Brazilian Lemonade

Speaker 1 (00:00:08) - In this week's episode, we're doing a refreshing hot weather Brazilian lemonade. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and certified Goe Marge, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here, and thank you for joining me today

Speaker 1 (00:00:32) - And welcome back my friends. Thank you for joining me this week. I am so glad you're here. And if you've been in joins and beautiful weather where you are, put your hands up and say yes because I have been, and that's what has prompted me to try out this Brazilian lemonade recipe that keeps popping up on my TikTok timeline. But I'll get into that in just a minute. Before we do, before we get into this week's recipe, this segment of the favorite cannabis slang term, and I have another submission, this one comes from Noodle and he wrote in to say, I loved your fun facts and the segment from GB and Mackey. Thank you Marge Brian. And I'm doing air quotes here, you can't see me doing that, but Brian was the name of choice for weed hash soap bar cannabis, green tea, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (00:01:24) - During my twenties, it came about through my girlfriend's friend's group. She and her friends had a habit of naming their house plants. Mildred was an umbrella plant and I had a pansy plant paired with a small trailing ivy, which I had named Ozure and Tentacle. One member of this friend group introduced their somewhat more intriguing house plants, which they had named Brian. From then on. Brian was a euphemism of choice, one attempting discreet conversations. I had a fab time with Brian last night. Have you seen Brian? I've been hoping to see Brian, but I've had no luck. We went to the park with Brian. Thank you for yet another tasty installment. Stay lifted and thank you noodle for that. That's a fun one. So next time you think of going somewhere and bringing your good friend Brian along with you, you can thank thank noodle for that fun little slang term, which may is probably not on the Wikipedia list of over a hundred or 200.

Speaker 1 (00:02:25) - I forget now. I think the list was actually a lot longer than I first thought, but I somehow suspect it may not be on that list, but if it is, kudos to you for making it that widespread. Now, also the cannabis fun fact of the week. So I think, I think it was, I'm trying to think now. Last week, I don't know the last episode where we did a fun fact or I keep saying fun facts. These facts aren't necessarily fun, interesting, intriguing, perhaps fun, not really sure. But the cannabis fact in the last episode was a list of 25 things that could be made from hemp. And I thought that was really interesting because it came from a list of 25,000 possible products that could be made from hemp and why is the world not utilizing this plant more fully? It's kind of mind blowing.

Speaker 1 (00:03:14) - So I thought, you know what would be interesting is to see what else is out there that can be made with hemp. Because I listed a few interesting things. Some of them weren't necessarily particularly surprising, but I did find some examples of things that may surprise you. And this article came from tree hugger and it listed, and it's relatively recent as well. It was updated October 20th, 2022. So I'm not really sure when it was first written, but was updated recently. And it listed six things, six unexpected products made from hemp. Now, I would say in this particular article, a few of the items were not particularly unexpected, but some of them did make me stop a go. Hmm. And the first one in the list was one of those items. And as somebody who really enjoys commuting by bicycle in the spring, summer, and fall, I love to ride my bike around as much as possible.

Speaker 1 (00:04:07) - Where I live, I'm in, it's very imaginative, but the city that I live in is divided into sections north end, south end, east end, west end, actually it's east city, west end, and downtown. And I spend a lot of time down downtown. I live in the north end and whenever possible, whenever it's feasible, I like to commute by bicycle. So whether I'm headed downtown to the farmer's market or my daughter's restaurant or my favorite shops, a lot of them are located downtown or I'm just riding my bike to the grocery store to pick up a few items to make my next edible, whatever the case might be. I really do like to commute my bike because I like to get the exercise. It's a great way to fit exercise into my daily routine without really giving it much thought. And it's good for the environment.

Speaker 1 (00:04:54) - There's a whole bunch of reasons, I'm sure I don't need to convince any of you of that. But the first item in this list was bikes. And the article goes to say, if you're the type who prefers to don a helmet and propel yourself around town, instead of sitting slouched behind the wheel of a car, you'll probably dig the work of Herba cycles, a Boston base purveyor of truly gorgeous bicycles, expertly handcrafted from bamboo and hemp. The frames available to range of styles from country cruisers to city commuters are made with lightweight, stronger than steel bamboo with joints held together by resilient hemp fiber. And I thought that was so wonderful because they're making use of two very sustainable plants. Bamboo is a very hardwood and also grows really quickly as well. So these bicycles, they have some pictures on the website. I'll link to this article, so if you wanna check it out, you can.

