School has ended, and summer vacation is upon us. This drink is guaranteed to be one the whole family will enjoy, serving 8-10 people. The blackberry lemonade takes about 10 minutes to make, but it’s one you’ll want to enjoy as long as possible. I do recommend leaving it in the fridge overnight, it tastes way better after it had time to sit.
The best part about this recipe, you can customize it to your liking. If you feel it’s not sweet enough, you can add more sugar. If you don’t like the idea of club soda, just use water. If you’re like me and don’t have a fine-mesh sieve, you can just add them straight puree into the lemonade, at the expense of extra seeds.
What you’ll need
- 2 tablespoons and 1 3/4 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of blackberries
- 2 cups of lemon juice or 12 lemons
- 4 cups of plain club soda
- 4 cups of water
- Ice cubes
- Extra blackberries and lemons to garnish
Begin by combining 1 3/4 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow time to cool.
In a blender, combine the 2 cups of blackberries and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 cups of blackberries is about a container and a half. Blend until pureed. Press the puree through a fine-mesh sieve to get as much liquid as possible from the mixture. Dispose of the solids.
To make the lemon juice, I recommend using room temperature lemons to get the most juice out of them. Cut in half and juice using either a juicer, fork or wooden reamer.
Combine the sugar water, puree, lemon juice, club soda and remaining water in a large pitcher. Add ice and stir. Garnish with lemon slices and blackberries.
Stevie Carr can be reached at [email protected]