We’ve all heard of strawberry lemonade. But that’s so twenty years ago! Summer is on its way so let’s get creative with this favorite deck-sitting drink (you can add vodka or rum to any of these to make an adult version).

1. Start with your basic lemonade. You can make it fresh-squeezed with sugar or honey or use Minute Maid. We don’t judge. (Truly, we have Minute Maid in the house.) If you want to get fancy, add lime juice.
2. Make it strong if you want to add sparkling water at the end. Don’t add sparkling water before you’re done mixing or you’ll knock all the sparkle right out of it.
3. Pick a flavor
1. Ginger-cranberry – Add an inch or so of ginger root and a handful of frozen cranberries to your blender with your lemonade. Blend well. If you can leave it sit overnight, you’ll get even more flavor. I usually drink it with pulp in it because I like the extra flavor. But if you don’t like pulp, strain over ice.
2. Mint – This works best with fresh mint and little time. Clip and rinse a few sprigs of mint, more if you’re making a big batch. Soak the mint in the lemonade overnight. Pull the sprigs out. Serve over ice. Don’t have time to wait, blend or shake well and strain.
3. Pomegranate – The hardest part of this is getting the pomegranate open. Throw a handful of arils (the seeds) in the blender and blend. Strain if you don’t care for the grit. Serve over ice with a few arils to make it pretty.
4. Basil – Same as the mint but with basil. You can make it slushy by using crushed ice or putting it in the freezer for a little while. Just don’t let it freeze solid!
5. Jalapeño – Yep this is a thing and it’s actually REALLY good! Just be careful. It can get spicy really fast and the spice sneaks up on you. There are a couple of options – add fresh jaalapeños and lemonade to the blender and strain or soak them in the lemonade overnight. Or, get fancy and simmer the jalapenos in sugar water to make a spicy simple syrup. No matter how you do it, this will put hair on your chest!
6. Fruit of your choice – any fruit can be used to make your lemonade more interesting. Blueberries, pineapple, mango, berries – whatever you like. Toss it in there. You can’t really go wrong.
7. Fruit tea – The Arnold Palmer with a twist. Starbucks has passionfruit tea lemonade. You can certainly make any blend you like. Take whatever fruity tea you have in the house and mix it half and half with lemonade. You never know, you might discover the next “in” drink!
8. Mix and match any of the above – Be brave. Ginger-mint would likely be really good. I don’t know that I’m brave enough to try ginger-jalapeño. But if you are, I want to hear about it!
4. Add sparkling water if you like bubbles, give it a gentle stir and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite way to drink lemonade? Send us an email and let us know.

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