An organic Portuguese infusion of mint, elderflower and lemon — caffeine-free, bright and unusually good served cold.
Elderflower is worth knowing about properly. The flowers of Sambucus nigra are one of the great European hedgerow ingredients: heady, muscat-like, faintly honeyed, and available for about three weeks in early summer before the whole thing is over for another year. The flavour is so distinctive that it survives being dried, infused, fermented and turned into cordial with its character intact, which is rare among floral aromatics.
One genuine safety point, and a reason to buy rather than forage. The flowers are perfectly safe, but the rest of the elder plant is not: the leaves, bark, roots, and raw or unripe berries contain cyanogenic glycosides, which release hydrogen cyanide when broken down and cause nausea and vomiting. Ripe elderberries are safe once cooked, and never safe raw. A commercially prepared, certified organic flower infusion has been sorted and processed properly — which is a real advantage over a hedgerow full of confidently identified plants.
Mint provides the cooling, and it does so by a genuine physiological trick rather than by temperature. Menthol binds to TRPM8, the cold receptor in your nerve endings — the same receptor that actually detects cold. Your nervous system cannot tell the difference, so a room-temperature mint infusion registers as cool. It is one of the neatest pieces of chemistry in the kitchen, and it is why mint works so well in a summer drink.
Lemon ties the two together with acidity.
An honest note. This is a delicious caffeine-free drink. The EU authorises no health claims for botanicals of this kind, and we are not going to invent any. One practical caution: peppermint relaxes the lower oesophageal sphincter and can worsen reflux in people prone to heartburn.
Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.
Criatura
Biohême
Biohême
Biohême
