Hugo-Cubos: Mint-Elderflower-Icecubes

My beloved herb garden is in the process of growing over my head, so I'm thinking about harvesting and preserving as many herbs as possible for the winter. Some herbs can be dried, others lose their aroma and should be preserved in oil or frozen. Apart from water, you can use other fluids for freezing the herbs, such as melted butter, especially if you want to use the herbs with butter later, e.g., sage butter...
And that's how I had the idea to preserve my great crop of mints this year combined with Elderflower Syrup in frozen "Hugo-Cubos": Icecubes to which you only have to add prosecco and maybe a little lime for the trendy Italian summer aperitif Hugo- such that you can enjoy it in winter, too! :-) As an alcohol-free version, you can combine the Hugo-Cubos with Tonic Water and Soda!


Ingredients:
Mint (10 leaves per Cubo)
Elderflower Syrup (10-15 ml per Cubo)

Icecube trays or mini muffin tray

Preparation:
Harvest the mint - as you can see on the before and after pictures of my herb garden, not only the mints have grown very nicely - the Pineapple Sage tops everything else. I'll have to see what to do with it before it grows over the house...
The picture to the right shows leaves of the five mint species that I have: Moroccan Mint, Peppermint, Mountain Mint, Spanish Mint and Mojito Mint. I find the differences very subtle and apart from the Mountain Mint, I wouldn't be able to tell which one of the mints I was enjoying within a Hugo...

Rip the mint leaves to smaller pieces and put them into the icecube tray. I usuelly rip the mint leaves into pieces for Hugo, such that the taste can develop better, and for the Hugo-Cubos it's necessary as the bigger leaves won't fit into the forms otherwise. For these Cubos, I used half Mojito Mint and half Peppermint, the leaves on the mini muffin tray show which rows contain which.

Put the trays into the freezer for several hours. Due to the sugar content of the Elderflower Syrup, the icecubes will not become as hard as pure water icecubes. Knock or press the Hugo Cubos out of the trays and stow them in labelled freezer bags, such that the next herbs have room in the icecube trays ;-)

In order to prepare the Hugo, drop two cubes in a glas, add prosecco and lime juice/lime slices as well as additional Elderflower Syrup to taste. Since I used up all my remaining selfmade Elderflower Syrup, I'm very glad that you can buy it all year long in the stores! Next year, I will make at least twice as much.

Obviously, this Hugo will taste more of prosecco first, even though the cubes melt rather fast. If you want to have the correct mix from the beginning, let the cubes melt in the glass before adding the prosecco and water icecubes. Cheers!