Every June the elder bushes along Danish hedgerows and railway banks break out in flat clusters of tiny cream colored flowers, and a good part of the country goes out with scissors and a bag. The flowers are steeped in sugar syrup with lemons for a few days to make hyldeblomstsaft, a cordial that tastes of honey, citrus and something faintly like muscat grapes. Diluted with cold water it is the default drink of Danish summer, at children's parties and on garden tables alike.

Making it is a lesson in patience rather than skill: twenty minutes of work and then three days of leaving it alone. If the race calendar has you making it out of season, dried elderflowers work well, and the swap is in the glossary. One batch fills two large bottles, which is rather less than it sounds once the weather turns warm.

The cordial

Ingredients

• 30 fresh elderflower heads
• 6 cups (1.4 liters) water
• 4 cups (800 g) granulated sugar
• 3 unwaxed lemons
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (20 g) citric acid

To serve

Ingredients

• 1 part cordial
• 4 to 5 parts cold still or sparkling water
• ice cubes and lemon slices

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