Homemade lemonade with mint: sugar syrup, fresh lemon juice, ice
Lemonade that tastes like the one from a restaurant terrace and costs as much as five lemons: a sugar syrup cooked with lemon zest, freshly squeezed juice, cold water, mint and plenty of ice. Syrup instead of loose sugar is the whole secret: the sugar is dissolved, the flavour even, and the zest gives an aroma the juice alone doesn't have. A jug for eight glasses.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Syrup 10 min
- Syrup cooling 60 min
- Mixing 5 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneCook the syrup with zest
Grate or peel the zest from two well-washed lemons without the white pith. Bring the sugar, water and zest to the boil in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and boil 3 minutes. Take off the heat.
Ingredients: 150 g sugar · 200 ml water · 5 pcs lemons
TipThe white pith is bitter. With a peeler take only the yellow layer, paper thin.
Sugar, water, yellow zest, three minutesCool the syrup
Cool the syrup with the zest 60 minutes (or 20 minutes in the fridge). Meanwhile the zest releases its oils. Strain.
Squeeze the lemons
Squeeze the juice from all the lemons; you should get about 200 ml. Lemons at room temperature, rolled on the counter under your palm, give more juice than cold ones from the fridge.
About a cup of juice from five lemonsBruise the mint
Put the mint leaves (keep a few sprigs for garnish) in the jug and bruise lightly with the back of a spoon, just enough to release the scent. Don't chop: chopped mint turns bitter and clouds the drink.
Ingredients: 1200 ml water · 1 bunch fresh mint · 1 pcs lime
Bruised with a spoon, not choppedMix
Pour the syrup, lemon juice and cold water into the jug and stir. Taste: too sharp? A spoon more syrup. Too sweet? More water. Add ice and lime slices. The base ratio: about 1.5 parts syrup, 1 part juice, 6 parts water.
Syrup, juice, water, iceServe
Into glasses with ice and a mint sprig. Lemonade without ice keeps 2 days in the fridge; add ice and sparkling water to the glass just before serving.
Ice, mint, sunshine
Before you start
Strawberry
200 g strawberries blended and pushed through a sieve into the jug. Pink, sweeter, less syrup.
Ginger
5 slices of fresh ginger in the syrup. Sharp and refreshing, for hangovers, and warm in autumn.
Syrup in stock
A double batch of syrup in a jar keeps 2 weeks in the fridge. Lemonade from it is 2 minutes of work.
