Wanderberry Tales

Seems like we are past the peak of the summers.The weather still varies between hot/ dry and hot/humid and I hate the later of the two. Such days requires an extra boost of energy to keep you pumped up. On one such day, we walked into a café – Papa Roti and the Passion Fruit Iced Tea was the much needed refreshing punch we got. Ever since, I have wanted to try this at home. The only Iced Tea I had tried earlier was the one marketed by Lipton and I stopped having it the moment I learnt about the sugar content that goes into it. Orange and Lemon with a dash of mint seemed to be the perfect combo for the refreshing Iced Tea and there it was decided. So here is my recipe for the summers. Ingredients ( Serves – 4) Water – 3 and ½ cups Tea bags/ tea leaves – 3 bags/ 3 tsp Fresh mint leaves – a handful Orange Juice – ½ cup Lemon juice – 2 tbsp Honey/Sugar – 6 tbsp/ 3 tbsp Ice cubes Method: Boil 3 cups of water and add the tea bag or tea leaves. Set aside covered

I can imagine the reaction of most of you when you hear the name of this cooler. I was witness to a similar reaction from my husband and cousin. I never attempted this cooler before although I was fully aware that something like this did exist. This one is very refreshing and provides the cooling effect you need most in the scorching Dubai summers.  My love affair with this cooler dates back to my camping days in college. We had a mandatory 10 days camp every year where the first half of the day was spent in Sramadan - were we dug up and leveled grounds or dug up drainage around the local school areas. We started off at sunrise breaking for breakfast once and then again for juice at 11 am before we winding up at 1:00 pm. One amongst the hot favorite for the juice break was definitely the green gram cooler - which gave us much needed energy and enthusiasm to work harder. In the ancient times, it was made using the traditional stone mortar and pestle, adding ingredient by i