So today I pull together an interesting little recipe. Please be warned, this may change a bit as I test it out. I used to live in Northern California, during the 90's. During that time there were a lot of smart-drink companies coming up. Of course we all know how epic Odwalla has become, how pervasive.

 In about 96' Odwalla almost got sunk by an ecoli outbreak, due to using some bad apple juice (it could have happened to anyone). (details ) Odwalla was just big enough at the time to be able to absorb the blow and come back from it; any smaller and they would have instantly folded. Personally I had been switching back and forth between their drinks (the Strawberry C-Monster is particularly tasty), and one of their competitors, the oddly named Mrs. Wiggle's Rocket Juice (man, what a mouthful). This was a brief boon for the small company, as they recieved a big bump in demand (myself included).

So recently I had a hankering for one of their drinks and I went to try to hunt them down. Turns out they appear to be out of business due to a sad series of personal misfortunes for the owners. It seems that the wife had been struggling with breast cancer since about '92, and eventually died in 2001 from it. The husband sold the company at some point in the late 90's, and it appears to have been folded up shortly thereafter. He remarried, but eventually committed suicide a few years later (2011). This of course puts quite a pall over the whole thing, what with the rather cheery and oddball name to his product line, of quite frankly very delicious (if odd) drinks.

 I'll try to concoct some of them from how I remember them tasting, so this may be a bit of a hit or miss situation.
First up : something they called GinGin Cooler
From the ingredients it contains: Water, Lemon Juice, Ginger extract, Honey, and Ginseng.

 So lets start with volume; we will do 1 gallon, which should result in 16 servings, or (as the original packaging) 8 bottles (16oz each)

•  13 1/2cups water (remember all the flavors here are VERY strong, so require dilution to not be overpowering) 
• 1/4 cup Ginger 'juice' or extract (instructions here: http://www.ehow.com/how_8101760_juice-ginger-root.html) 
• 3/4 cup of honey 
• 1 cup lemon juice 
• 2x 30mg bottle of panax ginseng (try to avoid alcohol based ones) this is usually available at asian groceries or online at amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PANAX-GINSENG-EXTRACT-BOTTLES-6000MG/dp/B000TK9PWU/ref=sr_1_4?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1428009881&sr=1-4&keywords=panax+ginseng)

Since honey doesn't mix well cold, I would recommend warming a cup or two of the water and diluting there, then adding to the mix. Mix all ingredients together and chill until 'pleasant'. This should get you a nice refreshingly cool drink, without carbonation or artificial sweeteners. It will have a bite and an earthiness however so it can be an acquired taste.

A note on substitutions: if you have to use dried ingredients for either the ginger or ginseng reduce them considerably and use a mixer (like a vitamix or something) to get the best dilution. You may have to try a few different ratios, but fresh vs dried is usually about 25%. Increase the water accordingly.