Not too sweet and with a good strong berry flavour, this strawberry mint lemonade couldn’t be easier – it’s blended, rather than using a cooked syrup base – and sweetened with honey. With a subtle mint taste and a little boost from using honey rather than bland white sugar, it’s a fabulous summer drink and keeps for a few days. Use fresh or frozen strawberries.

For more summery strawberry drinks, try our everyday strawberry smoothie or strawberry milk, make a refreshing strawberry slush with lime (or lemon), or add melon later in the summer for a hydrating strawberry watermelon smoothie.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Strawberries: use frozen strawberries for an instantly chilled drink with no need to add ice. Fresh strawberries are, of course, excellent, but you might want to add ice or use very cold water then.
• Lemons: fresh lemons will taste best, but a good jarred lemon juice will work too.
• Honey: I prefer a lighter-tasting creamed honey here, like organic canola or blossom honey. You could sub another liquid sweetener.
• Mint: use spearmint for a lighter mint taste, or peppermint if you want a stronger, sharper flavour. I haven’t tried substituting anything for fresh mint.
• Sparkling water: this is optional and you can top with tap water instead. If using still water, you could add it right to the blender from the beginning.

Step by Step

Step 1: add all of the ingredients but the sparkling water to a blender.

Step 2: mix on high speed until very well combined, then serve, topped with more water.

Recipe Notes

Blending like this rather than making a honey mint syrup is not only easier, but it imparts a fresher, brighter flavour as well. Steeping the mint made for a slightly musky taste that doesn’t suit the drink as well.

This is a base, and you can use as much or little as you like in a glass with more water. I usually divide between six glasses and top with an extra litre (4 cups) of water, so you end up with about 1.5 litres (6 cups) of lemonade.

How to Store

Storage: you can keep the lemonade base in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, using as needed.

Freezing: you could freeze the base (without added sparkling water) in an airtight container for a month or two, but it takes so little time to make, I don’t think this is worth it. The mix – with an added 500ml (2 cups) of water – makes very good ice pops.

Expert Tips

• Sweeten to taste: adjust the amount of honey to suit you. You might want to use less if you have really nice ripe fruit, or a little more if they’re not that sweet.
• Use ripe berries: ripe strawberries will add a lot of natural sweetness. If using fresh berries, you can check this more easily, but good frozen berries will also be ripe.

More Honey Lemonade Recipes

Elderflower Lemonade
Fresh Mint Lemonade
Single Serving Lemonade
Lilac Lemonade