Sumac Lavender Lemonade
some flirting on your taste buds for the summer
A little floral, a little tart, yet still shining in glorious citrus. I’ve always loved lavender with lemonade and dreamed this up after trying sumac for the first time. This is a basic lemonade recipe, just with two different flavors that can go together or can be used separately, whatever your heart desires! Most importantly, it’s imperative to learn how to make a simple syrup, one of the easiest ways to liven up coffee, tea, mixed drinks, yogurt, and truly anything that you can add a flavor to. It’s also a great way to use up extra herbs you may have on hand rather than letting them go to waste. I hope this lemonade lights up your summer in any way it can!
Makes one pitcher or about eight 8 oz glasses of juice
Prep and Cook Time: 30 min
Chill time: About 12 hours
Ingredients
2 lbs of lemons (about 8 large lemons) or 1 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup culinary lavender
2 tablespoons sumac
8 cups of water
2 cups of granulated sugar
Ice!!!!
Equipment
juicer of choice
cheese cloth
sieve
a few jars
standard size pitcher
small sauce pan
Method
Juice your lemons! You need a total of 1 cup of lemon juice. I used a hand citrus press and squeezed it into a Mason Jar because since there are measurements listed on the side and you will know when you’ve hit 1 cup. Plus jars can be closed and put in the fridge for later if you can’t make everything at once.
Put your lemon juice in the fridge to chill while you make your syrups.
Put 1 cup of water, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup of culinary lavender in a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn heat down to medium low and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Pour syrup into a jar, cup, mug, or whatever will be heat tolerant using a sieve to filter out the full pieces of lavender. Set aside.
Either clean your current sauce pan or find a clean one to make the sumac syrup.
Put 1 cup of water, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of dried ground sumac into saucepan and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn heat down to medium low and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Cover another jar, cup, mug, etc. with a cheese cloth. Pour syrup into the receptacle very slowly, taking frequent pauses to allow the syrup to seep through the cloth. Set syrup aside.
Time to get out your pitcher! It’s really up to you what order you pour in your ingredients, but I did the sugar first so that it would mix with the other ingredients as I added them in. Measure out 1/2 cup of each syrup and pour both into the pitcher. Next pour in your cup of lemon juice. Whisk these two together very well. Finally, add 6 cups of cold water. Whisk together for a solid minute or two until everything is combined.
Add as much ice as you want, keeping in mind that it will gradually water the lemonade down, so don’t add too much!
Refrigerate overnight for a perfectly cold glass. To get the full flavor, make sure to whisk before serving as some of the sugar will inevitably float to the bottom of the pitcher.
Pour yourself a cold one or mix with the alcohols of your choice and enjoy!
You can refrigerate the rest of your syrups and use them for about a week afterwards. I highly recommend lavender for your iced coffee and both for iced teas.