Nothing brightens up a dreary winter day than a bright summery drink – like this cranberry lemonade. It tastes just like a sweet tart candy, if you like that kind of thing. I certainly do!
About This Recipe
I actually came up with this recipe by way of a happy accident. For Christmas this year, I decided to make the family a festive cocktail to have prior to dinner, and found a fabulous-looking cranberry mojito recipe on the blog Nutmeg Nanny. It was chock full of red cranberries and green mint, making it the perfect Christmas colors. But I misread the recipe. I thought the ingredients listed were for one drink, so I quadrupled it for the number of guests I would be having over. Part of the recipe calls for making a cranberry simple syrup, using eight ounces of cranberries. So, I took that times four for 32 ounces of cranberries. That seemed like a lot of cranberries, but I proceeded anyway. I ended up with about a half gallon of simple syrup.
Then as I continued reading the recipe and got to the part where it called for adding the simple syrup to the drink, it only asked for two ounces per drink! What was I going to do with the cranberry syrup I had left? There was no way we could drink that many mojitos without incurring a serious hangover, so after one (or two) drinks each, I stashed the remaining pitcher of syrup in the refrigerator. The next day I came up with this non-alcoholic cranberry lemonade. You could, of course, also add some rum or vodka to kick it up a notch.
The Cast of Characters
There are only five ingredients in this recipe: the cranberry simple syrup, lemon juice, lemon-lime soda, a wedge of lemon, and cranberries for garnish. You can find the recipe for the cranberry simple syrup on Nutmeg Nanny’s cranberry mojito post.
The Step-by-Step
Start by putting about an 1/8 of a cup of lemon juice in the bottom of your favorite drinking glass.
Fill the glass about 3/4 full with crushed ice, and add 1/4 cup of the cranberry syrup.
Fill the glass with lemon-lime soda.
Squeeze a bit of fresh lemon on top.
Stir with a straw.
Garnish with fresh lemon and cranberries.
Enjoy!
Glad to see you put to use all that left over syrup. The Cranberry Mojitos were so festive looking and great to drink!! I am sure the Cranberry Lemonade is just as good. Steve and I enjoyed spending Christmas day with you and Ken and your Dad. Food and drinks were wonderful!! The left overs are all devoured and most of the cookies will be gone by this weekend. Have a safe and Happy New Years celebration with Kelly and Mike.
Looking forward to cooking classes at Living History Farms. I looked up on line and looks like more have signed up for our classes. The more people there are the more fun it is to share stories and ideas!!!
Now that I found a use for the syrup, now I have to find ways to use up all the cranberries I used to make the syrup :). So far I have made cranberry quick bread, cranberry turkey sandwiches and cranberry crepes, and still have a long way to go. I found a recipe for cranberry meringue pie in the cookbook you gave me at Christmas that I am thinking of trying for New Year’s Eve. Thanks again for the book. There are so many great recipes in there I can’t wait to try!