Two Refreshing Summer Beverages to Make by the Gallon

During the summer months I crave three different drinks: iced tea, limeade and lemonade. All three are cooling and refreshing and my taste buds rejoice when I take that first sip. While iced tea is super easy to make (just bring a pot of water to a boil, let sit with some tea bags then add to a pitcher and cool), limeade and lemonade require some elbow grease, especially with all the juicing. So if you are going to make your own limeade and lemonade, might as well make a gallon of it so you get the most bang for your buck.

My recipe follows a very simple formula to equal just under one gallon. 12 cups of water, 2 cups of sugar, 1 pint of fruit and the juice of 8 lemons/20 limes. By letting the raspberries and strawberries sit in the liquid you'll find that they'll start to macerate. Do not use frozen fruit because during the freezing process the fruit will have lost most of it's structure and the fruit will bleed to heavily into the liquid. Fresh raspberries and strawberries are perfect for this because they still have their natural structure. So pull out that gallon pitcher and prepare to juice some citrus to make these delicious homemade drinks.

Raspberry Limeade

20 limes' juices

2 limes sliced for garnish

1 pint of raspberries, rinsed

2 cups of sugar

12 cups of filtered water

Strawberry Lemonade

8 lemons juiced

1 lemon sliced for garnish

1 pint of strawberries, hulled and halved

2 cups of sugar

12 cups of filtered water

Add the lime/lemon juice and sugar into the pitcher first. The acid will help start dissolving the sugar. Then slowly add the filtered water, stirring ever so often to mix the sugar into the water. Drop in the slices of lime/lemon and add your raspberries/strawberries. Stir a couple more times but not too much because you don't want to break the fruit. Let chill for about an hour in the fridge. Make sure that you drink this within a couple days of making. The raspberries and strawberries will continue to macerate. 

For those of you who like your limeade and lemonade with a bit of a kick, try 1-1/2 cups of sugar. If the bite is a bit too much, add 1/4 cup more. You can also leave in the slices of lime or lemonade to continue adding some acidity to the beverage. Once you customize this recipe to your taste, it'll become second-hand nature to you and you'll be making this all the time!