Citrus Energy Drink
An energy drink is a heavily caffeinated soft drink. This recipe contains a lot of caffeine and citrus. This recipe has been modified from a discussion at Stack Exchange. Note that consuming high levels of caffeine can be very dangerous. If you are scaling the recipe up or down, make sure you scale the caffeine accordingly so that the per-serving caffeine amount stays the same or is lower. Absolutely do not use more than the listed proportion of caffeine; this will result in hospitalization or even death.
- Time
- 25 hours
- Servings
- 4
- Yield
- >4 ounces (120 ml) syrup
Ingredients
- ½ ea. lemon, zested in strips and juiced
- ½ ea. lime, zested in strips and juiced
- ½ ea. orange, zested in strips and juiced
- ½ cup (120 ml) white sugar
- 30 mg caffeine (optional)
- Carbonated water, as needed
Method
- Combine the citrus zests and sugar, rubbing the sugar into the peels to extract the oils. Let this mixture rest in the fridge for 24 hours to infuse.
- Combine the sugar-zest mixture with the citrus juices and caffeine. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and get a syrup.
- Strain the syrup—this should yield approximately 5 oz (150 ml) syrup.
- To make the finished beverage, mix 1 volume of syrup with 5 volumes of carbonated water.
Notes
- Use water from a carbonating machine or a brand of pure carbonated water such as Polar Original Sparkling Water, Great Value Seltzer Water, or Signature Select Seltzer Water. Do not use a brand of mineral water such as Perrier, San Pellegrino, or Mineragua because the added minerals will ruin the taste. Avoid flavored sparkling water such as La Croix or Spindrift because the preexisting fruit flavors will ruin the drink.