Healthy winter melon tea for the hot summer；
I know that this summer drink might be slightly strange to you. However if you ever visited Taiwan, you may see it available everywhere. In China, winter melon tea is believed to be help people dealing with hot temperature. And since it contains no fat and may help to eliminate extra water in human body, winter melon tea is also named as slim tea, indicating that it might be help to loose weight.

Firstly, I would think the taste is slightly weird especially when served hot. However it really taste fresh and cool when serve with ice cubes. By the way, just for some information, winter melon 冬瓜 is a common ingredient in Chinese kitchen. It goes well with soups, braised dishes and even salad. When serving this winter melon, you will need to dilute concentrated liquor by three times of pure water. The little bottle in the following picture is the concentrated liquor I extracted from winter melon while the two cups behind are diluted version.

Winter Melon Tea

Prep Time

1 hr

Cook Time

2 hrs

Total Time

3 hrs

Healthy and traditionally winter melon tea. Perfect iced drink for summer.

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: tea, Winter Melon

Servings: 2

Calories: 646 kcal

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

1500 g winter melon
250 g brown sugar powder
50 g rock sugar

For serving

Clean water
Ice cubes

Instructions

Wash the winter melon carefully and then remove the skins. Then cut the left part into small cubes. Throw them into a large pot.
Spread brown sugar powder and give a big stir to mix them evenly. Set aside for around 1 hour until there is a thin layer of water in the bottle.
Use high fire to bring everything in the pot to a boiling and then add rock sugar. (I would suggest adding the skins and seeds back in this step. But it is totally up to you) Slow down the fire to simmer for 1.5 hours to 2 hours based on your cooking ware until the winter melon is totally transparent. Turn off the fire and wait to cool down.
Strain the juice out. And press the winter melon with heavily during the process to get as more juice as possible. Or you can use gauze to wrap the winter melon and squeeze the juice out.
How to store: store in airtight container and refrigerate up to 2 weeks, as there is no preservatives in our homemade version.
How to serve: add water three times more than the juice to make an easy winter melon tea whenever you want. Add some iced cubes will make it a perfect summer drink.