Tombe juice

🥤 A tart brown tamarind drink, lightly sweetened with optional cinnamon, six 200 ml glasses without fermentation.

Ingredients

• 100 g plain food-grade tamarind pulp without shell, unsweetened and unsalted; remove any seeds
• 40 g white sugar
• One small 3 cm cinnamon stick, optional
• Drinking water to make 1.2 litres filtered drink, including 500 ml for extraction

Preparation

Inspect pulp and remove shell fragments. Do not use salty concentrate sauce or confectionery. Prepare a heatproof vessel and fine sieve.

Heat 500 ml water with sugar and optional cinnamon about five minutes until dissolved and simmering. Pour over pulp in the vessel.

Cover and steep thirty minutes. When safely manageable, loosen pulp with a clean spoon without crushing seeds.

Remove cinnamon and strain into a clean jug. Press pulp gently with a spoon in the sieve; discard seeds and coarse fibres.

Top up with cold drinking water to 1.2 litres final volume. Stir, cover and refrigerate about one hour. Ninety-minute rest includes steeping and chilling.

Stir before serving six 200 ml glasses without ice to preserve dilution. Chill longer if needed. This is a non-fermented drink.