Pink Lemonade & Lemon Iced Tea

I haven’t been having the greatest of time since the last 2 weeks…wish I could turn back time and go back…but well… I am no Einstein, so can’t do anything about that… It’s better to do things that I do best and that can comfort me rather than moping over things that I can’t control or change. Whenever I am in a ‘not so great’ mood I tend to go back to my happy memories, little things that make me happy…  Like enjoying summer…

It may sound crazy, how could anyone possibly enjoy this crazy heat?? But trust me there is nothing that I enjoyed more, than summers as a kid.  The sheer joy of experiencing the freedom and happiness that summer holidays brought with it each year is still un-paralleled. For me and my brother it meant even more, it used to be the best 2 months of the year because this was the time that we got to be with our parents (as kids me and my brother stayed with our maternal grandparents, as Dad was in a job that required moving way too frequently and our parents didn’t want to put us through uprooting ourselves every few months from one place and moving on to another which would’ve affected our studies as well)

I have the fondest memories of me and V (my brother) raiding the kitchen as soon as Mom n Dad would go off for their afternoon nap. We would make ourselves Nimbu Pani (Lemonade), pour mango shake into the ice tray and make ourselves some mango icicles, Roof afza shake, iced tea....those endless kitchen experiments were such fun for us. We used to sit with the chilled glasses of Nimbu pani and Mango icicles right in front of the large noisy desert cooler and watch cartoon movies the entire afternoon.

Yes, those were my summer afternoons and to this day the loud creaky fan running at full speed, the sight and smell of mangoes, the touch of a chilled glass of Nimbu Pani in the sweltering heat brings back those precious memories and makes me Happy!! J

So I made myself a nice big Jug of improvised Nimbu Pani..the Pink Lemonade. The addition on Raspberries just makes this perfect summer drink a little more ‘perfecter’ J the raspberries lend their amazing flavour to this already delicious drink and also gives it the prettiest pink hue!! J

Recipe       

    

There is no real recipe for neither the Lemonade nor the Iced Tea, you can pretty much adjust all ingredients as per your preference.

And btw here is what R doodled for me, aren’t these cute! J

Ingredients for Pink Lemonade:

Juice of 4 Lemons

2 Litres of water

10-12 Raspberries

4-5 tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

Ice Cubes

Mint Leaves

Method:

1) Put all the ingredients except in the water, stir it well to dissolve the sugar.

2) Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs for the raspberries to lend their lovely flavour and colour to the lemonade

3) Serve in a glass filled with ice

Ingredients for the lemon Iced Tea:

3 tspn Tea Leaves

4-5 tbsp Sugar

2 Litres of water

Juice of 2-3 Lemons

Mint Leaves

Ice Cubes

Method:

  1)     Boil the water along with the sugar. Remove it from the burner and add the tea leaves. Leave it to steep for about a minute and then strain it into a jug. Leave it to cool off.

  2)    Once it’s cool, add the lemon juice and mint. Refrigerate for at least ½ an hour and then serve with ice cubes.