It’s that time of year again when I can’t have too many cold icy drinks! Iced passion tea and iced caffe americanos are a couple of my favorite, but if you’re looking for something truly energizing and refreshing – nothing beats this Ginger Mint Lemonade. Not only does it taste delicious, but it also has some health benefits! Fresh lemon juice is full of vitamins and nutrients. Plus ginger has a long history of use for relieving digestive problems such as nausea, loss of appetite, and motion sickness; and mint soothes stomachs in cases of indigestion or inflammation. Once you taste this, you’ll never go back to boring normal lemonade 😉

I came up with this recipe when we were swamped with hundreds of lemons (literally) and needed to use them up in some creative ways. We juiced and juiced and juiced them with a Kitchen Aid Mixer Citrus Juicing Attachment, then filled freezer storage bags with the juice, labeled, and froze them flat. So today all I had to do was grab a bag of frozen lemon juice to defrost, and instantly I had fresh-squeezed lemon juice!

All you need is 4 simple and inexpensive ingredients to make 1 gallon:

2 cups lemon juice (I highly recommend using fresh-squeezed lemon juice for the best flavor !!, but if that’s not available bottled juice will still work.)

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup fresh chopped mint

1/3 cup fresh chopped ginger

Start out by chopping your mint, chopping your ginger, and slicing a few lemon rounds for garnish.

Set those aside.

Get your 2 cups of lemon juice . . .

and your 2 cups of sugar measured out.

Put the chopped mint, chopped ginger, and sugar into a 4 cup measuring cup and stir. Pour the lemon juice over the top and stir again.

Microwave the mixture until it starts to boil. Remove and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.

While that’s in the microwave, fill a gallon pitcher halfway with ice cubes.

Now get the mixture out of the microwave and pour it into a french press. (If you don’t have a french press, you can use a strainer, but the french press really intensifies the flavor!!) Slowly press down and you’ll have a perfectly strained, highly-flavored syrup. Pour that syrup into the pitcher of ice cubes, and fill the rest of the pitcher with cold water (all the way up to the 1 gallon line.)

Now it’s time to head outside for some sun and refresh yourself with this awesome drink! I promise, it is SO delicious. Btw – This was the first time I used the french press, and I was very pleased with the result. In the past I would leave the mixture to steep for a couple hours, sometimes even overnight. But with the french press, I was able make this lemonade in a grand total of 10 minutes. 🙂

My brother Nathan has an amazing leather shop, and he let me use his sturdy jar sleeve for this picture, one of several great products in his shop, Gruffwood Studios.

Ginger Mint Lemonade

Yield: 1

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Ingredients

• 2 cups lemon juice
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup fresh chopped mint
• 1/3 cup fresh chopped ginger
• water
• ice

Instructions

1. Combine mint, ginger, sugar, and lemon juice in a large microwaveable measuring cup.
2. Microwave until mixture boils (about 5 minutes).
3. While mixture is microwaving, fill a 1 gallon pitcher halfway with ice cubes.
4. Remove mixture from microwave and strain or french press.
5. Pour mixture into pitcher of ice cubes.
6. Add water until it reaches the 1 gallon line.
7. Stir and enjoy!
8. (Garnish with fresh mint sprigs and lemon rounds if desired.)