Summer Refreshing Drink
Almond Orgeat Syrup
DrinkReconstruction🍯moyen1 h 30 (including infusion)
A milky syrup of pounded almonds scented with orange flower water; pour a little in a tall glass and fill with very cold water, and it turns white like a cloud.
Why this dish? Orgeat, a sweet almond milk perfumed with orange flower water, was the cool drink offered to ladies in Parisian salons and gardens; diluted with fresh water, it refreshed Berthe and her models during long summer sitting sessions.
On scorching days, when the light vibrates too much to hold the brush, nothing beats a glass of well-chilled orgeat. We pound the almonds in a mortar with a little water, strain through a cloth, and perfume with a dash of orange flower water that smells of the South. I offered it to my models between poses; it kept them still, and the milky glass on the table made, upon my word, a pretty motif.
Ingredients
- •Sweet almonds — a good handful (almond milk)
- •A few bitter almonds — very few (flavor)
- •Sugar — twice the weight of almonds (syrup)
- •Orange flower water — a dash (flavor)
- •Water — as needed (extraction and dilution)
How it was made : Orgeat was made from sweet almonds with a few bitter almonds for flavour; also sold ready-made by lemonade vendors, it was one of the quintessential 'ladies' drinks' of the 19th century, along with lemonade and fruit syrups.