bottles, leaving at least 2 inches of headspace. Set the bottles aside for 2 days or longer, ideally in a box in a cool garage or cupboard to contain potential explosions. The longer the drink ferments, the more sugar the microbes will eat and the less sweet the soda will taste.
ALWAYS BURP YOUR BOTTLES! In other words, open the bottles just enough to release some of the carbon dioxide building up inside. You want your drink carbonated but not explosive. Burp the bottles at least every couple of days or every day if you live in a hot, humid area.
If, when attempting to burp your bottle, the drink begins to gush out, burp it more frequently as it continues to ferment or move it to the refrigerator where it will calm down. If you’re new to fermentation, you may want to burp your bottles outside in case they start to gush out and make a big mess. If, after burping your bottle, only a small hiss of carbon dioxide escapes, burp your bottles less frequently. You don’t want so much carbon dioxide to escape that the drink becomes flat. Because strawberries tend to create lots of carbonation, you likely won’t have this problem.
When you’re ready to drink your soda, move the bottles to the refrigerator to chill for a few hours before serving. Your drink will continue to ferment in the refrigerator but more slowly. Over time, it will become less sweet. If you won’t drink it for a couple of weeks, burp the refrigerated bottles.
Optional, highly recommended step: make a second infusion!
After you strain the strawberries, you can make a smaller batch. The still-sweet strawberries, now teeming with those fast-reproducing bacteria and yeast, will ferment this next batch quickly and it will likely begin to bubble within a day or so. However, because the strawberries have gone through one infusion, they will render a weaker tasting drink. Make this batch more concentrated. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 2 cups of water with the reserved strawberries. Proceed as with the first infusion. The second batch will probably have less fizz but still taste very good.
Note: Though I haven’t done it, I would think you could use any fruit for this. For small berries like raspberries or blueberries, I would smash them gently rather than cutting them, so that the sugars can ferment well.
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