HI GUYS.
So recently I've been reading up tumblr a lot and I've stumbled across many tutorials on how to make fruit smoothies/health shakes, simple and clean berry drinks; to be honest, I've never been one to be extremely healthy (eyes the pizza on the table), ideally, I would never give two hoots about drinking detox drinks because why should I? Also I am not a big fan of creating things that are healthy because they usually end up with sweet sugar cubes in them.
Definitely not healthy.
So the other day Samuel and I went to this quaint little cafe called the Book Cafe, located opposite M hotel directly - not exactly hidden but a short walk from Clarke Quay to Robertson Quay, nearby UE square if you guys ever want to visit. The cafe is amazingly quiet and peaceful, tranquil atmosphere with lovely seats and chargers for you to plug in your laptop or phone. Free wifi too a huge plus point if you go there to study.
Not to mention its filled with books to read! Not a huge library but rather interesting reads you can actually borrow and browse while eating. A quaint mellow cafe for the fellow book worms or those who just want to chill - the price however, is a totally different thing, like all cafes, it is of course, expensive; majorly more than $6 for everything on the menu except maybe water.
I'm digressing but I bought this eggs benedict set from the all-day breakfast menu that came with this lovely side potato waffle look alike, basil leaves, ham and nicely poached eggs with hollandaise sauce that wasn't so thick or sour (in fact it was rather sweet/salty). It was exquisite! Well-prepared and well-seasoned, (I added more salt because I'm a salt addicted teen) it was so enticing I only took a few photographs before digging in.
Side dish of thick savory fries for Samuel and an African Solstice tea that tasted very much like berries and thick hints of tangy fruity flavours.
Enjoyable as it was, the special thing that caught our eyes was their ice water.
Yep, you heard me.
Samuel said it was orangey like, so I tasted and found the ice water refreshingly zesty. Orange zest ice water, I deduced - reminded me of the instance my momma made this lovely ice lemon zest water and in which gave me the idea of making orange zest water/lemon zest water because man that was refreshing.
And I recalled about the different cutesy looking recipes for fruit zest water that seemed rather simple to make and came about my own concoction of detox water. Incidentally I wasn't too sure of the amount of ingredients to put it, so everything was really just estimated. Thankfully it came out really nectarous, even to Jed and my mom who have been pestering me to give them the water everyday.
And as I digressed with my cafe trip, here's the recipe of my refreshing lovely detox water.
- One lemon (gonna use 1/2 of it)
- One cucumber (gonna use 1/4 of it)
- Mint leaves (grow them because they are horrid to find)
- Cinnamon (optional for taste)
- Ice water (600ml is my estimate for the ingredients needed)
Have fun with mixing and matching your own spices and herbs into the concoction because this is just the base recipe, you can add in sage or anything else, maybe blueberries or strawberries for a sweeter taste.
Let's begin by talking out your ingredients, it really doesn't matter what kind of cucumber or lemon you use really, these things are rather refreshing to your tastebuds unless you tell me japanese cucumber is spicy
.
Cut your lemon in 1/4, a small bit will do unless you want more lemon in your water. Do the same for the cucumber, 1/4 of it and lay it out.
Slice the cucumber finely into 4-5 pieces and (i personally hate the skin) cut out the skin of the cucumber, optional for those who don't mind it.
Place them into a water bottle/jug/glass jar of ice water of 600ml and let them soak in first. Next prepare the lemon and squeeze some lemon juice into your container. Do not dry out the lemon, you will need it again later.
After you are done, chop/slice some lemon pieces and place them into the mixture too.
Lastly, the mint! The is the most important ingredient to me because I LOVE MINT so damned much, they smell delightful and they taste so minty and fresh! It gives the entire drink it's flavour so use it in large amounts!
Pluck a few leaves, usually I get about 7-8 pieces and happily throw them into the mixture!
Now take a spoon or chopstick and stir well - it's now like a witch's brew and you can pretend that you are brewing a potion in potions class for your hogwart's assignment.
Once you are done stirring your detox water, put it into the fridge to soak and cool for about an hour or so. If you want your drink quickly, wrap a cold paper towel around your container and place it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
Take out the lemon and cucumbers but leave the mint leaves there to create a more minty flavoured detox water. (Optional to take everything out, but I suggest so)
Finally, serve with left over cucumber slices or mint leaves to make it look like some really cool detox water.
You can reuse the leftover cucumbers and lemon for another time and ta-da! A simple detox drink that costs less than $5 to make! This is a base recipe like I said above so go ahead and mix in more fruits and herbs if you like!
A cool refreshing drink on a hot summer's day - basically everyday Singapore weather.
Love,
Evelyn.
