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Lavender Limonade

I like to squeeze every drop of WOW out of life, and part of that is by making food that’s fabulous and fun.

 If this libation doesn’t fit the bill, I don’t know what does!

Lavender Limeade has a clean, tart flavor with an intriguing floral note. It’s an unexpected change from lemonade and a delightfully refreshing drink on a hot summer day. Here in Central Florida, that includes a lot of days. It can be served as is, or you can transform it into a cocktail with the addition of vodka or gin. Or, for a lighter alcoholic drink, serve it mimosa style, in a champagne flute, topped off with some champagne or Prosecco.

We start with simple syrup

Simple syrups are wonderful. First of all, they’re simple and take very little time to make. Combine equal amounts of water and sugar in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, stir to make sure that all the sugar is dissolved, and remove it from the heat. From there you can pour it into a jar and keep it in the fridge to always have it on hand.

Using simple syrup to sweeten a cold drink is so much better than stirring in sugar, because as you’ve probably noticed, a fair amount of that sugar ends up undissolved at the bottom of the glass.

But simple syrup doesn’t have to be simple. You can add herbs, such as basil or thyme or sage, or vanilla or rosewater or sesame or almond extract, to name a few possibilities right off the top of my head. Just thinking about them has my mind spinning with creative drink possibilities.

But for this Lavender Limonade, I’ll be making a simple syrup with fragrant lavender flowers.

I love to be surrounded by color. Every color has its own wavelength on the light spectrum, and different wavelengths of light affect us differently, both emotionally and intellectually. The colors I’ve been drawn to during any period of my life have been a reflection of the energy that I needed to bring into my space at that time. But, with that said, I have always had a penchant for purple. And fantasy. And magic.

Introducing the Butterfly Pea flower. I’ve heard that as a tea, it has healing properties, but that’s not what I’m going on about here. It’s all about the color. It doesn’t have much taste, which is good because it doesn’t enter into competition with whatever flavors you want to pair it with.

When the dried flowers are steeped in hot water, the water turns a magnificent blue.

And here’s the magic—add some acid, as in lemon, lime, or both—and blue blossoms into paradisiac purple!

So! We’ll make our simple syrup with lavender for flavor and with butterfly pea flower for color.

We’ll add the syrup to iced water and fill the glasses half-way.

We’ll make a lemonade/limeade blend, concentrated so that it will be just right when added to our sweet, blue, lavender flavored water. We’ll pour that concentrate into the glasses in front of the group, and we’ll

watch for the smiles as the transformation unfolds.

Perfect for Shavuot, when we celebrate our receiving the Torah that transformed us, the children of Israel, and all humankind.

Ingredients:

For the simple syrup

• ¾ cup granulated sugar

• ¾ cup water

• 1 tablespoon lavender flowers

Combine the sugar, lavender flowers, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring, to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat let steep for 20 minutes. Strain and chill the syrup. It stays fresh in the fridge for a long time.

For the butterfly pea elixer

• ¼ cup butterfly pea flowers

• 1 cup water

Make a tea by steeping the butterfly pea flowers in hot water. When it’s cool, strain out the flowers. This will last indefinitely in a jar in the fridge.

For the limeade

• ½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

• ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

• ¾ cup lavender simple syrup

• 3 cups ice cold water

• 2 tablespoons butterfly pea flower elixer

Method:

• In a pitcher, stir together the lime juice, the lemon juice, the lavender simple syrup, and the ice water. Taste it with a spoon and adjust to your liking—more syrup if you want it sweeter, more citrus if you want it stronger, more water if you’d like it to be less strong.

• Fill glasses half way with ice. Pour the lavender limonade over the ice and, in front of your guests, gently spoon the butterfly pea flower elixer over the top.

• Watch the colors change!

Bottoms up!