BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living The Lowcost Answer to Energy Drinks

For at least the last 300 years, farmers in the fields have been drinking a magical beverage called "Switchel", enabling them to work for hours at a time without fainting. Here are my 3 favorites: Copy them down and make sure your local gym and football coaches get a look at them:
Common Switchel: 1 gallon water, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup organic molasses, 2 heaping tablespoons powdered ginger
Cider Switchel: Same as above, except replace half the water with pear or Apple cider. Mulled Tea Switchel: Add 4 teabags of any fruit/citrus & Cinnamon herbal teabags to a gallon of lukewarm water, allow to brew for a few hours, remove bags and proceed as you would for common switchel.

Now then, on the switchel recipes I posted: Be sure to blend well, pour mixture into large drink coolers, shake well before serving. The extra trouble is well worth it. Do NOT, I repeat, Do NOT substitute any other sweeteners. Good, thick Organic molasses ( unsulphered) contains iron and other nutrients, thus there can be no other alternatives.

Hey thanks for posting. I'm always fascinated by recipes like this. I cut out energy drinks a long time ago but will try this just out of curiosity.

I'm hooked on chia water right now. That seems to work for me but this sounds interesting.

And Also, I've posted my crabapple juice recipe a few months ago, but since crabapples are now ripe, here it is again:
Gather large bucket of crabapples ( free for the picking in most town parks or neighborhoods): Wash them, pour boiling water over them to cover, leave to set overnight. Simmer apples in same water until tender, strain pulp through collander, pour juice into pitchers, chill. Use as you would lemonade or add to any fruit juice. As for pulp: Great hogfeed if you have a farm- or, if your storebought apples are mealy/so-so, cook them in a pie with the crabapple pulp- improves flavor.