Summer Drinks for Iftar

Noticed the bee?

 
Ramadan is a happy time for us. To make it more joyous I'm trying my best to enrich iftar dinners with a variety of  appetizers, sauces, desserts and cold drinks. The fruity, refreshing, spicy and healthy coolers we make at home are particularly my favourites. The newest muddle I made was a mixture of dried plums and figs, fresh apples and lemons with cinnamon and cloves. Well, in Turkey, it's very popular to mix dried fruits such as raisins, apricots, and plums in different combinations and boil them until all the aromas fuse together. By the addition of granulated sugar in the last stage of boiling, the drinks often become more sugary than refreshing since they're intended to meet the need for sweets immediately after long hours of fasting as well as getting cooler on such hot summer days. 

With such intentions, I filled a big pan with almost 5 liters of water and added 200 grams of plums, 200 grams of dried figs, 1 big red apple (sliced coarsely), 1 medium lemon (sliced), 1 small cinnamon stick and two cloves. I boiled them together until the plums and figs got swollen and soft and then yielded their colour and flavour to the water and then added 1.5 cups of sugar letting it boil for another 10 to 15 minutes. That's it. Feel free to change the ingredients or the amount of the sugar and remember to refrigerate it before serving. 

Here is the link to the 60 summer drinks by Martha Stewart:

http://www.marthastewart.com/274797/60-summer-drinks/@center/276964/60-days-summer