Hot Lemon ( ほっとレモン ) is a popular beverage sold throughout Japan in convenience stores and vending machines (yes they have vending machines that serve hot beverages in cans and such). This elixir of vitamin C is popular during the cold months as it touts the ability to fend off the biological onslaught of wintery cold time sickness. Well, we thought we could improve it and show people living in places that aren't Japan how to have plenty of this at the ready.
Having leftover lemons from last episode (Sriracha Lemonade), we double up on the little yellow fruit, but we're sure this also works with limes or even oranges. Make sure to use organic, since it's legal to use some nasty food dyes in fruit (in the US at least) and this is going to use lots of zest.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the first hot beverage of the winter: Hot Lemon.
You will need:
4 large lemons (or maybe 6 little ones)
1 cup of sugar (doesn't matter what kind)
500ml of hot water or tea (this amount varies depending on how much juice the lemons will produce)
2 tsp of salt
Garlic (optional)
Ginger (optional)
Hard liquor of your choice (optional)
Equipment used:
Vegetable peeler.
Blender (not the hand-held type).
Citrus Juicer.
Knife and cutting board.
Mesh strainer (a Chinois works well)
Mason Jar. (800ml or 32 oz).
You know, we didn't notice until half way through that she's got some crap on her jacket. We're not sure what that is, but one day we'll get some special effects studio to totally photoshop it out of there.
See list above.
Again, we warn you to use organic, since peels can have things like FD&C Red no. 2 in them. Seriously, that stuff gives you cancer, and the government says it's A-OK to use it on the outside of food, but not the inside. You can look that up.
At this point also add between one and two teaspoons of salt. This helps your body hold on to water and boosts the flavor considerably.
Here we have some Laird's Applejack. That's an Anime Boston shot glass from 2005 (we think). Applejack is (at the most basic) a whiskey distilled from fermented apple cider. There are not a great many producers out there and we are looking into getting something going to highlight how awesome it is to use in place of Scotch or Bourbon in many a cocktail. We don't feel ready to recommend one label over another to people just yet, but we're working on it.
If garlic sounds too funky for you (and it totally is for many people) you can use fresh ginger instead. Garlic does help in a few areas though, and freezing it before hand helps to soften it up, but be careful because garlic that's been frozen can straight up turn green if you're not careful. We're serious.
We have filled it to almost 875ml. Some of that is displacement from the solid components and we got it back up to 800ml by adding more water.
A mesh strainer is good to use here, since a coffee filter would be kind of overkill and probably take too long.
What is in the jar here is a bit strong, so we say go with a 1 to 1 ratio of this lemon awesomeness and some other hot liquid like hot water, tea, or ...we guess you could use coffee, or mulled wine, or tomato soup but all of that sounds kinda bad.
Brought to you in honor of the 2013 New York Comic Con and one unfortunate exhibitor who had to muddle his way through hosting a panel with a nasty cold all by his lonesome. This stuff does keep well in the fridge, but vitamin C is notorious for breaking down quickly, so it's best to have it sooner rather than later.
Next up:
Coffee Liquors
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