Strawberry Chamomile Fizz

Chamomile tastes like honey and hay and it is easily flattened. Pair it with anything sharp and it vanishes, which is why it rarely shows up in drinks despite being in every cupboard.

Strawberry is the right partner because it is sweet and low in acid, meeting the tea rather than overpowering it. Muddled in the glass with lemon and simple syrup, then topped with sparkling mineral water, it holds the chamomile up instead of burying it.

The Recipe

Makes 1 · 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 0.5 oz simple syrup
• 0.5 oz fresh lemon juice
• 2 oz brewed chamomile tea, cooled
• Ice cubes
• 3 oz Tehuacan Brillante sparkling mineral water
• 1 fresh strawberry for garnish

Method

1. In a plain smooth highball glass, muddle the quartered strawberries with the simple syrup and lemon juice until broken down.
2. Pour in the cooled chamomile tea and stir briefly to combine the flavors.
3. Fill the glass to the top with fresh ice cubes.
4. Top with Tehuacan Brillante sparkling mineral water.
5. Stir gently to lift the muddled fruit from the bottom and integrate the bubbles.
6. Garnish by resting a whole fresh strawberry on the rim of the glass.

Notes

Muddle in the serving glass and leave the fruit in. This is a rustic drink, and the strawberry pieces at the bottom are part of it.

Cool the tea completely. Warm chamomile poured over ice waters the whole thing down before it reaches the table.

Late-season strawberries, the small dark ones, are much better here than the large pale ones that show up early.

Tehuacán Brillante is sparkling mineral water from the Tehuacán Valley in Puebla, naturally mineralized on a journey of roughly eight years through volcanic rock. Family run since 1983, Mexican owned, bottled in 12 fl oz glass. Find us at @drinktehuacan.