Passion Fruit Cooler with Ginger and Mint

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On some days, exotic is the way to eat and on most days exotic is the way to drink. What better way to have your mind take a flight to a dream destination. A glass of an exotic tasting drink and a creative imagination and you are all set to go anywhere. For most of the time I love to keep my mind from taking the flight, because the beautiful Rocky Mountains are magnetic and the fact that I can see them from my backyard makes it harder to go some place else.

But then there are days when the drink in your hand takes you some place else and you just follow. Like this passion fruit ginger cooler. A sip of this and the mind roams in the cascading waves, sunny beaches and pristine sands of Brazil or Hawaii. Now if only I had learned how to teleport myself. I should have paid more attention while watching Star Trek . I was just too busy crushing on Capt. Kirk!

Even though grown in some parts of India, Passion fruit is not widely available. These are grown for commercial export purposes and the usual fruit markets do not see them. My first taste of these was about 7 years ago when I visited a friend and her mom had brought these from their family orchard. I was told the juice that I loved so much was from a fruit called passion fruit.

Needless to say, my mind started to go in directions of the aphrodisiac kind. Have you gotten your hopes up too? Ha! It is not named a passion fruit for any such thing. It was named reportedly, by Spanish Catholic missionaries who saw in the flower, the symbolism of the Passion of Christ where “Passus” means “suffering” and “Flos” means “flower”. Passion fruit should more correctly be referred to as the passion flower fruit, but the trade more commonly uses passion fruit. {Sourced from Kerala Agriculture University}

 

Irrespective of whether it is a fruit to increase passion or not, it is a very aromatic, sensuous tasting fruit. The season here in landlocked Denver for this fruit is “SHORT” and then you have to hunt them down. But it is worth all the effort.

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