24 Hours with LĒVO: Infused Beverages Edition

We know LĒVO is a versatile machine for cooking, but it’s more than a useful tool for healthy meal prep or making delicious edibles. It’s something you can use to kickstart your day, refresh your afternoon, and relax your evening, one infused drink at a time. So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of just how versatile it can be by exploring 24 hours with LĒVO for your everyday beverages—and making them anything but.

Consider the tea spilled.

Using LĒVO to Kickstart Your Day

LĒVO is the perfect addition to any morning, whether you start your days with a smoothie and a workout or coffee and the news.

Or, if you’re like me, coffee and frantic scurrying trying to get out the door on time with the occasional today’s-the-day-I-start-to-eat-healthier smoothie. (Hey, with LĒVO, today might be the day!)

Infused Beverages for the AM Gym Goer

If you work out in the mornings, LĒVO will up your game. You can use it to make special, flower-infused oil that can help you stay present in your workout, increase your pain threshold to allow for more reps, and help with recovery so you’re not as sore tomorrow.

To take advantage of these benefits with your LĒVO, try the C-D Superfood Smoothie recipe. It uses fresh bananas, chia seeds, and Chaga mushroom powder in combination with flower-infused oil for major botanical benefits. Plus, with LĒVO, you can make 16 ounces of flower-infused oil at once, so you can easily make this smoothie every morning without having to go through the infusion process each time.

C-D Superfood Smoothie Prep Time

• 5 hours to make the flower-infused oil (coconut or olive). I’d suggest doing this the night before unless you’re really ambitious in the mornings.
• 5 minutes in the AM to blend it all together!   

Infused Beverages for the Coffee Lover

For those of us who need coffee first, don’t worry, LĒVO’s got that covered too.

Mornings are often stressful, particularly Mondays, but with LĒVO you can infuse your coffee with calming lavender following either the Blueberry Lavender Matcha recipe or the Lavender Latte recipe. Both deliver the anti-inflammatory and anxiety-reducing benefits of lavender, but the matcha one offers about half the amount of caffeine as espresso. Although, fair warning, matcha’s buzz is often more energizing and longer-lasting than coffee or espressos.

Blueberry Lavender Matcha Prep Time

• 2 hours and 10 minutes to create your blueberry lavender simple syrup. You have to make a simple syrup with the blueberries before infusing with lavender, so this is probably something you’ll want to do the night before. But, again, you can make a larger quantity so you don’t have to do it every night.
• 5 minutes in the AM to whisk it up!

Lavender Latte Prep Time

• 2 hours and 10 minutes to create your simple syrup and lavender infusion.
• 10 minutes in the AM to brew some coffee and add your infusion!

If you’re looking to start your day off on a high note, try making Flower-Infused Condensed Milk the night before. This recipe has only two ingredients—flower and condensed milk—but it takes three hours to infuse, so it’s not something you can knock out while your coffee brews.

Once you’ve got your infused condensed milk, use it to make Vietnamese Iced Chicory Coffee for a calm morning. Keep in mind, chicory doesn’t have any caffeine, but you can mix it with regular coffee for a half-caff drink.  

Or for the easiest infused coffee beverage of them all, try a Bulletproof Coffee style. All it requires is infused MCT oil and coffee. Add butter for extra richness.

 

Summer’s here, which means while a hot coffee in the AM still hits, hot beverages in the afternoon are a no-go. If you’re sweating just looking out the window and could use a refresh, try one of these easy summertime infused beverage recipes.

Infused Beverages for Hot Summer Afternoons

My go-to for a LĒVO summertime drink is the Honey Ginger Lemonade. It’s not only refreshing, but it also has vitamins C, B6, and A from the fresh lemon juice and antioxidants from the ginger and honey, so I feel good about drinking it too. Plus, it’s great to serve guests at a barbecue!

 Honey Ginger Lemonade Prep Time

• 1 hour to infuse your honey with fresh ginger.
• 2 minutes to stir your infusion and fresh squeezed lemon juice over ice! 

Another thirst-quenching summertime drink you can make with LĒVO is Creamy Strawberry-Mint Infused Italian Soda. Italian sodas are made with carbonated water and flavored simple syrup, but this recipe takes it one step further by adding infused cream for a more float-like drink. Because is it even summer without a float or two?

 Creamy Strawberry-Mint Infused Italian Soda Prep Time

• 30 minutes to infuse the cream with dried mint. (If you’re using fresh mint, you’ll need to add some time to run through LEVO’s Dry cycle first. Don’t worry—it doesn’t require any extra dishes.)
• 20 minutes to make your sweet strawberry syrup. This syrup stays fresh in the fridge for a few days so you can make this recipe more than once.
• 2 seconds to pour it over ice—bellissimo!

Infused Beverages for “You Deserve It” Hot Summer Afternoons

If a fizzy soda isn’t going to cut it today, try some bubbly instead. Now, I’m not against a regular glass of champagne, but LĒVO certainly makes a good argument for infusing a little something extra with the Thyme-Infused Champagne recipe. The thyme infusion is actually frozen into ice cubes, so you can keep them on hand all the time—in case you need an excuse to also keep champagne on hand at all times.

Bonus: You can add your thyme-infused ice cubes to other drinks too! Sparkling water, lemonade, juice. You name it!

Thyme-Infused Champagne Prep Time

• 3 hours to dry the thyme if you start with fresh thyme. If you start with dried thyme, you can skip this step altogether!
• 10 minutes to make simple syrup. Do this while your thyme dries.
• 1-2 hours to infuse the simple syrup with thyme.
• 2 hours for infusion to freeze in the freezer.

Using LĒVO to Relax Your Evening

When it’s time to hit the hay, LĒVO can help you relax, unwind, and enjoy a more restful sleep.

Hot tea can be a powerful sleep aid, especially teas with chamomile, lavender, or lemon balm—all of which have sleep-inducing effects. LĒVO gives you the ability to boost those effects because you can use it to Infuse Honey with any herb you like and add it to your tea. You always have the option to infuse with psychoactive flower, something studies have shown may be effective for sleep, but you can also try other sleepy herbs.

Herbs That May Help You Sleep 

• Mint
• Passionflower
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon

Infused Honey Prep Time

• 30 minutes to activate special herbs if you’re using them.
• 30-120 minutes to infuse the honey depending on your herb of choice.

With LĒVO, you can infuse two cups of honey at a time, so you’ll have enough to last you for a while. You can also use that infused oil you made for your AM smoothie in your tea too.

Bonus: Use your infused honey in daytime drinks (and food), too!

Infused Beverage Recipe Round-Up

Morning Infused Beverages

• C-D Superfood Smoothie
• Blueberry Lavender Matcha
• Lavender Latte

Afternoon Infused Beverages

• Honey Ginger Lemonade
• Creamy Strawberry-Mint Infused Italian Soda

Nighttime Infused Beverages

• Infused Honey for tea