Cold Drinks

Berry Compote Drink

Long boiling ruins compote twice over: the colour slides from ruby to brown, and the fresh berry aroma leaves with the steam. So we do the opposite — three minutes of boiling, forty minutes under a lid. Steeping pulls out everything boiling would, without destroying anything on the way.

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Berry Compote Drink — the finished dish
Prep
10 min
Cook
10 min
Rest
3 h
Total
3 h 20 min
Servings
8
Level
Easy
Per serving
105 kcal

Ingredients

  • What to use instead

    Frozen berries work all year and are arguably easier: they have already burst, so they give up colour faster.

Makes: about 2 l, 8 glasses

Method

  1. Step 1: Prepare the fruit

    Pick over and rinse fresh berries; leave frozen ones frozen — they release their juice in the pan and keep their shape instead of turning to mush.

  2. Step 2: Make the syrup

    Bring the water and sugar to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. The berries should meet water that is already sweet.

  3. Step 3: Boil for 3 minutes

    Add the berries, wait for the pan to return to the boil and time exactly three minutes. Any longer and the colour goes brown and the taste goes stewed.

  4. Step 4: Cover it off the heat

    Turn off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and put the lid on tightly. The acid locks in the colour and the closed pan keeps the aroma from escaping.

  5. Step 5: Steep for 40 minutes

    Leave it covered until it cools, at least 40 minutes. The drink becomes noticeably deeper than it tasted straight off the stove.

  6. Step 6: Chill and serve

    Pour into a jug and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve over ice with mint; the berries can stay in the jug.

Tips & variations

  • Tip

    Judge the sweetness once it is cold: heat exaggerates sweetness, and hot compote will taste right while cold compote tastes thin.

  • Variation

    A cinnamon stick or a few cloves dropped in at the steeping stage turn the same compote into a winter drink.

  • Swap

    Frozen berries work all year and are arguably easier: they have already burst, so they give up colour faster.

  • Storage

    Three days in a covered jug in the fridge. Leaving the berries in deepens the flavour, though by day three they start falling apart.

Nutrition

Approximate nutrition per serving and for the whole dish
1 serving Whole dish 8 servings
Energy105 kcal840 kcal
Protein1 g8 g
Fat0 g0 g
Carbohydrates26 g208 g

Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.

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