A Remedy for Summer Anger & Irritability

If you were going to try one new recipe to keep your cool this summer, try rosewater lemonade. The heat of summer can provoke anger and irritability, especially when a person is dehydrated from sweating, spending long hours under the summer sun or up late at night socializing. Altogether, these strains on your body may make it all too tempting to fight with your loved ones. Fortunately, you can recover your composure and find relief with cooling, refreshing beverages like rosewater lemonade.

When the thermometer seems relentless, the key to a kinder personality lies in the understanding that summer is a firey season of aggravated Pitta. When provoked, Pitta generally reacts with irritability, resistance, and aggression. Pitta people have a basic need for sweetness and beauty. When overheated, Pitta needs a gentle yes to calm them into a more amiable easiness. They respond best to cooling, calming balms like sitting under the moon, in the shade of a tree, and sweet foods with a pleasant aroma. Rosewater Lemonade brings sweetness and beauty into the day, calming their agitated mind. The mere smell of a rose cools their anger and criticism. Knowing this about Pitta helps you to please and nurture yourself or a loved one, rather than provoke them.

Rosewater relieves and cools inflammation. It's great for spraying on your sunburned skin or summer rashes, but it also heals and soothes internal tissues as well. It has a mild astringency that tones tissues, including the digestive tract.

Lemons cool the skin because they help you sweat. Lemons cleanse the blood of impurities, aid digestion and quench thirst. Although lemons are heating in the digestive tract, they are a cooling astringent in the blood. Sour taste focuses a scattered mind and helps nudge your thoughts from the head back to the heart, the seat of kindness. For an even more Pitta cooling effect, add lime instead of lemon and maple syrup instead of raw sugar. Kapha may prefer honey.

A wonderful, refreshing substitute for iced tea. It is inspired by a Tunisian drink with lemons and orange blossom water, which we discovered at Cafe Baraka of Central Square, Cambridge, MA.

Rosewater is the water leftover from the production of rose essential oil. It has an uplifting rose fragrance. As Ayurveda students, we sprayed ourselves with rosewater mist on hot days to keep cool. Rosewater is available in most Indian and Middle Eastern grocery stores.

1/8 whole	Lemon
1 tsp	Raw Sugar
1/8 tsp	Rose Water
2 c	Water

Mix all ingredients together. Served cool as a lemonade or frozen as a sorbet.

what do customers buy after viewing this?

Write a review!

For a more Pitta cooling effect, add lime instead of lemon and maple syrup instead of raw sugar. Kapha may prefer honey and Vata, agave.

Yummy and medicinal! How we like it! Rose water is gently astringent, toning tissues and reducing permeability. It has a pleasant anti-inflammatory and cooling effect beneficial for illness, fever, rashes and heat conditions. It's cleansing and purifying effects, along with those of the lemon in this recipe lend positive results for clearing blood and digestive impurities and reducing toxicity throughout the body. This drink also has an antimicrobial quality which makes it useful for balancing digestive flora and reducing infections and bacterial overgrowth. Drink up!
I have twice made this drink with the addition of tokma seeds which have been soaked till they bloomed out and were soft; it's a fun addition to the drink, but I'd be curious what are the ayervedic/medicinal/physiological effects of this?
Is there a way to make this with using rose essential oil instead the fresh rose petals? Thanks!