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[1] Peach lemonade: lemonade and peach purée with a fresh peach garnish (photo courtesy Flavor & The Menu).
[2] Mulled lemonade, with cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, orange peel and pink peppercorns. Here’s the recipe from A Spicy Perspective.
[3] Blueberry lemonade, with blueberry purée and fresh blueberries. Tip: Freeze the blueberries first, and they’ll keep the drink colder, longer. Here’s the recipe from The Blueberry Council.
[4] Cucumber lemonade. Here’s the recipe, from Kimpton Hotels.
[5] Sparkling melon lemonade. Here’s the recipe from Zulka Sugar.
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Love lemonade?
Here are some tips from Flavor & The Menu, a website that scouts restaurants nationwide for new ideas (with some of our own ideas for good measure).
Summer is lemonade season. You can create flavored by perusing these tips and adding a second flavor to your lemonade.
You also can do the same with limeade, which for some reason is rarely on the menu. We don’t know why: It’s just as delicious as lemonade.
August 20th is National Lemonade Day, but we didn’t want to wait until then to share these recipe ideas.
Start with fresh-squeezed lemonade. O.K., you can use frozen, but if you want to make lemonade from scratch, here’s how.
ADD FRUIT
You can do it by infusion, or by mixing purées (much faster).
Purée the best seasonal fruits to blend with lemonade, and/or add fruit garnishes to the glass. Don’t overlook cucumber lemonade (photo #4—botanically, cucumber is a fruit).
Consider puréeing combinations like strawberry-basil, strawberry-cucumber, blackberry-basil, blueberry-mint, mango-raspberry, watermelon-mint and raspberry-lime. Peach-raspberry is another popular combination.
ADD FIZZ
Sparkling water and soft drinks can create unique takes on lemonade. Use a little or a lot of:
Club soda, plain or flavored
Lemon or lemon/lime soft drinks
Two ideas from restaurants:
The Twinberry Lemonade Sparkler at Perkins Restaurants: lemonade with blueberries, blackberries and Sprite.
Blueberry Limonata at Olive Garden: lemonade with blueberry purée, blueberries and sparkling water.
ADD HERBS & SPICE
We’ve already mentioned basil lemonade, but there are other sweet herbs, plus spices.
Sweet herbs: basil, citrus zest, ginger, mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, sage (photo #1)
Heat: cayenne, jalapeño
Examples:
At Bantam + Biddy in Atlanta, Spicy Strawberry-Jalapeño Lemonade
At Laughing Seed Cafe in Asheville, South Carolina, Raspeberry-Jalapeño Lemonade
You also can make mulled lemonade. Like mulled wine, the lemonade is heated with spices and peel. But then it’s cooled and ready to refresh. Here’s a recipe from A Spicy Perspective (photo #2).
MAKE FROZEN LEMONADE
Use fruit purée or syrups to create frozen lemonade. Here’s how to make frozen lemonade.
As a granita
As an ice pop
As a frozen drink (freeze lemonade in ice cube trays, then turn to slush in a blender)
As a “Creamsicle,” topping or swirling granita with ice cream
Examples:
Krispy Kreme offers Frozen Strawberry Lemonade and Frozen Mango Lemonade
Chick-Fil-A has Frosted Lemonade: fresh lemonade and vanilla Icedream soft serve
FLAVORED LEMONADE RECIPES
Cucumber Lemonade
Lavender Lemonade
Peach Lemonade
Sparkling Melon Lemonade
Spicy Lemonade
Strawberry-Basil Lemonade Recipe
LEMONADE COCKTAIL RECIPES
Blueberry Lemonade Cocktail
Lemonade 485 Cocktail
Limoncello Lemonade
London Lemonade Cocktail (with gin)
Tequila Lemonade
Saké Lemonade
THE HISTORY OF LEMONADE
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