In Budapest, almost every place we visited had fresh lemonade on offer, I don't really drink fizzy drinks, simply because I don't like them, so I really enjoyed all the still lemonade! Across the week we had strawberry, raspberry, mint, regular and a few others, so with the weather being so hot here in the UK, I thought it was a great excuse to make some myself.
When it comes to summer in the UK and we have a few days of hot weather, you find that we don't quite know what to do, you will hear people expressing that though they wanted "summer", they didn't want it this hot. I'm quite fortunate by being near the sea and having work hours that allowed me to spend some time on the beach on the hottest day so far, temperatures reached 31°C here, which is pretty amazing, as temperatures are usually around 20°C.
I used dried hibiscus leaf from Absolute Spice, along with fresh mint, lemon juice and sugar. I've used the minimal amount of sugar you can get away with in this recipe; the lemon and hibiscus are both very tart, so this is a refreshing, but not overly-sweet lemonade. I added pieces of finely chopped mint into the lemonade, but you're welcome to infuse the flavour and then strain off along with the hibiscus. This drink is a perfect summer treat, to share with your friends and family this summer, so beat the heat and make some homemade lemonade, keep it chilled and serve it up with ice for an extra chill!
Hibiscus Mint Lemonade | Serves: 4-5 | Time: 20 mins
You'll need
- Saucepan
- Sieve
- Measuring cups
- Chopping board
- Knife
- 1.5L serving bottle/jug
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 tbsp dried hibiscus leaf
- 2 large lemons
- Handful mint
- 1 cup ice
Method
- Pour 2 cups of water into a saucepan, add the sugar and heat until dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the hibiscus leaf, leave to diffuse for 10 minutes, then strain and pour into the serving jug.
- Meanwhile, juice 2 large lemons, finely chop the mint and add to the serving jug, along with 2 cups of water. Once all the elements are combined, add in 1 cup of ice to cool it quickly, serve up and enjoy!
Cassidy xx
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