Ginger sparkling water, three ways
The unsweetened infusion, the syrup, and the ratio that makes the finished drink.
In season: Year-round. Young ginger with thin pale skin turns up in Asian groceries in late summer and is milder and juicier. Mature ginger with tough skin is hotter and better for syrup.
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Infused, unsweetened
Use
3 inches of ginger, peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater, per 1 litre
Method
Grate rather than slice. Sliced ginger sitting in cold water gives up almost nothing in 12 hours because the flavour is locked inside intact cells, and grating breaks them open. Stir the gratings into cold still water, refrigerate, then strain through a fine sieve or the drink is gritty.
Time
2 hours for a light warmth, 4 for a real burn. Past 6 hours it turns harsh.
Sparkling
Still water for the steep, sparkling in the glass. There is a lot of suspended solid in a grated ginger infusion and it strips the fizz out of carbonated water within minutes.
Keeps
3 days refrigerated once strained. Left unstrained it keeps getting hotter and goes bitter by day two.
The syrup
Ratio
1 cup peeled and thinly sliced ginger : 1 cup sugar : 1 cup water
Method
Bring it to a bare simmer, hold for 5 minutes, then take it off the heat and steep 45 minutes with the lid on. Strain without pressing the solids.
Keeps
3 weeks refrigerated, 6 months frozen
Note
Resist the urge to boil it hard for half an hour to make it stronger. Gingerol is the compound doing the sharp fresh heat, and sustained heat converts it to zingerone, which is sweeter and duller. A long boil buys you colour and costs you bite.
The finished soda
1 part syrup to 4 parts sparkling water over ice, with a good squeeze of lime
For a proper ginger ale burn go 1 to 3 and add a pinch of salt. Ginger beer intensity comes from fermentation rather than from more syrup, so do not chase it by pouring.
The shrub version
1 cup grated ginger with 1 cup sugar, 24 hours in the fridge, strained hard through cloth, then 1 cup cider vinegar. Rest 1 week. This is also a switchel base: 2 tablespoons of the shrub, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, topped with cold water.
What doesn't work: Peeling it with a paring knife throws away the best of it, because the most aromatic flesh sits directly under the skin. Scrape it off with the edge of a spoon instead. The bigger failure is simmering the syrup 30 or 40 minutes to make it hotter, which runs in the opposite direction: the fresh sharp heat cooks off and you are left with a dark sweet syrup that tastes like a cough drop.
Goes with: LimeLemonPearPeachBlood orange