Speaker 1 (00:05:47) - Interestingly, when I went to the Herba Bicycles website, there was nothing on there that I could see unless I missed it, where you could actually purchase these things. But perhaps they just distribute them around Boston. And so if you're in that area, check them out. Let me know if you've seen any of these herba bicycles around. But they really are good looking bikes. And if you're gonna be riding around on a bike doing good for the environment, why not take it one step further and use a truly two truly sustainable materials to do to do so. The next item on the list, next couple items for clothing and beauty products, neither of which are particularly unconventional or unexpected when it comes to ham, because I think hemp has, or cannabis in particular has long been used to in uh, beauty products because it's been known to be so great for the skin and all kinds of beauty products, from lubes to moisturizers to topicals, what have you, and clothing, well we're all, we're rather familiar of hemp-based clothing, which I really wish we would see more of because it is so sustainable as well.

Speaker 1 (00:06:53) - But the next item in the list was cars. And this one was particularly interesting because it was a Canadian company that has unveiled a prototype Kestrel ev, an electric car with a body made almost completely from a hemp-based co bio composite material. So speaking to popular science mode industries, president Nathan Armstrong explained that a three door hatchback hemp mobile strong, yet incredibly lightweight body could be a sweet spot for electric vehicles compared with the similarly sized Ford Fusion, which weighs nearly 4,000 pounds. The Kestrel rings in at just 2,500, including its battery and the vehicle's low tonnage is capable of boosting fuel efficiency by 25 to 30%. Now unfortunately, you cannot yet buy a Kestrel EV vehicle made with hemp, but perhaps one day they'll find a way to make this little sweet little grocery getter. Um, although when I did check it, I think the article does say that it can go up to 90 or maybe it went on.

Speaker 1 (00:08:05) - I was looking at some other articles online it, I was like, Hey, I would drive one of those things. Uh, it goes up to 90 kilometers per hour, so maybe not, uh, fast enough for say the 400 series highways, uh, that are near where I live, but certainly fast enough to get around town, run your errands, get your groceries when you're not riding your bike, of course. And the last thing on the list, I'm skipping another one, but the last thing is skateboards and I thought that was interesting as well. Targeting cool kids concerned about the state of our forests. Companies such as Habitat has started to offer pretty sweet skateboards that swap out traditional Canadian maple with hempt decks and they also mention hemp grip tape as well. So you can really take your summer commuting outdoors with hemp with these unexpected products made from hepa.

Speaker 1 (00:08:58) - And I think I'm gonna continue this series because I find it fascinating and perhaps we can get to the bottom of why, why this particular product, why hemp isn't more widely used, more conventionally used. Is it just we don't have the manufacturing processes for it? Is that because things are more cheaply made in China? I don't know. Did any of you have answers? I would love to hear what you think. Would you buy an electric car made out of hemp? Would you ride a bicycle made out of bamboo hemp? I would love to know what you think that brings us too, this week's recipe, which I'm really looking forward to because it was a fun one. And let me find my notes here. Here we are. So this Brazilian lemonade, I've been seeing this recipe pop up on my TikTok feed for quite a, quite a bit lately and it appears to be quite the popular beverage.

Speaker 1 (00:09:52) - And after making it, I can see why. Now for those of you are like Marge, you're on TikTok. I am. I do actually really enjoy TikTok and I know I'm not the, uh, expected demographic perhaps for being on TikTok. I'm not making any content for that platform. I feel like that's just a whole other thing I'd have to wrap my head around and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. But I learned so many interesting things on TikTok and once you get into a certain algorithm, you know, if you think of TikTok as a bunch of kids doing dances to popular songs, I guess that's there. But my TikTok seems to be filled with a lot more comedy and recipes because that's the kind of stuff that I like to be on there for. So your algorithm adjusts very quickly and I have been seeing this Brazilian lemonade quite a bit and the taste is fresh, it's creamy, it's refreshing, and it comes together in a matter of minutes.

Speaker 1 (00:10:45) - So what I mean, what more could you possibly want? Now when I first bookmarked this recipe, I noticed that there was a few different ones out there and I did a little bit of hunting for you guys and I found a content creator that was doing it the way that I want to do it, because to be quite honest, this is not a low sugar drink. But I'll get to that in a few minutes and I'll be sure to link to the content creator in the show notes. I'll if I think I can in the show notes. So you'd have to go over to the website in order to see that. But that'll be linked in the show notes on your podcast platform if you're listening on your phone. But I will link to the original video and embed it right in the thing so you can watch it yourself.

