This Mint Lemonade is the most refreshing drink EVER! Cheap to make and easy enough to mix up in just five minutes (active time), it’ll become your go-to drink for hot summer days!
Did you ever buy mint for a recipe and have some left over afterward? What the heck do you do with leftover mint?
Or maybe you have a garden and once made the optimistic decision to plant a little slip of mint. But then the mint ran absolutely wild all over your yard and your neighbor’s yard and it’s taking over ditches and lawns and flower beds all around town.
Mint is like that.
So you have some mint to work with.
Related: Fresh Herbs – Why They’re Cheaper Than You Think
What to make? Why, only the most refreshing, summery, brightest drink you’ve ever had. Fresh mint lemonade. An easy fresh lemonade drink complimented with the refreshing flavor of mint.
Serve it on ice, serve it with a splash of sparkling water (it’s a delicious sparkling lemonade recipe), mix it with vodka and make a mint lemonade cocktail. Pack it up in a thermos to keep it cold and take it on a hike. Have it with a picnic. Take it to the beach.
It’s that refreshing.
In about five minutes of active time, and just some waiting time along with it, you can be drinking it too!
Enjoy!
** Also, if you’ve been stocking your freezer with frozen lemon juice like we have, feel free to use it in this recipe! You won’t even notice a difference!
Refreshing Mint Lemonade – Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Refreshing Mint Lemonade – Ingredients
Start with equal parts water and sugar. For 2 glasses of mint lemonade I used 1/2 cup of each. You can easily halve, double or triple this recipe though.
Tip: I used water filtered through our Brita instead of tap water, to avoid a chlorine taste.
Stir water and sugar together in a medium sized pot over medium-high heat. Right before it boils, the sugar should be completely dissolved in the water.
Tip: If you’re not sure you can touch it and rub your finger and thumb together – there should be no graininess.
Remove it from the heat. That’s how easy it is to make a simple syrup!
We’re making mint-infused simple syrup. Give your mint a quick rinse, pull the leaves off (the stems can sometimes be bitter) and stir the leaves into the hot simple syrup.
Cover with the lid of the pot and leave to steep for about 30 minutes – until the liquid has cooled off and absorbed the taste of the mint.
This recipe is flexible – you can work with a little bit of mint or a lot – just adjust steeping time for flavour.
In the meantime, juice your lemon (if you’re using fresh lemons – you could also use frozen lemon juice!). I needed around 1/4 cup of lemon juice, which in my case was the juice of around 2 lemons. It might be more or less, depending on how juicy your lemons are, or how tart you want your lemonade to be.
Tip: Did you know that if you microwave a lemon for 15 seconds before you cut it and juice it will release more juice?
Once your syrup is cool, mix together 1/4 cup lemon juice, 3/4 cup mint simple syrup (or more, or less, to taste) and 1 cup of filtered water. This recipe doubles or triples easily. Chill, or if it’s cool enough, serve over ice.
Enjoy! 🙂
Common Questions/Answers:
How long will this mint lemonade keep in the fridge?
If you strain out any solids (mint leaves and lemon), it should last around a week in the fridge.
What is simple syrup?
Simple syrup is just water and sugar, heated up to dissolve the sugar. It makes a sweetened water. You can also flavour simple syrup with endless other things – like the mint in this recipe. Simple syrup is SUPER easy to make and very useful because it’s hard to dissolve sugar in cold or room temperature liquid (and no one likes a grainy drink!).
Is lemonade good for you/bad for you?
Well, that’s a relative question. It’s not as good for you as drinking pure water (although lemons do contain a lot of vitamin C, which is great). But it’s better for you than a lot of other drinks. If you want to make this recipe healthier you can use less simple syrup, which will result in a less sweet drink but will still be refreshing and delicious!
Did you make this Mint Lemonade? Leave us a star rating below!
Mint Lemonade - The Most Refreshing Drink Ever!
Ingredients
For Simple Syrup
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water (filtered (through a Brita, etc) or bottled)
For Mint Lemonade
- handful fresh mint (this is a flexible recipe, use what you have on hand)
- 1 cup water (filtered)
- 2 lemons (or 1/4 cup frozen lemon juice)*
Instructions
- Whisk 1/2 cup water and sugar together, in a medium sized pot over medium-high heat. Just before it boils, the sugar should be completely dissolved in the water.** Remove it from the heat.
- Rinse mint, pull the leaves off (stems can be bitter) and stir the leaves into the hot simple syrup. Cover with the lid of the pot and leave to steep for about 30 minutes - until the liquid has cooled off and absorbed the taste of the mint.
- In the meantime, juice lemons.***
- Once syrup is cool, mix together 1/4 cup lemon juice, 3/4 cup mint simple syrup (or more, or less, to taste) and 1 cup of filtered water. This recipe doubles or triples easily. Chill, or if it's cool enough, serve over ice. Enjoy! 🙂
Notes
* Also, if you've been stocking your freezer with frozen lemon juice like we have, feel free to use it in this recipe! You won't even notice a difference!
**If you're not sure you can touch it and rub your finger and thumb together - there should be no graininess.
*** Did you know that if you microwave a lemon for 15 seconds before you cut it and juice it it (certainly seems to) release more juice?
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on May 24, 2017.
You might also like:
Leave a Reply