Summer in a cup

Guest Post & Recipe Round-up

I just found out that it’s drink week. Late to the party as usual.

Well, luckily I met Stephanie at the last ATXSwappers event. She brought a little pitcher to my house, where we held the swap, and proceeded to pour the most delicious fizzy concoction out of it and into my cup. I immediately asked her to share it with us here; thankfully she agreed.

Welcome fellow Austinite, Stephanie, to the HGGH guest blogger fold and cheers to drink week!

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For those of you who live in Austin (and for those who don’t, you’ve probably heard), the last few weeks have been akin to living on the surface of the sun. The summer heat here in Texas can be pretty oppressive and practically demands an influx of cool, refreshing summer beverages.

I’ve always preferred limeade over lemonade, and after tasting a delicious basil limeade awhile ago at the Austin Farmers Market I started to do a little experimenting of my own. The recipe is pretty simple and only uses three ingredients: fresh lime juice, a basic basil simple syrup and mineral water to give it a fizzy kick. If you like your summer drinks with a little more libation, you could always add a bit of vodka or gin. If you have berries to use up, maybe muddle some blackberries in your glass before pouring in the fizzy drink. 

Enjoy!

Basil Lime Fizz

Combine the following ingredients in pitcher and serve immediately over ice:

• 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 cup basil simple syrup*
• 1 liter sparkling mineral water (Topo Chico, Pellegrino, La Croix, etc.)

*Prepare the basil simple syrup in advance (see recipe below)

Basil Simple Syrup
1. Place the following ingredients in a saucepan and heat on medium heat:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups basil, chopped

2. Bring the mixture to a boil until the sugar dissolves (it only takes a few minutes). 

3. Remove the mixture from heat and let stand for 30 minutes to let all the basil flavors seep into the sugar mixture. 

4. Pour mixture through a sieve/strainer lined with dampened cheesecloth to remove all the basil and then pour it into a container with an airtight lid.  Chill in the refrigerator; the simple syrup will keep for 3-4 weeks.

Other Fun Beverage Ideas to Try

• Use that basil simple syrup you just made like Autumn did, in Basil Juleps

• Kaela’s Rhubarbaritas

• Emily’s round-up of tarragon-infused drinks, yumm
  

• Meg’s Pomegranate Lemon Cocktail (with fancy ice!)

• Marisa’s Drink Week, Day 4 suggestion to make a sour cherry sangria, um, yes please!

• Julia’s alcohol-free fanciness, Bitters Syrup

Comments

[Jennifer]

Just coming off a cocktail class, I have lots of infused syrups in the fridge, including basil Is it okay to drink a Basil Lime Fizz at 8:15am?

[Kate]

Perfectly acceptable, maybe sans added libation, though? :)

[Julia]

Yay for drink week! Waiting for my little basil plants to grow up already!

[Camille]

Delicious! I just made it this afternoon, using 1/3 cup agave instead of sugar in the simple syrup. So refreshing. Will probably add more (1/2 cup?) next time just to make it a little sweeter. Thanks for posting!

[Kate]

That's great news, Camille! Thanks for sharing your agave version and results with us.

[Giselle]

Wonder if I could substitute the basil for fresh mint leaves??? What do you think??

[Kate]

Giselle, I think you could surely do a mint and lime fizzy drink by subbing mint for the basil. Let us know how that goes!