Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables to grow in my container garden.  For one thing, it’s a beautiful plant with giant green leaves and gorgeous yellow blossoms.  Another reason is because this healthy veggie (it’s a great source of vitamins C, B-6 and K, and manganese) is so versatile! We love to roast zucchini on the grill, dice it for hash, and spiralize it for noodles.  But one of our favorite ways to prepare it is to make zucchini patties.  The recipe calls for grating two medium zucchini and then expressing all of the moisture out. If you’ve never squeezed moisture out of grated zucchini, then you’re in for a shock because these cylindrical cucurbits pack a ton of juice!  Just when you think you can’t squeeze out any more juice, try again.  The green goodness just keeps flowing! 

This summer, we had so much zucchini that I started grating it and putting it in the freezer so it would be ready to go for when I wanted to make zucchini patties or zucchini bread.  There was just one problem, zucchini juice.  And lots of it.  If you’re like me, you try to minimize waste from the garden, which means composting vegetable peels, end pieces, and whatever else you don’t consume.  In theory, I could have poured the juice into the composting bin, but it seemed like such a shame to pour that glorious green liquid into a box of dirt. 

My second option was to just drink it.  I figured something that healthy-looking had to taste good.  So I took a sip and let me tell you zucchini juice tastes nothing like it looks.  It might be chock full of wonderful nutrients, but it tasted bland and unappealing. 

Not to be deterred, I decided to put it in the refrigerator until I could figure something else out.  And that’s when inspiration hit me like a freight train between the eyes.  Sitting on the top shelf of my refrigerator were the cans of Brighter tonic that my daughter had given me.  Corrie is the master mixologist behind the popular cocktail blog girlandtonic.co.  She creates amazing cocktail recipes just like Gordon Ramsay creates cooking shows.  Corrie had recently been introduced to Brighter and loved it.  So when she found out the ingredients were clean, she thought it might be something I could tolerate.  I’m on a rather strict autoimmune protocol and there aren’t many fun beverages that I can drink due to questionable ingredients like additives and excessive sugar.  But she saw that Brighter uses only organic ingredients, like raw apple cider vinegar (with the mother!) and maple syrup, which is right up my alley.  And she knew that its low sugar content from the maple syrup (only 5 grams per eight ounces) would be a game-changer for me. 

One sip and I was hooked!  That’s because this is not your grandmother’s tonic water.  This actually tastes good.  Really good.  It has just the right amount of tart and sweet to make you want more.  Plus, it’s a painless way to sneak in all the benefits of apple cider vinegar.  If you are health conscious and especially if you have health issues like I do, then you know what a big deal it is to find something that is clean and actually tastes good! 

While Corrie was here visiting, she created a mocktail using Brighter tonic and cucumber and basil from my garden. We sat outside in the cool of the evening and sipped on our drinks while we talked about life and gardening. We both enjoyed it so much that she featured a cocktail version, along with the mocktail version we had, on her blog, which you can find here. You’ll notice that she named the drink after me! Well, not me, but my garden!  

So when I saw the cans of Brighter tonic on the top shelf of the refrigerator, I suddenly knew what to do with the zucchini juice.  I made a refreshing and healthy mocktail! I’ve named my garden delight “zucchini on the rocks,” and it is so good!  I would love for you to try it.  In fact, you might want to take it out to your garden in the cool of the evening and sip on it while you dream of what to plant next.

Note: In case you’re wondering, this is not a sponsored post.  I just really, really love Brighter.  Not only is it a wonderful product, the owners are just as wonderful.  When they found out how much I loved their tonic and that it was something I could actually drink, they sent me a complimentary pack.  Oh my, is that nice or what!  Great product, great people.  Go Brighter!

You can find Brighter tonic at select Whole Foods in the Los Angeles area, Erewhon Market, and online at Brightertonic.com