Recipe: Royal Linen

A drink featuring cucumbers + dried fruit stands on a table in the afternoon sun.

The Royal Linen | Photo by SACtoday Staff

In case a White Linen isn’t enough to cool you off during the hot summer days, we’ve created our own twist on the River City’s signature drink: the Royal Linena Kings-colored, Sacramento native plant-adoring slushy for you to enjoy. Pro tip: We also think this locally-focused libation works great as a mocktail.

Royal Linen Ingredients

  • 1 ounce of lemon juice
  • 1 ounce of lime juice
  • Elderberry simple syrup*
  • 3 ounces of Hendrick’s gin (optional)
  • Club soda or tonic water (Pro tip: We’d recommend Fever Tree as the carbonated mixer.)
  • 1 cucumber, sliced
  • Elderberries for garnish
  • Ice

Royal Linen Directions (Prep: ~10 minutes)

  1. Fill a blender with as much ice as possible
  2. Add lemon juice, lime juice + gin
  3. Blend until a ice is crunchy + thick, almost like a snow cone
  4. Pour out into two cups
  5. Top with soda, roughly 1 ounce
  6. Drizzle with syrup + garnish with cucumber and berries

Homemade Black Elderberry Syrup Ingredients*

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup dried elderberry, or to taste; the more you have, the richer the flavor
  • Optional: Corn starch (to thicken)

Pro tip: We like to grab our elderberries from the bulk herb section at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.
Homemade Black Elderberry Syrup Directions (Prep: 20 minutes)*

  • Heat a cup of water over low heat
  • Once warm, pour in sugar; stir occasionally as it dissolves into the water
  • Add your elderberries and let cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes
  • Drain elderberries + save (they make for a nice garnish)
  • If you’d like it thicker, take 1-2 tsp of cornstarch and blend it into water; add into syrup
  • Continue adding corn starch this way until you reach the desired thickness
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