Old Fashioned Pink Lavender Lemonade

Helga Glaesel de BlandingMarch 22, 2012

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The heat is starting to make its presence felt in Guatemala. It’s summertime for us right now (supposedly) but some days are hot and sunny and then one day you wake up to a foggy, rainy and cold day. Then the next day is hot and sunny again… everyone’s allergies are going crazy. Anyway, a refreshing glass of lemonade is still a welcome beverage option, but a glass of pink-lavender lemonade is even better!

You can follow the recipe using only the first 4 ingredients for basic pink lemonade. I dabbled with the recipe to put in some lavender flavor to it, which gave it a delicious twist. I know lavender is not available in Guatemala, so you can certainly skip it. (I still have some of my Williams-Sonoma lavender, so I used that.)

The original recipe uses 4 cups of water in total. 1 cup for the simple syrup and the other 3 to add to the rest of the ingredients. I found this to be too concentrated and too sweet for my taste. I increased the water content by 2 cups. You can go ahead and start off with adding just 3 cups of water, try it and if you think you need some more like I did, then add some more.

Helga

Old Fashioned Pink Lavender Lemonade

Recipe from SimplyRecipes
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup sugar (if using unsweetened cranberry juice, 1 cup if using sweetened)
6 cups water (divided)
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon dried lavender

Procedure

Before making your simple syrup, if you will be using lavender for added flavor in this recipe,you must do the following: Heat 1 1/4 cup of water and bring to a soft boil. Add the dried lavender. Remove from the heat and let is steep for 10 minutes. Strain it, and continue with the recipe.
Make a “simple syrup” by heating sugar and 1 cup of the water (or lavender flavored water, if using) in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
Stir together the remaining water (5 cups), cranberry juice, lemon juice and simple syrup. Make adjustments to taste. Chill for an hour, or add ice to cool.