Summer’s here, and it’s brought the heat! There’s nothing like a cool, refreshing summer drink to help cool you down when it’s time for fun under the sun or after a long day’s work. If you are looking for recipes and inspiration for your next favorite hydrating summer drink, you’ve come to the right place.
You might lose a lot of water throughout the day, depending on how intense the heat is where you live. That’s why a drink that increases your hydration levels and is filled with antioxidants, minerals, and flavor from exotic fruits would be just the pick-me-up you need. Here are three easy recipes for energizing summer drinks.
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Coconut Water Yuzu Lemonade
Ingredients
4 cups canned coconut water
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 Yuzu limes
3 tablespoons sugar
2 lemons
2 cups ice
Mint leaves for garnishing
Salt
Method
- Slice the lemons and yuzu limes in half with a knife and deseed them. Then, squeeze their juice into a cup and set aside.
- In a large pitcher, pour the coconut water, sugar, lemon, and yuzu juice, as well as the pinch of salt, and mix until combined.
- Chill the drink in the fridge. Add ice to the pitcher and mint leaves to garnish the drink before serving.
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Passion Fruit Bubbly
Ingredients
8 to 10 passion fruits
4 and 1/2 cups sparkling water
2 large lemons
4 and a half tablespoons of sugar
2 cups ice
Mint leaves for muddling
Method
- Slice the passion fruits in half and spoon out the seeds into a bowl. Then, strain the juice to separate it from the seeds. Set it aside.
- Slice the lemons and squeeze the juice into a bowl, then set aside.
- Divide the strained passion fruit juice and lemon juice into five separate glasses. Then, similarly divide the sugar into the five glasses and add some mint leaves to each glass.
- Using a muddler, crush and combine the ingredients until they are somewhat combined and the sugar has dissolved in the lemon and passion fruit juice.
- Top up the glasses with sparkling water and add ice to serve. You can also garnish each glass with a little mint sprig. If you like your drinks sweeter and less bubbly, add a mixture of water and sparkling water instead of sparkling water alone.
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Mint Watermelon Cooler
Ingredients
8 cups cubed watermelon
Mint-infused simple syrup to taste
2 large lemons, juiced
Ginger, juiced to taste
Sparkling water
Method
- Slice and cube the watermelon and toss it into a high-speed blender. Blend it until all the pieces have broken down, and it becomes a smooth liquid.
- Take a cheesecloth and use it to strain the watermelon juice of any pulp into a pitcher. This is an optional step, but it ensures a nicer experience. You can skip it if you want.
- Add the ginger juice, lemon juice, and mint-infused simple syrup to the watermelon juice and mix. Taste it and add as much sparkling water as you want to make it bubbly and balance the additional sweetness of the syrup.