We try out Japanese candy maker’s recipes for how to make hard candy drinkable【SoraKitchen】

When life gives us hard candies, we make lemonade (and tea).

Japanese candy maker Lotte, who loves it when their products are used creatively, shared some tips on how to make two sweet drinks using some of their hard candies: Koume Hot Lemonade,  pickled plum-flavored lemonade, using their popular Koume hard candies, and Fruit Nodoame Green Tea, using their Fruit Nodoame hard candies. Our Japanese-language reporter Aoi Kuroneko decided to put these recipes to the test.

She tried the Koume Hot Lemonade first. The recipe calls for 6 Koume candies, 1/4 cup room temperature (or cold) water, 2/3 cups hot water, half a lemon, and 3/4 tablespoons sugar.

First she dissolved the sugar in the hot water. Aoi used cane sugar, so the water looks a bit brown.

Next, she put the room temperature water into a saucepan with the six Koume candies. She heated them up until they melted. Make sure you stir as it heats up or else it will stick to the bottom of the pan!

Ta da! She finished making her Koume syrup.

Finally, she added lemon to the dissolved sugar and then added her Ko-ume syrup to that. Before we show what the final product looked like, though, let’s see how to make the Fruit Nodoame Green Tea.

For this recipe, she needed many of the same ingredients as the hot lemonade: 4 Fruit Nodoame pieces, 1/4 cup room temperature (or cold) water, 2/3 cups hot water, and 1 green tea bags.

First, she steeped the green tea bag in the hot water. You can let it steep for as long or short as you want.

As with the hot lemonade, she melted the four candies with some water in a saucepan to make a fruity syrup.

Finally, she mixed the fruity syrup with the green tea to complete her drink.

▼ The finished Koume Hot Lemonade and Fruit Nodoame Green Tea

Here’s how her two drinks came out! She thought the light pink color of the Koume Hot Lemonade was adorable, and the Fruit Nodoame Green Tea looked refreshing. When she tasted the Koume Hot Lemonade, she was hit with a blast of sweet and sour flavors. She thought it was as great of a pair as lemon and honey. If you like sour drinks, this could be your next go-to.

Aoi didn’t have high expectations for the Fruit Candy Green Tea since she only added four lozenges, but she was pleasantly surprised at the overall flavor. Though it wasn’t super sweet, Fruit Nodoame has herbal ingredients that gave the green tea a more complex flavor than if she had just added sugar, for a very refreshing result.

The biggest lemon Aoi learned from this was that hard candies aren’t just for eating. They’re also great for adding sweetness and flavor to drinks! You could probably do this with any hard candy, and Aoi also notes that they taste great cold as well. What should we try next: an iron-flavored drink?

Photos ©SoraNews24
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