by Wilbur, Todd
3. Add lemon juice and ginseng and stir. Cool and serve.
• MAKES 2 QUARTS.
ARIZONA ICED TEA WITH GINSENG
When John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio pondered a name for a new line of canned iced teas, all they had to do was look at a map of the United States. They wanted to name their iced tea after a hot place where a cold can of iced tea was worshipped. Originally they picked “Santa Fe,” but soon ditched the name of the city and settled on a state: AriZona, complete with an uppercase “Z” in the middle for kicks. The secret to the duo’s early success was largely in their creative packaging decisions. If you think the tea’s great chilled, the company claims you can also sip it hot by simply zapping a cupful in the microwave.
2 quarts (8 cups) water
1 Lipton tea bag (black tea)
cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon ginseng extract
(American ginseng)
1. Heat water in a large saucepan until it boils. Turn off heat, put the teabag in the water, then cover the pan and let the tea steep for 1 hour.
2. Pour the sugar into a 2-quart pitcher. Pour the tea into the pitcher and stir to dissolve sugar.
3. Add lemon juice and ginseng and stir. Cool and serve.
• MAKES 2 QUARTS.
You can find liquid ginseng, usually in dropper bottles, in your local health food store. Be sure to get American ginseng if you have a choice. Some of the Chinese ginseng tastes too bitter for this tea.
CINNABON STRAWBERRY LEMONADE
Cinnabon, the 470-unit chain famous for its gooey cinnamon rolls, gives lemonade a twist by adding strawberry syrup. It’s a simple clone when you snag some Hershey’s strawberry syrup (near the chocolate syrup in your supermarket), and a few juicy lemons. While you’re at it, toss in a straw.
½ cup lemon juice (from 3 or 4
fresh lemons)
¼ cup sugar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons Hershey’s
strawberry syrup
Mix ingredients together in a pitcher. Serve over ice with a straw, if you’ve got one.
• MAKES 2 DRINKS.
GENERAL FOODS INTERNATIONAL COFFEES
With just a few simple ingredients you can re-create the European-style coffees that come in rectangular tins at a fraction of the cost. Since these famous instant coffee blends are created by Maxwell House, it’s best to use Maxwell House instant coffee, although I’ve tried them all with Folgers and Taster’s Choice, and the recipes still work out fine. You’ll also need a coffee bean grinder to grind the instant coffee into powder. When you’re finished making the mix, you can store it for as long as you like in a sealed container, until you’re ready for a hot coffee drink. At that point, simply measure some of the mix into a cup with boiling water. Stir it all up and enjoy while watching shows about Europe on the Travel Channel to enhance the experience.
CAFÉ VIENNA
A creamy coffee with a hint of cinnamon.
¼ cup instant coffee
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon
Coffee-mate creamer
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make coffee, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup. Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
• MAKES 9 SERVINGS.
FRENCH VANILLA CAFÉ
This one gets its subtle vanilla flavor from a little French Vanilla Coffee-mate creamer.
¼ cup instant coffee
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
½ cup Coffee-mate creamer
(plain)
¼ cup French Vanilla Coffee-mate
creamer
1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make coffee, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup. Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
• MAKES 10 SERVINGS.
HAZELNUT BELGIAN CAFÉ
As in the above recipe, you’ll need to use flavored creamer along with the plain stuff to hit the right note.
¼ cup instant coffee
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons Coffee mate creamer (plain)
2 tablespoons Hazelnut
Coffee-mate creamer
1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make coffee, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup. Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
• MAKES 9 SERVINGS.
SUISSE MOCHA
It takes just a couple tablespoons of cocoa to give this version its chocolate accent. When making the coffee in a cup, notice that this is the only recipe of the bunch requiring a measurement of 4 teaspoons of mix to 1 cup of boiling water.
¼ cup instant coffee
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon Coffee mate creamer
2 tablespoons cocoa
1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make coffee, measure 4 teaspoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup.Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
• MAKES 16 SERVINGS.
VIENNESE CHOCOLATE CAFÉ
Vanilla and chocolate go great together in this one.
¼ cup instant coffee
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
½ cup Coffee-mate creamer
(plain)
2 tablespoons French Vanilla
Coffee-mate creamer
2 teaspoons cocoa
1. Grind the instant coffee into powder using a coffee grinder.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container.
