Cooking At Home: Mint Lemonade

If you've got access to loads of fresh lemon and loads of fresh mint you can make fresh mint lemonade.  So if you've got that mint in your garden that seems to be creeping its way around quite freely like weed here is one great way to use up loads of it (don't worry, I'm sure it'll just keep growing, mine does!)

Making fresh mint lemonade is a two part process.  I prefer to keep my lemonade and mint tea in separate jugs, this allows me more uses for it.

For the fresh mint lemonade you'll need freshly squeezed lemon juice, freshly brewed mint tea, and simple syrup (really simple to make! 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water on low heat in a sauce pan or small pot, wait for the sugar to dissolve... and ta~da!  Simple syrup).

Part 1:  Squeeze those lemons!  Fill up a jug of pure fresh lemon juice, it'll come in handy for when you want simple lemonade, mint lemonade or even a vodka collins!

Part 2:  Once you've washed your freshly picked mint it's time to make pure mint tea!  Simple pinch off the mint leaves and put it in a jug and fill it up with boiling water (I used about 2 handfuls of mint leaves for about a 1.5-2 liter jug.  Allow the mint to steep in the water for a couple of hours (I allowed mine 2 hours, but you can always do less or more, just remember to take a sip of it every now and then while it steeps to make sure it's not too light or too strong.

Ingredients:
Fresh squeezed lemon juice
Freshly brewed mint tea
Simple Syrup

Recipe:
Fill a glass with  3 ice-cubes
Fill a quarter of the glass with lemon juice
Fill half with mint tea
Fill a quarter with simple syrup and stir well

You can easily add more lemon juice to this recipe but if you do so you'll probably need to add more simple syrup as well unless you like your mint tea super sour.

Cheers!