Mike van de Elzen: Spring cola with honey, citrus and lavender

Spring cola with honey, citrus and lavender 

Cook time: 5 minutes 

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Serves: 10-12 drinks

2 oranges, cut in half  

3 lemons, cut in half  

2 limes, cut in half  

2 cups water  

1 cinnamon stick  

4 star anise  

1 small knob ginger  

1 tbsp molasses  

1 tbsp instant coffee  

10 heads fresh lavender  

1/2 cup runny honey  

1 cup brown sugar

Squeeze oranges and lemons into a saucepan. Drop in the squeezed fruit and add water. Add cinnamon, star anise, ginger, coffee, lavender, molasses, sugar and honey and bring to the boil. Once you reach boiling point, turn off the syrup. Careful not to over boil.  

Lay a small plate onto to the top of the fruit to weigh down and keep it under the liquid.  

Place it into the fridge overnight.  

The next day strain the syrup through a sieve to remove all the bits, squeezing out the fruit to extract all the syrup. Pour the syrup into a clean jar or bottle and refrigerate for up to 2 months.  

When serving, measure 1 part syrup to 4 parts sparkling water. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks dB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
A Resident chief Mike vander Alson is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I like the way you're doing something a little bit
different for Labor weekend. We've got a spring coler with honey,
citrus and lavender. Sounds very refreshing.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Did it sounds delicious?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Had it down in the garden you Saiday, could have
done with one of those at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Ah, I could have one of those every day, To
tell you the truth, and I still won't get on
top of it anyway. Everything is growing like bananas. The
weeds are grown overnight. But just incredible. Our asparagus. We've
got these big troughs of asparagus and if you're not
there in the morning, you come back in the afternoon

(00:51):
and the thing's about a meter eye. Incredible health. How
fast things turn around, just a little bit of heat,
a little bit of sun. You know. The cows, yeah,
I know. Three months ago, I was struggling for grass.
Two months ago, I was struggling for grass. Now, jep Is,
I've got way too much of it.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Can't win.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Difficult life, difficult, life on the land.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Anyway, do you know that today we've been here for
ten years and middle.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh congratulations, isn't that incredible?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Sometimes? Yeah, sometimes I was looking back through the through
the photos you know, on your on your on your
your photo library, you can go back through through the years,
and I was looking at this day last ten years ago.
It was there was a video of us coming down
the driveway when we first arrived in out of Middleway,
and the farm was just so overgrown, beaten and worn out.

(01:38):
And I think sometimes you need to reflect on what
you've done over the last I think so.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, I think so, because it's been quite remarkable what
you've managed out there.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, anyway, Spring Coler talk about it. I'm actually doing
this because citrus is so abundant at the moment, and
also our lavender is starting to go a little bit banana,
so you've got fresh lavender. So this is a great
respeed for it. So into one part, you've got two
oranges that's been cut in half and squeeze into a pot.

(02:07):
Three lemon, same deal, cut them and half squeeze them in.
I've got two lines. Limes are still affordable and still abundant.
So two limes, cut them in half, pop them into
the same pot, along with two cups of just cold water.
I've got a cinnamon stick, four star andise, a small
knob of fresh ginger. You can just leave the skin on,
just make sure it's clean cut and half. Pop that
in tablespoon and molasses. That kind of gives you that

(02:30):
rich coc col of color. Tablespoon of instant coffee, and
then ten heads of fresh lavender. That's the all important
after burner. That's the after flavor that you're going to
get from this col and go oh, I can't quite
pick that flavor. It's going to be the lavender. Half
a cup of running honey, and then one cup of
brown sugar, so you've got that heavily caramelized sugar going

(02:52):
into there. Pile the whole lot into that one pot,
turn it on, and then just bring it up to
the ball. You don't want to overcook this. You don't
want to boil it for two or three or even
ten seconds, because what will happen is you will lose
all those citrus tones and you'll just you'll pick up
the bitterness from the rinds of the limes and the lemons,
So just bring it to the ball. Just when you
see it starting to just turn over, turn it off.

(03:15):
Pop a pot on top of it, or not a pot,
like a plate, just to weight the fruit down so
it's actually sitting inside the syrup. And then take your
pot and just allow it to cool down for ten
to fifteen minutes before you fire that into the fridge.
Leave it. Leave the pot and all in the fridge overnight,
and what happening is all just extract all the flavors
out of all that citrus and all that lavender. The

(03:36):
next morning you're good to go. Take the plant off,
straight it through a syrv or some through some muslin,
and make sure you squeeze out all those lemons and
all those lines so you've got the last of that
juice coming out, and then that's your syrup good to go.
So that's a cola syrup. And then when you want
to make cola, you just add one part of that
syrup to four parts of sparkling water and plenty of ice.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Sounds amazing. Thank you so much, Mike. You go and
enjoy your tenure anniversary. So if you take a walk
round that farm and just acknowledge what you've achieved.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Just look at what we still have to.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
No, no, no, no, Thank you so much, Mike, have
a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.