HappyCook80's Recipe

Peppermint Lemonade

Category: Recipes

Peppermint Lemonade

1 cup fresh peppermint
juice of 4 lemons
peel of 1 lemon, thinly sliced
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 gallon water

In a saucepan, combine sugar with 2 cups water. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly until sugar is completely dissolved forming simple syrup. Allow syrup to cool to room temperature.

Fill gallon jar with hot tap water. Allow jar to become very hot to touch, then discard water.

Immediately put mint into jar and screw lid on. Place jar into refrigerator. Allow jar to cool completely to temperature inside refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator and take the lid off.

There will be a hiss as you remove the lid, due to partial vacuum created when the jar cooled, extracting all flavorful oils from mint.
Pour lemon juice and simple syrup into jar. Add lemon peel.

Shake jar vigorously, then fill to top with water. Replace lid and allow to mature overnight before serving.

Note: if you'd like an alcholic version, you can add a couple cups of your favorite vodka, rum, or gin to this, or add it to individual glasses as you serve.
Yields 1 gallon.