Sparkling Lavender Lemonade Recipe

Lavender and Lemons are two of my favorites so when I came across this recipe i had to share!  I love to make a lavender-lemon soap and now here's a unique twist to classic lemonade.  This recipe and photo is from Kori who blogs at Mountain Rose herbs' blog.  She has other lemonade recipes besides this one.

Lavender Lemonade

Make the lavender syrup…

4 cups water

2 cups sugar

3 Tablespoons organic lavender flowers (I used dried, but you could use fresh lavender)

Bring to a boil over medium high heat until sugar is dissolved.  The consistency will be like a lightly thickened syrup.  Cool. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate and use as needed or for the rest of this recipe.

Make the lemonade base…

Juice 6-8 organic lemons to make 1 ½ cups of juice

Grate 2-3 Tablespoons of lemon zest/rind

1 ½ cup water

1 ½ cup of organic sugar

Heat water and sugar to boil and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add lemon juice and rind.  Cool. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate and use as needed for individual glasses of lemonade (add more water, ice, etc.)

NOW…mix the lavender syrup and lemonade base in a large punch bowl or beverage dispenser.  Add 1 gallon of cold water and 1 bottle of champagne (or you could add club soda or non-alcoholic sparkling cider, or even a little vodka if you’d like).  Stir and add about 4 cups of ice.

Lavender Rose lemonade - yum yum!

    My ingredients - lemons, lavender, rose petals and a teapot
(honey not pictured)

Lemonade is a perenial summer time favorite.  I decided to add a different twist by adding lavender buds and rose petals.  I made this up on the fly but here's what I did.  My friend Virna gave me a lavender and rose tea.  I made a cup and really liked it - it was great as is without any sweetener.  I didn't want to be wasteful so i steeped it twice, and the 2nd steep, i used the lavender rose tea in my lemonade.
So here are my steps:
1. Boil water and add to lavender buds and rose petals to make a lavender-rose infusion/tea.
2. Squeeze the juice of 2 lemons.  Mine were from my friend Glo, actually the lemons were from her brother's tree).  You can use more depending on how much lemonade you want to make.  Mine was for 1 pitcher.
3. Add water to the tea, and then add your lemon juice.  I tasted it as I went along to figure out the right amount of water. 
4. Add sweetener such as honey or agave nectar.  i used honey.  Add it to taste.
Voila!  Pretty simple and fun to drink.  There's a faint lavender smell, and you can taste the rose and lavender in the lemonade.

Drink Up!  It's a litle pink from the lavender and rose petals