Summer is finally here and that means it’s time for some ice-cold lemonade. Sure, you can buy a jug at the local grocery store but it’s much more fun, and tasty when you make it yourself. There are so many recipes on the internet today, some are loaded with sugar and super sweet. Others have a lot of lemon juice and are quite tart. I like to find a balance between the two.
Another thing with homemade lemonade is you can add all sorts of flavors by adding herbs or fresh fruit. One of the most common flavors I see is strawberry lemonade, and while anyone in our family would drink it without hesitation, we have one we like even more… Mint Lemonade.
I remember the first time I had mint lemonade; I was down in Utah meeting some of the family of a guy I was dating back in college. At first, the thought of mint in my lemonade was just not appeasing, but I loved it once I tried it.
Skip forward to life a couple of years after college, Alex and I had met and gotten married, and we were working on starting our garden. We found a plant at our local Fred Meyer called Apple Mint.
Unlike most mint plants, it was quite mild, and the leaves were more round and slightly fuzzy. We decided to get it and add it to the other herbs we were growing. I must admit, I’d actually forgotten about the mint lemonade till we found this plant.
Over the years, it’s taken some time to get the right balance for this recipe. Too much mint or lemon and it gets off balance pretty quick. Now that we’ve got it down, I’d like to share this delicious treat with others.
Simple to make
First, pick approximately 10 medium-sized apple mint leaves and wash them to make sure they are free of any bugs or dirt. I like to cut or tear them up a bit as it helps the flavor to absorb into the water easier. Throw them in a quart mason jar, fill the remainder of the jar with water, and put it in the refrigerator overnight. The water will start to absorb the mint flavor while it sits.
The next day, add one cup of water to one cup of sugar in a saucepan and heat until dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, add in the lemon juice, and mix well. Grab your mint water from the refrigerator. You can leave the mint leaves in or strain them off at this point. Mix your lemonade concentrate in a pitcher with your cold mint water and add ice or allow to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Because of the sugar, this is a treat in our house and not an everyday drink. We do like to make cold lemon mint water as something we can drink more on a day-to-day basis when it’s hot outside and would still be a good refreshing drink for those who are diabetic and cannot have sugar.
We hope you enjoy this fun recipe. Let us know in the comments what you think!
Refreshing Mint Lemonade
15
minutesMint lemonade is a favorite around our house during the warm summer months.
Ingredients
1 cup Water
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Lemon Juice
1 quart Water
10 Apple Mint Leaves
Directions
- Pick 10 medium-sized apple mint leaves from your plant and wash them. After washing either tear or chop them and place them in 1 QT of water. Allow to rest for at least an hour, but overnight in the fridge works best.
- Combine sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil, until sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature.
- In a 2 qt pitcher, combine sugar water, lemon juice, and mint water. You can choose to keep the leaves or discard them.
- Serve chilled with ice.
Notes
- Optionally you may omit the sugar and add lemon juice to the mint water for a no-sugar treat.
