RHUBARB DRINKS

Rhubarb Punch
1 ½ pounds rhubarb
4 cups water
1 cups sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Water or ginger ale

Cut rhubarb in small pieces to make 4 cups.  Put in a large pot and add water and cook until fruit is soft.  Put a colander over a large bowl and pour the rhubarb and juice into the colander.  Allow to drain and discard rhubarb.  Add sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add fruit juices.  Chill and serve with crushed ice and an equal amount of water or ginger ale.  Serves 12.

Rhubarb Cocktail
½ cup rhubarb juice
¼ cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Cook pink rhubarb cut in small pieces with an equal measure of water until rhubarb is soft. Strain, measure. Add 1/3 as much sugar and boil 2 minutes.  To ½ cup of this rhubarb juice, add pineapple juice, orange and lemon juice. Blend. Serve over ice. Add ginger ale if desired.

Rhubarb Punch 2
8 cups diced rhubarb, not peeled
5 cups water
2 cups sugar
6 oranges, thinly sliced peel and juice
3 lemons, thinly sliced peel and juice
1 quart ginger ale

Simmer the rhubarb and water with the orange and lemon peel until cooked. Strain.  Measure the liquid into a large pot.  Add 1/3 cup sugar for each 1 cup of rhubarb juice, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Cool.  Add the juice and the zest of the oranges and lemons. Chill.  Add ginger ale. 
(Do not use the white rind from the oranges and lemons as it is bitter.)

Rhubarb Nectar
2 quarts chopped rhubarb
3 oranges, using the pulp, juice and rind, but not the white pith under the orange skin.
3 or 4 inch broken cinnamon bark

Simmer the rhubarb, oranges and cinnamon for ten minutes in a large pot.  Strain thoroughly.  Strain again through a cloth so the juice is clear.  Measure the juice, and for each cup of juice add 1/3 cup of sugar (or less).  Heat for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar.  Cool and bottle.  Keep juice in the refrigerator and mix half-in-half with soda water or ginger ale.  Serve with ice and decorate the glasses with a sprig of mint.

Rhubarb Mint Cooler
4 cups chopped rhubarb, unpeeled
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed mint leaves

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer until rhubarb is soft, approx 15 minutes.  Strain. Chill juice until cold.  Serve over ice. Add ginger ale if desired.  Garnish with mint leaves.

Rhubarb Ice Tea

4 cups rhubarb, chopped
2 cups water
2 cups strong black tea, cooled
1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup boiling water, cooled
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 cups cold water

Prepare the rubarb juice by simmering the rhubarb until soft.  Set aside until cool and strain.

To make the ice tea, combine the rhubarb juice, cold tea, sugar, lemon juice and water.  Chill. Variations:  Use cold green tea or chai tea.

Rhubarb Champagne (vintage recipe)

Start this recipe early in the summer when the rhubarb is still juicy and tender

4 quarts rhubarb, chopped fine
1 gallon cold water
12 young grape-vine leaves, with stems
 3 1/2 pounds sugar
yeast

Crush the chopped rhubarb in a crock with a wooden mallet.  Toss in the vine leaves.  Boil half the water and add it to the crock.  Cool to lukewarm and add the yeast.  Cover and leave in a warm place for 3 days.  Strain off the liquor into a fermentation jar.  Bring the other half of the water to a boil and dissolve the sugar in it, then cool to lukewarm.  Set it away to work for 5 weeks, then bottle it in strong, champagne-type bottles and wire down the corks. Forget it for at least a year.

Note: the quantity of yeast to use is not given.