Homemade Mint Lemonade!

Jason and I visited the LaBrea Tar Pits this Saturday, which meant that we also got to eat lunch at a lovely little place on Wilshire called Yuko Kitchen. They serve beautiful frozen mint lemonade there, which I could drink all day, because it is so amazing. So, I was inspired to create my own version of mint lemonade so I could drink it all day.  And I did!  Now, I'll be honest, I'd never made lemonade before, and for whatever reason, I didn't think it would be so labor intensive. But it is, since you have to squeeze 70 thousand lemons. If you don't yet have a little citrus juicer, you might run out and get one. It's not completely necessary, since you can, you know, squeeze lemons with your hands, but it did make it a bit easier to get all of the juice out of each lemon.

I ended up using my own interpretation of a mint lemonade recipe, based on the suggestions of sugar-to-lemon juice ratios I found online. I figured that everyone has a specific lemonade preference, so I just needed to create it to taste and adjust as I saw fit. I wanted to avoid lemonade that was too sour or too sweet, so I made sure to add ingredients a bit at a time. You can also add mint to taste, but keep in mind that the mint steeps a bit in the lemonade while it's in the pitcher, so the mint flavor may end up a bit stronger than when you first make it (which was fine for me, because the mint was delightful!).

Also, credit goes to Jason for thinking of the mint-in-the-blender-with-a-bit-of-lemonade technique

--- it made it just the right consistency!

Mint Lemonade 

1 1/4 cups lemon juice*

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 a bunch of mint leaves

8 cups water

1.  To create simple syrup, combine sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring the mixture until the sugar has dissolved completely. Take the saucepan off of the heat, cover, and cool until room temperature.

2. Cut each lemon in half, squeezing them using a citrus juicer. Remove any wayward seeds, but leave the pulp in the juice. Set the lemon juice aside.

3.  In a large pitcher, combine the remaining 7 cups water, simple syrup, and lemon juice. Add the simple syrup and lemon juice slowly, tasting often, to ensure that you have the right balance of lemon and sugar for your taste. Mix well.

4.  Remove about 1/4 cup mixed lemonade from the pitcher and pour into blender. Remove mint leaves from stems and add to blender. Blend on 'liquify' until mint is finely chopped. Once mint is desired consistency, add it back into the lemonade picture and mix well. The mint will float around a bit and eventually settle at the bottom of the pitcher.

5.  Chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight. Mix well and serve over ice.

*I used 7 lemons, which yielded 1 1/4 cups lemon juice, but I imagine the amount of juice depends on the lemon.  It would probably be safe to get a few extra, just in case, especially for use as a lovely garnish!

This also works quite well as grown-up lemonade. We made it a little boozey by adding a bit of gin to our glasses and it was great!

Enjoy!