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Ahhhhh summer. In my opinion, summer is when all the living happens. You’ve got your warm weather, the perfect breeze, barbecues, and, of course, drinks like this:
Growing up, I can remember countless happy days spent on summer vacation where I was free from prison (aka the public school system) and off traveling the world with my family or getting sand and salt in my hair at the beach with friends.
My grandparents have a timeshare in Hawaii and all my extended family would fly over to Maui and spend a week eating countless burgers and swimming for hours at a time in pools with waterslides and built-in waterfalls.
It was glorious.
It’s been a few years since we’ve all gone to Hawaii together, but in a short couple of weeks I’ll be heading over to the big island with my boyfriend and his family to get some sun and relaxation. I guess you could say I have the tropics on my mind and I’m feeling juuust a bit antsy to go.
To curb some of my antsy-ness and get a head start on my relaxing (you’ve got to ease into it slowly so you don’t overload your system) I created the perfect summer drink: Sparkling Blueberry Mint Lemonade.
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I kid you not, one sip of this and you’ll be in absolute heaven. There’s just so much goodness packed into one glass (or a mason jar, if you’re feelin’ fancy) and the simple and delicious ingredients really shine through to make a gorgeous drink with all-natural coloring and the perfect balanced flavoring.
You’ve got your base of freshly squeezed lemonade, blueberries which lend a great twist to the drink, and just the slightest hint of mint. Mhmm, the mint, you guys. The tangyness and coolness just get me every time.
Oh, and for an extra kick, I decided to spiff up the base by adding in club soda to take the drink to the next level. Because, you know, bubbles are fun. And, if you’d like, throwing in a bit of vodka or tequila would make things even more fun. Wink wink.
I’m usually not a very artsy person when it comes to displaying food. Usually if I’m just cooking for myself, you can find me perpetually standing above the stovetop picking at whatever is cooking.
It’s a bad habit, but by the time the actual meal is fully ready, I’ve already eaten half of what was meant to go on my plate. Apparently my free-time lends itself to me making more hipster drinks, though, because I spent a good hour and a half in a craft store picking through different colors of paper straws and obsessing over mason jars.
This drink deserves all the primping it can get, though, so that $11 I spent on a new jar, burlap fabric, and straws was put to good use.
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So let me tell you a little bit more about how this current summer is looking for me. As of yesterday I’ve finished one out of the two summer classes I’m taking at my college which leaves me with only six hours of school a week for my organic chemistry lab on Mondays and Tuesdays.
That means my weekend starts at… 5 o’clock every Tuesday evening. Not too bad, right? It suites me just fine.
I plan on filling my time catching up with blog work and creating new recipes, trying (usually unsuccessfully) to get myself to go on a run, exploring new restaurants, and sitting outside in the sunshine with a good drink in my hand.
And by good drink, I mean something with a little lemon, a little blueberry, and a little mint to it. Sound familiar?
OH YEA. Hello, beautiful.
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
- 1 cup blueberries
- ¼ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 cup club soda
- Heat together the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Let cool.
- Add in the lemon juice, blueberries, and mint leaves and let steep for 30 minutes.
- Press the mixture through a fine sieve to get out most of the solids. Add the club soda and serve over ice.
- If desired, garnish with some of the strained blueberries and extra mint.