3. To make coffee, measure 2 tablespoons of the powdered mix into a coffee cup.Add 8 ounces (1 cup) of boiling water and stir.
• MAKES 10 SERVINGS.
HAWAIIAN PUNCH FRUIT JUICY RED
Real Hawaiian Punch contains only 5 percent fruit juice. Even though some of the ingredients in our clone are not pure fruit juice, and we’re adding additional water and sugar, this Top Secret Recipes version still contains a lot more tasty real fruit juice than the real thing. Plus, you can leave the food coloring out, if you like. It’s only for looks, in a traditionally punchy way.
1½ cups water
1 cup pineapple juice
¾ cup Mauna Lai Paradise
Passion guava/passion fruit
blend
¼ tablespoon orange juice
¼ cup apple juice
¼ cup Kern’s papaya nectar
¼ tablespoon Kern’s apricot
nectar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon red food coloring
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and stir until sugar is dissolved.
• MAKES 1 LITER.
HOT DOG ON A STICK MUSCLE BEACH LEMONADE
Entrepreneur Dave Barham opened the first Hot Dog on a Stick location in Santa Monica, California, near famed Muscle Beach. That was in 1946, and today the chain has blossomed into a total of more than 100 outlets located in shopping malls across America.You’ve probably seen the bright red, white, blue, and yellow go-go outfits and those cylindrical fez-style bucket hats on the girls behind the counter.
In giant clear plastic vats at the front of each store floats ice, fresh lemon rinds, and what is probably the world�
�s most thirst-quenching substance—Muscle Beach Lemonade. Our clone is a simple concoction really, with only three ingredients.And with this TSR formula, you’ll have your own version of the lemonade in the comfort of your own home at a fraction of the price.
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
(about 5 lemons)
7 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1. Combine the lemon juice with the water and sugar in a 2-quart pitcher. Stir or shake vigorously until all the sugar is dissolved.
2. Slice the remaining lemon rind halves into fourths, then add the rinds to the pitcher. Add ice to the top of the pitcher and chill.
3. Serve the lemonade over ice in a 12-ounce glass and add a couple of lemon rind slices to each glass.
• MAKES 2 QUARTS, OR 8 SERVINGS.
MINUTE MAID ALL NATURAL LEMONADE
Minute Maid is credited with creating the modern orange juice industry by marketing the first frozen concentrated orange juice in 1946. Today the company is owned by The Coca-Cola Company and sells juices, punches, and fruit drinks in countries all over the world. Minute Maid also sells one of the most recognized brands of lemonade, made from lemon concentrate. You can easily duplicate the taste of the drink at home, but since this TSR version is made with fresh lemons, it might just edge out the real thing in a side-by-side taste test.
½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
(from 2 to 3 lemons)
3¼ cups water
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons
granulated sugar
Combine the lemon juice with the water and sugar in a 1-quart pitcher. Stir or shake the pitcher vigorously until all the sugar is dissolved. Cover and chill.
• MAKES 1 QUART.
NESTEA NATURAL LEMON FLAVORED ICED TEA
For five thousand years tea was served hot. But when a heat wave hit the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904, tea plantation owner Richard Blechynden couldn’t give the steamy stuff away. So he poured it over ice, creating the first iced tea, and the drink became the hit of the fair. Today Nestle’s drink division, which markets Nestea, produces somewhere in the area of 50 percent of the world’s processed tea. That’s huge business when you consider that tea is second only to water in worldwide consumption.
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
¼ cup bottled lemon juice
1. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add tea bags and let the tea steep for 1 to 2 hours.
2. Remove the tea bags and pour the tea into a 2-quart pitcher. Add sugar and lemon juice. Cover and chill.
• MAKES 2 QUARTS.
