Sweet N' Tangy Summer Drink

There's a traditional Chinese drink called "Plum Juice", "Prune Juice", I have no idea what it's called.

Basically you have plums and other ingredients to make a really tasty drink.

I messed up, I admit, and made everything sour, but here I'm going to point out the potential reason for this.

I might have put a bit too much hawthorn slices. Those are sour. Eek.

Anyways!

This drink is refreshing and healthy. It contains a bunch of stuff you'd probably never heard of before, and you probably don't need them, but here is the full recipe. I'll add a simplified one for those who don't really want to hear about osmanthus fragrans. Yeah, I don't know what those are either.

Serve chilled, and this is not that hard to make. Like at least easier than making a casserole. I don't know how to make those.

Hawthorn(I used 50g, but please use less- too sour. Dried or fresh works. I used dried.)

Dried Tangerine Skin- 5g (fresh or dried- this is just to help adjust the flavor slightly. Gives the drink a tangy and tangerine smell. Feel free to use more.)

Black Dates. I used 6, dried.

Mulberry. I used around 20. Dried.

Roselle, dried. Used like 10g.

Plum, around 8 pieces.

Mint leaves, 5 g, dried, but I supposed fresh is ok. If you want, you can decorate the drink by putting fresh mint on top.

Osmanthus fragrans, a few pinches. Not really necessary.

Huang Qi, 4 slices.

Sugar, crystal candy, just something that will give you sugar. Fancy Powdered sugar not required. Regular will work. I used around 50g or so but it doesn't yield much sweet taste. Adjust accordingly. You can always add more while it's hot.

As shown:

Left with those red and yellow coin things- those are hawthorns. Don't put too much.

Next to them on top are: Black dates, mulberry, Huang Qi, roselle.

Under roselle is mint. Under that is the Ume plum. The bottom are dried and fresh tangerine skin. At the far right bag of osman... something flower pedals and the crystal candy.

Wash all ingredients except for crystal candy, mint, and osmanthus fragrans.

Once done, place the washed ingredients (excluding crystal candy and osmanthus fragans) into a pot with 1500mL clear water room temperature. This pot should contain at least 3000mL water. DO NOT HEAT UP. Let them soak for 30 minutes.

First brewing: if you haven’t already, pour the soaked water and ingredients(after 30 minutes) into a pot that can hold more than 3000mL. Once in a pot like this, heat up. Use maximum flame setting, place a pot lid over it, and once it reaches boiling point, you can tell when it bubbles profusely, lower to a small flame(minimum setting) and simmer for 15 minutes.

(first two images)

Second two are for the low heat simmer.

Once done, pour the water only out from the pot into another clean pot or bowl, but leave all ingredients in the original pot.

This next bowl should hold at least 3000mL.

Once only the ingredients remain, pour 1200mL clear water into the pot with the ingredients. Again, use maximum setting to bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.

When your 20 minutes are done, place in the crystal candy and osmanthus fragrans.

Stir, and if needed, heat up so sugar dissolves.

TASTE IT and see if you need more sugar.

Once done, pour this second part into the original batch.

Stir.

The ingredients should be placed in the pot. Leave for a day in the fridge, so it can cool, and maybe get a bit more flavor.

Here is my not so great image of the final product.

For a simplified version:

Just a small bit of hawthorn, dates, Ume, mint. Mulberry and roselle, too. Huang Qi may not be necessary.

I seriously don't think that osmanthus thing did anything.

Chill, serve optionally with ice, and enjoy!

It's healthy so don't be mad at me since it doesn't taste like the actual version.

I'm going to make another batch soon and will update with results.