Schwepped away: homemade lemongrass ginger ale

Every child has a favourite drink, and usually it's sweet.  I'm sure my brother looks back fondly on every glass of Kool-Aid he secretly spiked with extra sugar, despite his doctor's low-sugar restrictions.  One friend lights up at the thought of neon pink Tahiti Treat (which can apparently be replicated at home by combining equal parts cream soda and orange pop).  As for me, it's ginger ale.

I think this may have its roots in ginger ale's special dual role in my childhood home: as something you got when you were sick, and also as a decidedly adult mix for grown-up drinks at parties.  Talk about special powers!  But I always preferred its crispness to other pops (that's soda to you crazy US folks; see The Great Pop vs Soda Controversy, especially the county map and the study's conclusion). 

My choice hasn't always been an easy one.  There are bad ginger ales out there.  As a twelve-year old, I was even teased for having such boring tastes by my co-workers at a part-time job where we had unlimited access to soft drinks.

But ginger ale isn't boring.  It's sophisticated!  (Right?)  Clean and spicy, it's the perfect accompaniment  to a lot of Asian food.  I've even reached for it when travelling and in need of a familiar reassuring taste.  On one trip back from Spain, discovering that the American version of Canada Dry is less ginger-y than its Canadian counterpart was probably a bigger disappointment than the unplanned layover in Philadelphia and the accompanying frisking by immigration officials.

For a really sophisticated take on ginger ale, we recently made Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Fresh Ginger Ale with Lemongrass, from Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef.  Steeping minced ginger, lemongrass, and some chiles in a sugar syrup yields an incredibly flavourful base, which is added to club soda to create the ale (recipe here).

Wow!  Despite its somewhat disheartening colour, which is a little too close to dishwater, this baby packs a punch.  The ginger and chili are lively and stimulating, and before I knew it I had sipped several glassfuls of the stuff.

I’m sure that my children will love it – once I have them.

Comments

[Alanna]

I made ginger syrup for summer drinks two years ago and people kept showing up for MORE! Imagine! (BTW the hyperlinks in this post seem not to be connected anywhere?)

[rob]

Hi, Alanna. It is highly addictive, isn't it. Thanks for the tip about the links. They've now been fixed.

[TBTAM]

Rob:
I left you a response on my site, I haven't figured out yet if you would know that in any way without me telling you here. (It's all a new world...)

Nice shot of the drink.

[jasmine]

I took my first trip to India when I was seven years old. I remember being in a market, all hot and thirsty and asking my uncle for something to drink; he took me to a stall and asked what I wanted...well, ginger ale of course. He asked the keeper for a bottle of "ginger" and what I got was a *huge* bottle (in hindsight it was probably 750mL, but being little, it might as well have been half my height)of cold fizzy liquid with grated ginger.

I've never had anything quite so good since...

j

[michele]

Wow, very impressive to be making your own gingerale! It sounds great. I remember the gingerale of my childhood, where we had to use a can opener to pierce the can to drink out of it. Weird..

[Michelle]

Oh, you've hit a secret spot, my friend! My boyfriend and I LOVE ginger ale (and very few restaurants carry ginger ale here on the west...well, at least in Oregon) so we're always on the lookout. I'll be making this soon!

I was born in Colorado, and have always said "pop" but people out here ("soda" freaks) make fun of me for it! I love the great pop vs. soda controversy - though I am curious how you came about to find it!) I'm going to have to share that one!

[Rachel]

Alanna, I had a guest over and offered him the ginger ale. When I opened up the container of syrup, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head -- it was murky and a little scary-looking. He liked it, but I'm glad to hear your guests had no such qualms. Or maybe you were just much better at presentation...

Jasmine and Michele: thank you for sharing your memories. Different drinks, different times and places, but linked by the power of ginger!

Michelle: I've heard the pop vs soda issue discussed very seriously by etymologists and the like, and apparently there are certain words that just stop at the US/Canada border. Rob and I met while working at a restaurant that served American tourists regularly, and we will never forget a poor fellow waitress who was asked for "soda," brought plain soda water, and was yelled out by an irate and very thirsty American.
It doesn't quite compare to when Rob requested "corduroy" with his coffee in Seville, but the whole restaurant got a good laugh out of that!

[b.]

is next on the list some home made diet dr. pepper? :)

[Michelle]

Rachel - that's hilarious about Rob!! tee hee hee hee... but sad about the dumb, irate American. No wonder people in other countries think some of us just SUCK; sadly enough, it's true! But there are always jewels among the rocks!

[DylanK]

I just made this with more galangal than ginger, some lime leaves, and the lemongrass and bird chiles. Amazingly good.