Summer is here and it’s time to enjoy ice-cold flavorful drinks. So get out your blender or food processer and whip up one of the options below. They’re good enough to accompany your next backyard barbecue or dinner on the deck.
Strawberry Spritzer
Ingredients:
One 10 oz package frozen strawberries,
Two liters lemon-lime soda
One can frozen pink lemonade concentrate.
This one is so easy. If your frozen strawberries are unsweetened, add sugar to taste. Blend the strawberries until a puree, add the soda and lemonade concentrate. Serve with a lemon slice on the rim of your glass. So yummy.
Lemon Cooler
Ingredients:
½ cup sugar,
½ cup lemon juice,
Four cups white grape juice,
One liter club soda,
One medium orange halved and sliced,
½ cup sliced strawberries, ½ cup sliced fresh peaches,
Ice cubes.
Dissolve sugar in lemon juice. Add grape juice and club soda, stir. Pour into clear glasses and add sliced fruit with a few ice cubes.
Honeydew Lime Cooler
Ingredients:
One small honeydew melon cut into cubes,
1 ½ cups lime sherbet,
2 tbs of lime
Juice, five fresh strawberries.
Freeze all but five honeydew cubes for fifteen minutes. Blend sherbet, lime juice and frozen melon until smooth.
Pour into glasses and garnish with fresh strawberries and cubes of melon.
Lemon Basil Mocktail
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup sugar,
Four cups water,
Six cups fresh basil leaves, crushed ice divided,
Two bottles club soda,
Lemon wedges.
Boil sugar and water. Add half of basil which has been crushed with a pestle or wooden
spoon. Let steep, cool, strain and then refrigerate. To two cups of crushed ice add the
remaining basil. Press basil against ice to release aroma. Add the cooled basil syrup and
club soda. Serve over the remainder of the crushed ice.
Summer Cup Mocktail
Ingredients:
Slice of cucumber
A sprig of mint,
Frozen red berries of choice,
Clear sparkling lemonade, & ice.
Chop the cucumber and mint sprig into tiny pieces, then boil them in a cup of water. Turn off
heat and allow to steep for several minutes. Add a handful of frozen berries and crush with a
wooden spoon. Strain the mixture and refrigerate. Pour into serving glasses, add a handful of
ice and add ¾ cup of sparkling lemonade to each glass. Garnish with frozen berries and mint
leaves. Stir gently.
Frozen Blackberry Smoothie
Ingredients:
For each drink:
Several frozen blackberries,
½ banana,
One ball of stem ginger
From a jar, ½ cup pomegranate juice or red grape juice,
Ice, & one sprig of thyme.
Blend all ingredients except the frozen berries and sprigs of thyme with several ice cubes.
Pour into clear glasses and garnish with several frozen blackberries and a sprig of thyme.
Can’t wait to try them ALL this summer!
( To steep = to allow dry ingredients, to soak in a liquid until the liquid takes on the flavour of the dry ingredient)
