Cherry lemonade

Easy recipe for homemade cherry lemonade with fresh cherries and lemon juice, perfect summer drink. I prefer to use dark/black cherries (or morello cherries) for this lemonade, but red cherries are fine too. Just bear in mind that different types of cherries will produce different flavours.

Cherries are great summer flavour and I love making them into cherry sorbet, brownies or overnight breakfast oats.

INGREDIENTS

• sugar
• cherries
• lemon juice
• water
• ice cubes
• fresh mint leaves to decorate

Two different ways of making cherry lemonade

Option 1 – Boiling cherries first

• Boil the cherries first with water to soften them
• Dissolve the sugar in the hot cherry sirup
• Strain the cherries

Option 2 – Using fresh cherries

• Dissolve the sugar first in hot water
• Blend the fresh cherries (uncooked) in a blender
• Strain the cherries
• Add all the ingredients together

INSTRUCTIONS

• Place the cherries in a medium size saucepan and add about a cup of water (or more to make sure the cherries are submerged in the water)
• Bring to the boil and then let simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the cherries soften.
• Add the sugar and carry on heating on a very low heat, allowing the sugar to dissolve (but not boiling the mixture at this stage). This might take about 3-5 minutes.
• If the cherries are soft and falling appart themselves, just pour the mixture through a fine sieve. Alternatively you can also whisk the cherry mixture in a blender or a food processor.
• Making sure that you get as much flavour as possible, push the cherries into the sieve to get as much of the liquid out as possible.
• Depending on the sourness of the cherries, add half of the lemon juice cup and a cup of water. Taste and add more lemon juice and more water depending on the taste.
• Pour into glasses and add ice cubes and garnishes to serve.

Flavour ideas

There is plenty of flavour in this homemade cherry lemonade recipe, but if you wanted to add an extra dimension, here are my favourite ingredients to add.

• Rose extract – add a bit of rose extract to the cherry lemonade
• Lavender extract – add a bit of lavender extract to the cherry lemonade
• Aniseed spice – add 1 teaspoon of ground aniseed spice to the lemonade mix
• Rum – add 1-2 teaspoons per glass/person
• Rosemary – infuse 1-2 medium sized rosemary twigs with the cherry mixture or water, but take it out before you blend the mixture