Refreshing Lemonade for the Summer
For many people, summer means a break from school or work. Teachers get time off and students get more free time, but usually end up taking up jobs because, well, you need one to get one. Others of both sorts do summer semesters. Although this is a break from the usual stress of a fall or spring semester, summer is never a break from the heat – especially in Tallahassee. With no ocean breeze, it’s like a giant steaming pot, where the rain brings the humidity and the sun brings the heat and we’re all just wilted greens your mom makes you eat. But you don’t have to be miserable because of it. Try and find some fun, creative ways to stay cool. This lemonade recipe should give you a refreshing break from the sweltering weather that plagues Tally summers.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Water
- 4-6 lemons
- Sugar (white or cane)
- A medium pot
- Access to a stove
- A large container (holds up to 6 cups of liquids)
Start off by boiling 1 cup of water. Once it’s bubbling and steaming, add 1½ cups of sugar to it and stir it on and off for a few minutes, turning down the heat a bit. This will turn into syrup to sweeten the drink. Once you have dissolved all the sugar into the hot water, take the pot off the burner and let it chill out someplace or put the syrup into another container and put it in the fridge. Careful transferring it, it’s gonna be hot.
As the syrup cools, get to squeezing those lemons. Any kind of juicer should work for this, but a citrus press is gonna be the best. If you don’t want pulp, once you have your 1½ cups of lemon juice, just put it through a strainer once or twice. Then check on that syrup to see if it’s cooled off yet.
Collect 6 cups of water for the rest and find a large bowl, jug, or some form of container where you can combine all this stuff in, because this’ll be a lot of lemonade. Combine the syrup and lemon juice first, then go ahead and add the water. Stir it some and then store it however you want or add some ice and drink it fresh. You could even make popsicles out of the lemonade if you have molds or small cups that’ll work for it. Make sure to consume this lemonade within a week or a week and a half, or it might start tasting bitter instead of sour and sweet. This recipe has a good balance of flavor, and stays nice and sour/sweet even when ice melts away in it. It could even be the perfect drink to make for summer barbecues and get-togethers.