Glass of Pennywort Drink
(click to enlarge)

Pennywort Drink


Southeast Asia   -   Rau-Ma (Viet); Bebida de Centella Asiática (Spanish)
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 4
**
15 min
Part		 A refreshing and tonic cold drink very popular throughout Southeast Asia and gaining adherents worldwide. Some described the taste as wheat grass like. I cannot confirm that - I haven't tasted wheat grass since the early '60s.
Pennywort drink should be consumed soon after making it, because the bright green color will soon fade. It is available canned in Asian markets (see Note-3), and some Vietnames restaurants may have it fresh as "Rau-ma drink".

6
3
1/2
ar
oz
c
c

Pennywort (1)
Water
Simple Syrup (2)
Ice
  1. Wash PENNYWORT well and pinch off stems about 1/4 from the bottom.
  2. Make your Simple Syrup and cool it.
  3. Place Pennywort and Water in your blender and run at highest speed for a couple minutes until as fine as its going to get.
  4. Pour through a strainer. Gather up all the fiber in the strainer and squeeze every bit of liquid out of it. Discard fibers.
  5. Put liquid back in the blender with the Simple Syrup and a few ice cubes. Blend at top speed until nice and frothy. Serve immediately over ice.
NOTES:

  1. Pennywort (Rau-Ma):

      Purists may use only the leaves, but at 4-1/2 ounces of leaf per 1 pound bag of pennywort at U.S. $5.00 / pound, I'm too cheap for that. I include most of the stems which are a little sweeter and have a slightly more resinous flavor than the leaves. For details see our Pennywort Page.

  2. Simple Syrup

    is made by heating equal amounts of sugar and water until the sugar is completely dissolved. I prefer palm sugar (by a wide margin) for this drink - 2 oz palm sugar plus 1/4 cup of water.

  3. Canned Pennywort Drink

      I've seen canned pennywort drink variously described as "awful", "wretched", "disgusting" and "atrocious". To verify this I bought a can, Foco brand, (11.8 oz, 2020 US $0.99 / can). It was over sweetened to my taste, and. of course, a light greenish brown rather than brilliant green, but it wasn't that bad, and had real pennywort taste. Ingred: Pennywort Leaf extract (40%), Sugar, Citric Acid.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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