I've been making lime, lemon, orange, mandarinquat, and valencia slushies to cool off during the heat wave that we're having. It actually enhances your slushie or citrus-ade drinks if you include the zest of any of the citruses that you're using. Simply wash off the peels before juicing the citruses. You can use a potato peeler or a citrus zester to remove the zest from the peels. Remove the zest before you cut the citruses. After removing the zest, cut the citruses and juice them. Remove the seeds from the collected juice.

To use the zest, you have to finely ground them in the blender first. Simply place the collected zest in a blender, add the collected juices, place one cup cold water, one cup ice, and your sweetener. You don't add all the ingredients of your recipe at once because it would take longer for the blender to finely ground the zest, rather, use smaller volume first to grind the zest. The citrus juice, ice, the water and the sweetener will help finely ground the zest. Run the blender until the zest are finely ground. When they are finely ground, you can add the rest of the ingredients like you would normally use in your full recipe.

[As for calamondins (or Kalamansi or kumquats and other Fortunella type small fruits), that is one challening zest to take out from such small fruits. But fortunately, they belong to the Fortunella group and the peels are generally edible. Simply cut up the calamondins, remove the petioles if present and throw away, then juice the calamondins. Save half of the squeezed fruits and place inside a blender. Remove the seeds from the collected juice, and then place inside the bender, add 1 cup ice, 1 cup water, and your sweetener. Run the blender until the consistency is very fine. Then add the rest of your ingredients for your full recipe. ]

By including the zest into your drinks, it would have magnified the citrus flavors and would have really given it some REAL citrus zest. Rich in anti-oxidants, help prevent diabetes. But if you think that those are just hypes, I still highly recommend that you try them, just for the flavor enhancements from the zest. Lime drinks truly become aromatic if you include their zest.

Joe



Here's the article:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/05/18/citrus_peels_compound_could_help_diabetics/4906/

ORLANDO, Fla., May 18 (UPI) -- Citrus fruits may have a compound in their peels that could help diabetes patients and even prevent the disease, researchers say.

The compound, called emulin, was discovered while researching the weight-loss properties of grapefruit, WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla., reported Sunday.

Researchers hope to extract the compound from the peel of the fruit, then filter and purify it to make a tasteless substance that acts as a sugar buffer when added to foods, the station reported.

In addition to speeding the removal of excess sugar from the bloodstream, Emulin reduces the amount of carbohydrates absorbed after meals and the amount of glucose manufactured by the liver.

"This product mimics the activity of insulin," A&M metabolics researcher Joseph Ahrens said.

Type-2 diabetic rats fed the equivalent of a brownie with emulin showed a drop in glucose by as much as 27 percent.

Scientists said if the product is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it could be on the market within two years.