Cucumber water is a cheap, easy way to bring a little bit of luxury into the everyday. Served properly chilled in your best piece of glassware, it evokes West Hollywood hotel check-ins and spa days in Sedona. Big sunglasses kind of stuff. It joins the frozen trick for refreshingly hassle-free lemon water as one of the best ways to zhuzh up plain old tap water, as cucumber’s light, crisp flavor and fragrance are surprisingly potent. Peeling those cucumbers is more of an aesthetic choice than a functional one.
Proper cucumber water soaks slices in H20 for at least an hour, infusing the liquid with garden freshness. The resulting finish comes from the cucumber’s interior, not from its peel, which can actually taste bitter to some. Because the cucumber is sliced, there is already plenty of interior cucumber surface area to effectively imbue the water. Stripping the perimeter will not move the dial, or make your cucumber water any more intense. But it can make it prettier.
Splitting the difference for the best looking cucumber water
A great way to prepare and serve cucumber water splits the difference between peeling and not peeling — removing alternating strips to create a striped effect. A total peel can just look too pale and flaccid in a lovely glass pitcher. The banded effect gives the cucumbers, which are actually botanically classified as berries, a fancier, more intentional appearance. This also only registers if you cut your slices at least about a quarter of an inch thick. If you prefer them super thin, striping won’t really be noticeable enough to be worth the effort.
A total peel might be more palatable to produce super-washers, however. Cucumbers are already naturally waxy, and most store bought kinds will have an added (and edible) layer to extend shelf life, though it can be a real pain to fully rinse off. You’ll still need to try, being that it’s a mistake to peel veggies without washing them, but peeling is the most effective method for eradicating wax, natural or otherwise.
