chia honey limeade
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Recipe type: drink
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup honey + 1 cup water (for the honey simple syrup) = 1½ cup honey simple syrup
  • 2 cups white sugar + 2 cups water (for the sugar simple syrup) = 3 cups sugar simple syrup
  • 2 cups fresh lime juice (I used 2 pounds of limes for 2 cups of juice)
  • 2 tablespoons chia seeds (white or black) + ¾ cup water
  • seltzer water
Instructions
  1. Prepare the simple syrups. Place 1 cup honey + 1 cup water in a small saucepan, heat on moderate heat until honey mixes with water, and cool completely. Similarly for the sugar simple syrup, mix 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water in a small saucepan, heat on moderate heat to dissolve sugar, and cool completely.*
  2. While syrups are cooling, squeeze the limes. Chill juice if you have time.
  3. Mix chia seeds in ¾ cup water and allow to soften for about 10 minutes. Careful: when you mix the seeds, do so little by little or else your chias will clump up. Sprinkle a few in the water and mix. Do this again, and again, until you have mixed all of the seeds in the water.
  4. Mix the syrups, lime juice, and chia together in a large pitcher. The chia seeds should rise to the top.
  5. Pour into individual glasses.** Add ice, dilute with seltzer water to your preference (I felt 1:1 ratio of limeade to seltzer was just right), and add sugar if you like a sweeter drink.*** I tend to like my citrus drinks fairly tart.
Notes
* Why not just use the honey? I felt the honey as the lone sweetener was too overpowering (even a mild honey), so I wanted to even it out a bit with a sugar simple syrup. Feel free to experiment if you want a stronger honey flavor. Remember that honey is about twice as sweet as sugar, so adjust accordingly. ** When pouring the limeade into my first glass, most the chia seeds wanted to come along. To evenly divide the chia, I tried using a soup ladle, which helped some. I still ended up with many of the seeds in the first glass poured. *** Another problem: After mixing with the seltzer, the chia seeds sunk to the bottom of the glass instead of remaining on top (as my undiluted photo shows). Personally, I liked the seeds on the bottom as a fun gulp at the end of the drink, but esthetically not quite as pretty.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/drink-recipes/chia-honey-limeade/