Speaker 1 (00:11:24) - But it's only a few. It's I would say a few minutes. It's a few seconds long actually because this does come together really quickly. And what ingredients are you going to need for this drink? That's the beautiful part. You don't need much now you're going to, you are going to need fresh limes, three or four fresh washed limes, a can of sweetened condensed milk, ice, and an infusion of your choice. Now I did this with an infused powder because I te typically have some infused powders in my cupboard and I like to have those on hands for things that might be not traditionally infused the same way. But I think a syrup or an M C T infused would also work for this beautifully as well. So how are you gonna make it? First you're gonna quarter your limes and you're going to put them in the blender and cover them with water.

Speaker 1 (00:12:18) - You blend for 30 seconds. But don't over blend because this will create a bitter lemonade and we don't want that. We've got enough bitterness in our life. Well, I don't know if that's true, but seemed fun to say anyway. But everyone in their videos was saying, cause I did watch a number of these Brazilian lemonade videos was saying that if you did blend for too long, it would make it more bitter. And lest I end up with an unpalatable lemonade, then I set my timer for 30 seconds just to make sure that that didn't happen. Then you shall strain the pulp. I did it once. The video creator, I think his name was Jesus, uh, said to, if you could do it a second time if you wanted to, to remove even more pulp. But I found this unnecessary personally, I don't mind a little bit of pulp, but I didn't drink this thinking like, oh this is so puy.

Speaker 1 (00:13:03) - But if you really wanted a smoother and even smoother lemonade, you could do it a second time. Then once you've strained it through a fine mesh siv, you're going to take the juice, the the lime juice and you're gonna put it back in the blender. You're gonna add your can of sweetened condensed milk and a good handful of ice blend again. And here you can also, if you're blending the entire batch, you can add your infusion right in or you can and blend it with everything else. Or depending if you're doing single doses for each glass, you can dose each individual glass and make sure you give it a good stir before you serve it. And that way you can tailor the dosing to the preferences of everybody who is lucky enough to be enjoying this lemonade with you. And maybe that's, they don't want any at all, maybe they want half the the powder or I also find that sometimes a little bit goes a long way.

Speaker 1 (00:13:55) - Like in when I do my, when I use my tea check to figure out the potency of a lot of my infusions, I have to remember that a teaspoon, it does the tea check, uh, calculates the potency by milliliter. And I have made this mistake before, so don't do what I do. But there was a time I recall when I did the, I was, I used the tea check, I figured out how potent was. I'm like, okay, great, that number is for a teaspoon, when actually it was per milliliter and that it was about five milligrams, five to seven milligrams per milliliter, which meant that a teaspoon was more along the lines of 25 to 30 milligrams, which is a pretty big difference. So just be cautious of that, you know, for your dosing. You don't want to overdose anybody. And but it just goes to show that sometimes a little bit goes a long way.

Speaker 1 (00:14:52) - Maybe you're swirling in a tablespoon of your infusion, uh, depending on your potency preferences. I know plenty enough people who like really strong shit and I know plenty of people who have, are very sensitive to THC when ingest it and don't need very much at all. So I mean we've had this conversation about dosing many times before, but again, you blend it, pour to glasses, dose garnish, and enjoy. And that's it. It's super simple. And we've been having such beautiful weather here lately. There's signs of springs, every signs of spring everywhere the flowers are coming up, the birds are chirping at earlier, earlier times in the morning. The trees are just exploding with color. It's so wonderful. And I just wanted to try this out because I can see myself making this as we move into hot cannabis summer because I think it's gonna be a beautiful summer and every Canadian that I know and anybody who lives in a cold climate looks forward to this time of year with such anticipation.

Speaker 1 (00:15:53) - And you want to compliment it with some delicious infused treats so that you can really enjoy your summer, your spring, your warm fall to the best that you can. And I mean, with it being so easy to make, next time we're at the grocery store, you can pick up some limes and maybe you gotta pick up some cans of sweetened condensed milk. I already had some in my cupboard because I have used sweet and condensed milk to make caramel as well, which is a fun little tip and ice cream. So you might want next time ire at the grocery store. You might wanna pick up a few cans of this. You will thank me because I do have, I believe somewhere I have done a recipe, uh, and also a, it's on the recipe's page on my website, but I've also done a podcast episode on infused ice cream, which does used sweet and condensed milk.

