Mandarine Syrup

Scrub 2 mandarins thoroughly before grating the peel with a fine grater.

Squeeze all the mandarins and the lemons & limes until you have 700ml of juice.

Cut the ginger into small cubes.

Pour the water into you marmalade-cooking-pot pan and add the ginger cubes, the sugar, the cinnamon sticks, the cardamom grains, the self-grated nutmeg and the cloves  and bring to the boil.

Simmer gently for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden ladle.

Then let the sugar syrup, which it has now become, cool slightly.

Add the grater and all the fruit juice to the sugar syrup and heat to boiling point whilst stirring occasionally.

Let it boil gently for about 10 minutes on low heat.

Again, keep stirring occasionally.

Now is the moment to have everything strained through a fine sieve before carefully pouring the hot syrup in your sterilized bottles. 

Seal the bottles tightly and turn them upside down for about half an hour.

This way, the syrup is airtight and you can store it for months, best doing so in a cool, dark place. 

Once opened, always store the syrup in the fridge!

Tip for sterilizing bottles or jars:

Fill a large pan with water and bring the water to the boil.

Put your bottle and/or jars in it, including the lids/caps, and let it all boil for 10 minutes.

Then carefully (!!)  remove everything from the water and let it dry out.

Immediately afterwards you can fill the now sterilized bottles or jars with whatever you made, turn upside down, leave like that for 30 minutes, and you're done!

Tip for a lovely mandarin-cocktail:

Pour 1/3 part of gin into a glass, add 2/3 parts of a nice tonic (e.g. Fever Tree) and then add 2 teaspoons of syrup and finish off with a clove.

Add lots of (small) ice cubes and enjoy your homemade cocktail!