Sassy Water

I love Pinterest. There are so many interesting ideas there. One of the latest I've been eager to try is Sassy Water. I repinned it from one of my friends who had repinned it from a lovely blog named Carolina Charm. The original recipe I followed is here.  Sassy Water is supposed to help eliminate contaminants, fat, and excess water weight. Plus, it just looked so pretty I had to try it.

I started out by grating fresh ginger, something I had never done before. I've baked with ginger spice before, of course, but always used the dried powder out of a little spice bottle. I've learned that the smell of freshly grated ginger is heavenly. Plus, I just like the looks of it. It reminds me of Earthroot from World of Warcraft. I used the little pokey side of a standard grater and had so much fun grating and enjoying the aromatic smell that I ended up with a little too much - you only need a teaspoon. (I tossed the extra into some oatmeal, which I heartily recommend.)

So that's what the other side of the grater is for.

Next you need a medium cucumber, sliced thin. I sliced my cucumber much thinner than the cucumbers in the picture in the original recipe. I also had to cut out a suspicious looking section of my cucumber, leaving just slightly less than a full medium cucumber.

Another useful side of the grater that I never used before. Who knew it could do more than grate cheese?

 

 

 

Next, the lovely lemon - possibly one of the most delightful substances on earth. The smell of a lemon always takes me back to about age 11 or 12 when I was a knobby-kneed skinny bookworm girl, shimmying up the side yard tree to sit on a gnarled old limb and read, provisioned with slurpy refreshment in the form of a half of a lemon. I know, that's weird, but it seemed refreshing to me at the time.

Had to use the knife for this slicing job, about 1/4 inch slices.

The final ingredient - mint leaves. I got these from Kroger. There are way more than enough for Sassy Water in this package. I will probably make more pitchers of water, but I'm contemplating other uses for the mint leaves, too. They smell divine! Pinch the leaves off the stems. I think I used 14-15 leaves. Recipe calls for 12, but some of mine were kind of small.

Such pretty little things.

Okay, now toss it everything into your pitcher. Doesn't it look pretty?

Recipe says to add 8-1/2 cups of water. I found that 8 cups of water filled my pitcher. (Maybe my cucumber was large instead of medium.) Next, let stand in the refrigerator overnight. This was the really hard part because I wanted to drink it right away over ice, but I restrained myself.

The final product!! Beautiful aromatherapy!

Okay! So when I got up this morning, the first thing I wanted to do was taste test my Sassy Water. The original recipe said to strain it, but I didn't want to do that. I poured it, bits and all, into my glass. I noticed a delicate taste of cucumber straight away, which was a little weird in a beverage but not at all unpleasant. There was just a hint of ginger; I think it was the perfect amount. The lemon and mint flavors were also a bit understated, but when taken all together it made a refreshing blend of flavors for a cool, light summer drink. I thought it was just about perfect.

CHEERS!

Let me know if you decide to make this!

Kathy