Speaker 1 (00:16:40) - And so you wanna have that on hand and it's just, you know, it's a pantry. I mean you could have like, you know, 4, 5, 6 cans in the cupboard and be ready for anything. Ice cream, lemonade, caramel, all the sweet stuff. So that's my advice for you today is to stock up on the sweetened condensed milk as we again we move into hot cannabis summer. Now it's funny, I was thinking about this actually as I was writing out the notes for this particular recipe and for this episode that about over 15 years ago I got an honors degree in business administration. And while I was taking that degree, I took a whole bunch of English lit classes because I've always enjoyed reading and writing and English literature was something I was interested in. And after all of those classes, there is still one poem to this day that I can recall from memory.

Speaker 1 (00:17:33) - Now that sounds impressive, I'm impressive, I'm sure. But this particular poem is not very long. So before you think, oh wow, Marge, you're so amazing. It's a pretty short poem, but I still remember it to this day. And it has to do with canned milk and it goes like this, Carnation milk the best in the land here I sit with a can in my hand, no teets to pull, no hate to pitch, just punch a hole in the son of a bitch. And that little gem of a poem is by anonymous unattributed. Can't imagine why. But I often think about that poem. I think about, I mean obviously I've thought about it enough to remember it all these years later, but it does make me kind of laugh because somebody else out there, carnation milk I imagine is maybe a little bit different than sweet and condensed milk cuz that sweet and condensed milk is pretty thick and I can't see anybody wanting to sit down and drink a can of that shit no matter how much of a sweet tooth they have.

Speaker 1 (00:18:32) - Even me, I have my limits. On a final note, this ended up making it a lot more than I thought it would. I have a Vitamix and I made pretty much a full blender cup and I didn't drink it all, so I put it in a glass jar and I enjoyed some the following day. And it did separate it when I did separate, when I went into the fridge to take it out to pour a glass. So I gave it a really vigorous shake. It definitely had more of a bitter edge the following day, but it was still enjoyable waste, not walnut, not of course, you could probably throw it back in the blender as well if you really want to make sure. But I didn't find it too bad. But yeah, you could probably throw it back in the blender too if you wanted to.

Speaker 1 (00:19:10) - So it's probably best enjoyed the day of if possible. But again, it makes quite a bit. So depending on who you're sharing it with, this is a very shareable beverage. Now, also a can of sweetened condensed milk has a lot of sugar. I found one recipe when I was looking through the different recipes for this particular, uh, one, and it called for an additional third of a cup of granulated sugar, which seems super excessive to me because there is already so much sugar in the sweetened condensed milk. And at first I thought the can, I looked at the label pretty quickly and I thought the can had 11 grams of sugar. And I was like, well, that's not that bad. And then I was like, mm, that can't be right. And I went, I actually went and got the can out of the recycling box again, just to confirm my suspicions.

Speaker 1 (00:19:53) - And that 11 grams wasn't per can, it was per tablespoon, which means it was more like 220 grams of sugar per can. So this is a lovely treat. Very enjoyable on a hot day, if you're out working in your garden or doing some kind of labor or exercise or something like that, it'd be a wonderful way to sort of, you know, refresh after some sunshine. But just know that there's a ton of sugar in this and that's why if you're doing a little exercise of some kind, getting some moving about working, uh, your body's gonna utilize that glucose much better than it would be if you're just lounging the sun, sitting around doing nothing and then having this particular beverage. But of course, enjoy it however you see fit, but just know this is probably better, best, uh, viewed as a treat and not necessarily something that you want to enjoy every night of the week.

Speaker 1 (00:20:46) - If you want to avoid the diabetes, simple, easy, minimal, hands-on time, delicious, refreshing, on a hot day, try it out. Let me know what you think. If you enjoy this episode, if you know somebody who happens to be a big fan of limes or lemonade or things of that nature, then share this episode. And of course you can always talk to me, email me, send me a message on the podcast hotline, stay up to date with news and events, questions for guests, giveaways, all the rest of that stuff with the edibles enthusiast email newsletter, and consider using the products and services on Mar recommends page because that really helps support this show. I'm your host, Marge, and until next time my friends stay. Hi.