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Switchel Recipe For Hydration During Activities and For Hot Days

Food For Life Garden
This switchel recipe will be your go-to hydration drink this summer! Replenish electrolytes during exercise, or rehydrate on a hot day!
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Prep Time 30 minutes
cooling and infusion time 4 hours
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Drinks, Tonic
Servings 1 quart

Equipment

  • 1 Pitcher or large canning jar
  • Something to stir with
  • 1 small saucepan to boil your ginger

Ingredients
  

  • 3½ cups Water And Other Liquids - Ideally filtered water. Or replace part of the water with fruit juice or coconut water.
  • 3-4 tbsp Vinegar - Raw apple cider vinegar with the mother or one of your homemade fruit vinegars.
  • 2-3" Ginger, thinly sliced - No need to peel.
  • 2 tbsp Sweetener - Blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, sucanat, or honey.
  • ⅕ tsp Sea salt - Redmond's Real Salt, Himalayan pink salt, or unrefined sea salt.

Instructions
 

  • place the ginger into 1½ cups of water, bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
  • Add your choice of sweetener to the jar or pitcher.
  • Add the warm ginger water with the ginger and let it infuse overnight for more flavor. Or just strain the ginger out before adding the ginger water to your jar.
  • Stir the ginger water and sweetener until it is dissolved.
  • Add enough extra water to fill the jar. Alternatively, add coconut water, or fruit juice to fill the jar, and add the juice of a fresh squeezed lemon if you like.
  • Add the vinegar.
  • Stir everything and chill if you like it cold. Adjust for taste.
  • If you want to infuse with fruit pieces, you can add them sliced thinly, or diced, before chilling and just let them infuse overnight.
  • Strain and enjoy!

Notes

Are there other optional add-ons I could use?

Yes, feel free to add anything that seems appropriate, but here are a few healthy add-ons:
Grated turmeric and black pepper Cayenne pepper (add this to your simmer pot with the ginger)
Other citrus with peel for an overnight infusion
Berries such as strawberries, blueberries, black berries, raspberries, cranberries, or Goji, Aronia or other berries. Either blend and add to your switchel jar or you can slice or dice the fruit and infuse your switchel overnight. 
Fruits, sliced or chopped such as peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, plums etc. to infuse overnight or blend and incorporate. 
Spices that can add flavor and more health benefits, such as ceylon cinnamon, cloves, or cardamom.
Herbs for flavor and also health benefits, such as mint, lemon balm, rosemary, thyme, lovage, lavender and more.
Cucumbers might be really good too. 

How long does switchel keep?

It's best to drink it within a week. It'll keep longer, but it may degrade in flavor.

Enjoy Your Delicious Switchel! 

That's it already. Long intro for a very short recipe, lol. But choosing the right ingredients and some knowledge of why you would want to use them is important, and so I didn't want to just skinny over that part. 
Whether it's super hot out and you want a delicious beverage to quench your thirst or you're working out and need to get re-hydrated, switchel is a tasty, healthy and perfect drink to restore hydration and energy.
Keyword energy drink, hydration drink, sports drink, summer punch