Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon dehydrated chopped cranberries
- 1 teaspoon dehydrated stevia leaves
- 2 cups boiling water
- 2 small cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Chop the cranberries finer than the list suggests if yours arrived as halves. Cut surfaces are the only way into a dried berry, because the skin is effectively waterproof.
- Put the stevia leaf in at the same moment as the fruit. Sweetness introduced afterwards sits on top of sourness, while sweetness steeped alongside it reads as one drink.
- Add boiling water and leave it covered fifteen minutes. Berries want heat sustained rather than heat applied, and an uncovered cup loses too much of it too quickly.
- Press the softened fruit with a spoon before you strain. It holds a surprising amount of sweetened liquid that otherwise goes into the bin with the pulp.
- Give each cup its own cinnamon stick instead of putting them in the pot. A stick in the pot flavours everything equally; a stick in the cup lets each drinker stir theirs to strength.
- Rinse and dry the sticks afterwards and they will serve two or three more times. They are finished when snapping one no longer produces a sharp smell.
- The cranberry and stevia keep mixed in a sealed jar for six months. Dried cranberry usually carries added sugar, and sugar is what sets a jar solid if any damp gets in.
