4 Delicious Summer Drinks

I love making (and trying) new, refreshing drinks — especially if it’s some kind of lemonade! With the weather quickly heating up, I’ve collected some delicious beverages to hydrate and enjoy.

This Watermelon-Strawberry Frozen Margarita from Heather Christo is a perfect drink for sipping and sunning by the pool. (It’s the only alcoholic beverage in our quartet today and would still be yummy by omitting the tequila and reducing the sugar.)

On Saturday I brewed a quart of hibiscus tea — one tea bag per cup of hot water, let it steep for five minutes, cooled it to room temperature and put it in the fridge to chill overnight.

On Sunday we drove to pick up 25 lbs. of fresh Georgia peaches (from The Peach Truck) and stopped by the Raising Cane’s drive-thru for a gallon jug of their sweet lemonade.

When we got home I mixed up a “tropical Arnold Palmer” also known as hibiscus lemonade. I added ice cubes to a glass then poured lemonade over the ice until the glass was about half full. I poured chilled hibiscus tea into the lemonade, and squeezed the juice from one, small fresh lemon over that.

The tea “sat” on top of the lemonade until I mixed it together as you can see in the photo above! It is very refreshing and you can control the sweetness by adding more or less fresh lemon juice.

I had my first taste of blackberry lemonade at a local restaurant Mesero. With the aforementioned gallon jug of lemonade on hand, and some fresh blackberries from my last Imperfect Foods delivery, I set out to make some at home.

I puréed six ounces of blackberries and removed the seeds using a fine wire mesh strainer. The now seedless blackberry liquid measured exactly 100 milliliters (or about 1/3 cup.)

I poured the purée into a quart measuring cup and added lemonade until the mixture reached the 4 cup mark. I gave it a good stir and served it over ice with a lemon slice.

These were tart blackberries so no extra lemon juice was needed. If your blackberries are sweeter, add some fresh lemon juice to balance the flavor.

I used Raising Cane’s lemonade in the two previous beverages but at home I usually make lemonade from scratch. My go-to lemonade recipe is this one from The Spruce Eats.

What fruit drink is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

Love and lemonade,

K