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Tarkhuna, fresh tarragon soda
Tarkhuna is the bright green tarragon soda every Georgian child grows up with, sweet, fresh and a little like aniseed. Ours is a fresh tarragon syrup topped with sparkling water and lemon, with no colouring and no alcohol.
- 25 minutes
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 15 minutes
- Serves 4
Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.
Ingredients
- 30g fresh tarragon, plus 4 small sprigs to serve
- 100g caster sugar
- 100ml water
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 800ml sparkling water, well chilled
- To serve: plenty of ice
Let's cook
- Put the sugar and water in a small pan and warm on a low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 1 minute, then take it off the heat and leave it to cool for 10 minutes.
- Pick the tarragon leaves off the stalks. Put the leaves in a blender with the cooled syrup and the lemon juice and blitz for 1 minute until the syrup is bright green.
- Pour it through a fine sieve into a jug, pressing the leaves with a spoon to get all the syrup out.
- Line the sieve with a piece of kitchen paper and pour the syrup through again for a clear syrup. Chill in the fridge until cold, about 30 minutes.
- Fill four tall glasses with ice. Pour about 3 tablespoons of syrup into each, top up with the sparkling water and stir gently.
- Taste and add a little more syrup if you like it sweeter. Put a sprig of tarragon in each glass and serve at once.
Tips
- Blending the syrup cool keeps it green; hot syrup turns the tarragon dull and brown.
- The syrup keeps in a clean, covered jar in the fridge for 3 days. Top up with sparkling water only as you pour.
Swaps
- Less sugar: use half the sugar and add more lemon, for a sharper, more grown up soda.
- Stronger aniseed: add a few fennel fronds to the blender with the tarragon.
Tags
None of the 14 allergens is in this recipe as written. Tarragon, sugar, lemon and sparkling water contain none of them.
Check every packet for allergens.