[Sca-cooks] Period non-alcoholic drinks class

[Michael Gunter]

I did my second period non-alcoholic drinks class at our 
King's College this weekend and it was a definate success.
It was also a much better idea to do this class in the outdoor
June King's College than the last one I taught, "Open Fire
Cookery".  Standing all day around a couple of fires
in June in Houston, TX was not my brightest of ideas.

But having a class in cool drinks during the hot Texas summer
is much better. There were around 15 people attending the
class and I brought 2 mason jars of tamarind syrup, 1 jar of
lemon syrup, 4 litres of small mead and 4 litres of lemon
barley water. I also had a large cooler of ice water to mix 
the syrups with. 

I provided both small tasting dixie cups as well as larger
cups so that attendees could take away a larger drink of
their choice after the class. 

In addition to the lecture on how to make the drinks and others
that were in the class notes we discussed period sugar production,
verjuis, water sources, sekujaban, ciders and how to make
variations on the themes of the recipes given.

Tastes were offered of the syrups alone and then mixed with
water. I am rather shocked that some folk enjoyed the syrups
by themselves. My biggest surprise was the tamarind drink. 
I've never been much of a fan of tamarind before but the
act of steeping tamarind pulp and then making a syrup
of the water creates a wonderfully refreshing drink.

After the class I took the remaining drinks and syrups to the
water pavillion for general distribution and by the end of the
event, all that was left was a half bottle of the small mead.

I'm hoping that more folk see how easy it is to make a period
drink for events and start getting away from sodas, tea,
gatorade and powdered lemonade.

I've sent Stefan a copy of my class notes so they should be up
in the flori-thingy soon.

Gunthar
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