and the zest on a lemon says "mmmm, yes"

[rmd]

so, it's been hot and i've been grooving on lemonade. my recent discovery is that "oj from concentrate":"real oj squeezed out of oranges"::"lemonade from concentrate (or worse)":"real lemonade from fresh lemon juice". holy crap, the flavor is so much brighter and bigger. so, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup (instead of sugar so you don't get that grainy texture), and water to dilute to taste. *awesome*

since this evening was pleasantly NOT INSANELY HOT, i was finally able, inspired by this ask.metafilter comment, to try making simple syrup and threw in a bunch of lemon zest. lemony goodness. tomorrow, i think i'll squeeze some lemons and make extra-lemony lemonade with the lemon-flavored syrup.

Comments

[kjc.livejournal.com]

For bonus tastiness, strawberry-lemonade from scratch is also spectacular.

[mietteloaf.livejournal.com]

You can do simple syrup in the microwave. No reason to wait until it's cool enough to turn the stove on.

!!!!!!!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

brilliant!

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

I made a raspberry lemonade from fresh picked raspberries that was simply the best drink ever in the world.

[cutieperson]

ooh, lemon simple syrup is Smart. i have some buddha's hand simple syrup in the fridge from the last time i candied some. which was forever ago.

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

1) Yum.
2) Suggestions:

• a) Fizzy water
• b) Lime juice variant

[dfjdejulio.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to experiment with lemonade using carbonated water from my sodastream thingy, basically doing what you describe but substituting homemade seltzer where you use water.

I *really* want to try it with Sorento lemons at some point. They're the kind used in Limoncello. Allegedly, some nutritional deficit in the regional soil prevents lemons from developing all of their normal sourness, and so people find much more concentrated mixes more pleasant than they would with other lemons.

I remember making a lemon syrup for ... some kind of strange-grain pancake I made years ago, can't remember the *exact* flavor, maybe it was buckwheat? Anyhow the pancake batter was brown, and the syrup was this lemony-creamy stuff (like pourable lemon curd). That was YUMMY, that was.