21 August 2020
Regular readers will know that Knidos Cookery Club loves a summery cocktail – in the past we’ve made a Figito, with fresh figs, and a Prickly Pear Pick-me-up. In past summers we’ve been able to call on these more exotic ingredients but this year we’ve been in the more prosaic setting of Almaty, Kazakhstan because of the pandemic.
So, we’ve taken a look at what’s to hand and come up with a simple mixer that combines barley water with lemon and ginger. We made our cocktail with white rum but it will work equally well with tequila as the base for a tart Margarita, or it could also pair well with gin.
Whatever you have in store, put one part spirit with three parts LGB tonic and six ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. Give it a good shake, pour into a tall glass, top up with fizzy water and add a slice of lemon and then sit back and enjoy what’s left of the summer.
Lemon, Ginger and Barley Tonic
Ingredients (for 2 litres)
- 150 g pearl barley
- 2 lemons, zested and juiced
- 5 cm knob of ginger, grated
- 1.5 litres boiling water
Method
- To make the barley water, wash the barley until the water goes clear. Zest the lemons and add to the barley in a large bowl. Grate the ginger into the barley and lemon zest and then pour the boiling water over it all and leave to cool. Add sugar or honey to taste if you have a sweet tooth – we prefer it without.
- Juice the lemons and divide into two one litre jugs. Strain the barley water – reserve the soaked barley for use in another dish. Pour the resultant liquid on to the lemon juice. Top up with cold water and leave in the fridge to cool. Use within a few days.
Knidos Cookery Club 
3 thoughts on “A Lemon, Ginger and Barley Tonic for Quarantinis (LGBTQ)”