RED ROBIN FRECKLED LEMONADE
This is Red Robin’s signature non-alcoholic drink, and is simple to make with pre-made lemonade (unless you want to use one of the fresh lemonade recipes from page 88 or 90) and the strawberries that come frozen in sweet syrup. When added to the top of the ice-filled lemonade glass the strawberries and syrup speckle the drink. Serve this one without stirring it up, or the freckles will be gone.
cup frozen sweetened sliced
strawberries, thawed
1 cup lemonade
GARNISH
lemon wedge
1. Fill a 16-ounce glass with ice.
2. Ladle strawberries with syrup over the top of the ice.
3. Fill the glass with lemonade. Add a lemon wedge and serve with a straw.
• MAKES 1 DRINK.
RED ROBIN STRAWBERRY ECSTACY
After adding the juices to the blender the restaurant does a “flash blend.” That means you use just a couple of pulses on high speed so that the ice is broken up into small pieces, without being completely crushed to a slushy consistency.
½ cup orange juice
cup pineapple juice
½ ounce grenadine
1 cup ice
cup frozen sweetened sliced
strawberries, thawed
1. Add orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine, and ice to a blender. Blend the drink with just a couple pulses on high speed so that the ice is still a bit chunky.
2. Pour into a 16-ounce glass and ladle strawberries with the syrup into the drink.
3. Add a wedge of orange and a maraschino cherry speared on a toothpick. Serve with a straw.
• MAKES 1 DRINK.
7-ELEVEN CHERRY SLURPEE
Put on a big red smile. Now you can make your own version of the popular convenience store slush we know by the excruciating brain throb that follows a big ol’ gulp. You must have a blender to make this clone of 7-Eleven’s Slurpee, and enough room to stick that blender into your freezer to get it nice and thick. This recipe gets close to the original with Kool-Aid mix and a little help from cherry extract, but you can make this drink with any flavor Kool-Aid mix (if you decide to make some variations, don’t worry about adding extract).This recipe makes enough to fill one of those giant 32-ounce cups you find at the convenience store. Now if we could just figure out how to make those funky spoon-straws.
2 cups cold club soda
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon plus ⅛ teaspoon
Kool-Aid cherry-flavored
unsweetened drink mix
½ teaspoon cherry extract
2½ cups crushed ice
1. Pour 1 cup of the club soda into a blender. Add the sugar, Kool-Aid mix, and cherry extract. Blend this until all of the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the crushed ice and blend on high speed until the drink is a slushy, smooth consistency, with no remaining chunks of ice.
3. Add the remaining club soda and blend briefly until mixed.You may have to stop the blender and use a long spoon to stir up the contents.
4. If necessary, put the blender into your freezer for ½ hour.This will help thicken it up. After ½ hour remove blender from freezer and, again, blend briefly to mix.
• MAKES 1 32-OUNCE DRINK (OR 2 16-OUNCERS).
SNAPPLE ICED TEA
Snapple was selling juices for five years—since 1982—before the fruity line of teas was rolled out. Just five years after that, Snapple was selling more tea in the U.S. than Lipton or Nestea.Today, even though Snapple sells over 50 different bottled beverages, the iced teas are still the most successful products in the line. But not all the fruity flavors of tea were hits. Cranberry, strawberry, and orange are now extinct, so those flavors can only be enjoyed by making versions of your own at home with these simple formulas. I’ve also got lemon and peach flavors here, Snapple’s two top-selling products, plus raspberry, another big seller.
Included here are improved versions of iced tea clones printed in the book More Top Secret Recipes.
CRANBERRY ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
cup plus 2 tablespoons bottled
lemon juice
2 tablespoons Ocean Spray
cranberry juice cocktail
concentrate
DIET LEMON ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
16 1-gram packages Equal
sweetener
cup bottled lemon juice
LEMON ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
cup bottled lemon juice
ORANGE ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
cup bottled lemon juice
⅛ teaspoon orange extract
PEACH ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon bottled
lemon juice
3 tablespoons Torani peach
flavoring syrup
Alternate clone: Rather than Torani peach flavoring use one 12-ounce can Kern�
��s peach nectar, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice instead of ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
RASPBERRY ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon
juice
2 tablespoons Torani raspberry
flavoring syrup
STRAWBERRY ICED TEA
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 Lipton tea bags
¾ cup granulated sugar
cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon strawberry extract
1. Bring water to a rapid boil in a large saucepan.
2. Turn off heat, add tea bags, cover saucepan and let the tea steep for 1 to 2 hours.