Sweet Basil Seeds + Any Drink = Win!

One of my favorite drinks while growing up was lime-ade (i.e., lemonade made with limes) with sweet basil seeds. You might be wondering, "What on earth are sweet basil seeds?" Sweet basil seeds are black seeds that are about the size of sesame seeds. When added to warm water, they expand to fuzzy little bubbles which kind of resemble tadpole eggs. They are pretty much flavorless but add a nice texture to beverages.

So if they are flavorless, why would you want to add them to your drinks? Bubbles make everything more interesting! A common thing in Asian cultures is to add tapioca pearls (i.e., bubbles) to cold beverages like iced coffee or iced tea (e.g., bubble tea). A thick straw is usually provided to help suck the "bubbles" at the bottom along with your drink.

Anyways, back to the sweet basil seeds. You can find these at most Asian supermarkets for a few dollars. Since I recently blogged about my addition to coffee/tea, I figured I might try adding the sweet basil seeds to some sweetened iced tea. The end result was pure win!

So the next time you're sipping on a beverage and you'd like to change it up a bit, toss in a few sweet basil seeds and enjoy!

Iced Tea with Sweet Basil Seeds