Socata - Elderflower soft drink
This is the summer drink of my childhood.
source
It is a traditional Romanian soft drink made from elderflowers, lemons, sugar and water. You simply put some large elder flowers, lets say 5-10 in a 5 l jar, add 2-3 sliced lemons and fill with water. You cover it and leave it for a day, then add half a kilo of sugar and then leave it in a sunny spot for around 4 days, stirring the mix each day. Some people would add some yeast as well or some rice grains to aid the fermentation.
You then strain it, bottle it and leave it in a dark place. Be careful though, this is a slightly fermented drink, so although it is non alcoholic to start with, it will carbonate with time so don't shake the bottles when you get them out. I've also heard stories of people forgetting about the bottles for years and then getting drunk after enjoying this refreshing lemonade :D
As kids, we were always waiting for the elderflowers to form and picking bags of the stuff to bring home to our mother, who through magic, was turning them into this delicious drink. The worst part was waiting for the better part of a week to drink it.
And guess what I found today in a shop around here?
I got home and
It's not as good as my mom's obviously but it's still a nice refreshing drink.
I'm sure @razvanelulmarin and @dragosroua have really fond memories of this drink from when they were little boys, if not, I feel sorry for you guys :)
I know that in the UK people make elderflower champagne which is a similar drink, alcoholic though.
Now I'm really curious in what other countries you can find this drink or something similar? @buzzbeergeek - do you guys do this in Croatia?
How about our southern brothers @mdosev ?
Cheers
Cos
I used to make this drink with Tibicos (Waterkefir). The whole recipe is almost the same, except for the added probiotics. Hungarians also like to make elderflower syrup, which they dilute with soda-water... but c'mon! There is a world of difference there.
Awesome! My grandmother was adding a bit of yogurt to hers so she must have been onto something.
I agree with your syrup - soda comment, that's no where near to being the same thing.
Yogurt, nice! Though sometimes the milk can interfere with the taste and the bubbliness. I am big fan of waterkefir, that is similar cultures that grow in water, eating glucose instead of lactose. In fact, now I feel like introducing them properly in a post. Thanks for the inspiration. I'll send you a link once it's up.
Awesome!
I dont know much about waterkefir so I'll be looking forward to your post!
Thank you
So here it is, as promised. Hope you like it:
https://steemit.com/food/@stortebeker/probiotic-drinks-kefir-tibicos-and-kombucha
Thanks man! I've seen it, perused the blog as well! It's a very interesting read!
How do you start a water kefir culture though?
Well, that's the tricky part. I read that scientist have tried to grow from scratch it in a laboratory without much success. You have to get it from someone, let it grow and pass it on. If you're ever in Mexico, I could give you some, but I'm sure there are people who grow them closer to you.
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sounds delicious
Oh, it is . Very similar to a fizzy lemonade but with the added elderflower perfume!
I'm wondering if i can buy this in Belgium :)
Not sure about that I'm afraid, but it's really easy to make and I'm sure there's elderflowers growing there.
I can give you more detailed recipe instructions if you're feeling adventurous!
Yep grows like weed here
Perfect for warm summers!
I think it is a popular drink everywhere in Europe, Germans put in beer, Austrians in Hugo. Ok, it does not taste like home, but it is the same flower ;)
Oh I know elderflower is used in many drinks; added to beer as well, etc. I was more curious about the slightly fermented, non alcoholic version. I talked to quite a few people here in the UK and they've never had the non alcoholic version. They all had elderflower cordial/syrup/champagne, just not this one.
This is really interesting, I have never heard of anything like this before. How low is the alcohol content after a week of fermentation, do you know? I guess you could do this with several different fruit/herb combinations. This might be a new summer experiment for me! Cheers from @steempub-trail!
I don't know, but it's very low. I guess it would have around 0.2% alcohol when it's fresh; similar to kombucha maybe. This usually uses wild yeast so they're not selected for anything really. If you were to store it for months it would probably bottle ferment to about a 2-3%, can't see it going further than that. Of course you can increase the amount of sugar and add some professional yeast to give it a kick. That's what the brits do with their version :)
Try brewing a batch of elderflower champagne, you'll love it!