Yesterday, I gave you 4 non-alcoholic drinks from the archives. Today I wanted to give you something that works both ways for drinkers or non drinkers and something that feels a little special.  I saw this a while ago and filed it away for the summer, I love hibiscus and bissap so didn’t need any persuading that this would work.  I am also really missing the ritual involved in drinking and decided to drink this from a flute which made it feel a bit more special.

Once you have the basic syrup, you could top it up with fizzy water or tonic (as here), fizzy apple juice might work too. On the alcoholic side there’s champagne, fizz or maybe sparking cider would work.

Ginger Hibiscus Syrup (adapted from The Kitchn)

What

4 and half cups of water

1 cup dried hibiscus flowers

2 inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced

1 cup of sugar

4 cups ginger ale

How

1) Rinse the hibiscus flowers throughly.

2) Put hibiscus, water and ginger in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

3) Turn the heat off, stir in the sugar and leave to cool.

4) Strain (I strain through a muslin cloth), add the ginger ale and chill.

5) To serve, half fill a glass with the syrup and top up with fizzy water or sparkling wine.