drink: limonada

I traveled recently to San Diego, and to the delight of my brother’s in-law family requested calamansi from their backyard shrub. I suppose if one had to describe the taste of its fruit, it would be kumquat and tangerine. Filipinos use kalamonding to sour sinigang, but in my childhood, my relatives squeezed it into limonada. And so I made a few pitchers of calamansi juice and simple syrup. My sister-in-law's parents filled a plastic bag from which I made 3 large pitchers of calamansi-ade and then split what was left with my sister. I figured my remains would make 1 more pitcher. 

This is a no-recipe recipe. Cut the tiny calamansi fruit in half and remove the seeds and then squeeze the juice from the halves into a mason jar. In another mason jar, I microwaved equal parts granulated sugar and water to make simple syrup. Pour some of each into a glass with ice and stir. I always add water to temper if the limonada is too sweet. Delicious.  

When the simple syrup cooled, I poured it into the mason jar of calamansi juice and refrigerated. Because I wanted even more limonada, I squeezed a few limes into the concoction to drink more juice over the next few days. I'm gonna miss San Diego because the Asian grocery stores are more numerous and have a larger variety of produce ingredients like sawtooth coriander and kaffir lime leaves. I brought back those makrut leaves with me to Northern California. Stay tuned.