BM #116 : Week 5, Day 4
Theme : Lemonade Stand/Drinks platter
For the last post of this month’s mega marathon, I am here with a mix and match lemonade stand/bar. I wanted to do a drink platter and this seemed to be a good idea where you have a single base recipe (plain lemonade) and then you have options to add your own flavors to it.
There are many ways to implement this idea, but I decided to go with the easiest one. Ever since I made this strawberry mocktail, I have been hooked into Mojito styled drinks. The basic idea is to muddle/crush the fruit of your choice along with a couple of wedges of lemon, few mint leaves and sugar and then top it with water and ice. Here, I have topped it with lemonade and then decided to skip adding sugar since the lemonade already had it. You can always add more according to your preference.
You can also do this by making fruit flavored simple syrups and then keeping it in bottles alongside the lemonade. People can pour the flavor syrup(s) they want and then top it with lemonade or even water and sugar. Or yet another way is to keep fruit purées and just mix it into the lemonade.
This is the last post for the thali series and a farewell summer post is also the perfect way to say farewell to this month long blogging mega marathon!
Read on for the recipes and more pictures.
The lemonade bar has
- Lemonade
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Melon rounds
- Watermelon puree
- Pomegranate seeds
- Mint leaves
- Lemon wedges
- Sugar/Agave (not in the picture)
- Mortar and pestle; glasses to serve
Pick fruit of your choice, few mint leaves and a couple of lemon wedges. Add to the mortar and crush with the pestle. Just 6-8 crushes would do. Not too much to make a purée.
Add this to a glass and top with lemonade. Check sweetness, add more agave for sweetness. It would be easier to dissolve.
The glasses have flavored drinks with
- Blackberry
- Watermelon
- Melon ball
- Blueberry
- Raspberry
I used a melon baller to take out balls from a watermelon and honeydew melon. I also saved the juice coming out of the fruit. The juice is really sweet and makes a good addition to the lemonade.
You can also add aerated drinks for additional flavors, but I personally don’t like it.
For watermelon flavored lemonade, I made a watermelon purée and then added some crushed mint leaves and topped with lemonade.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#116
My Kitchen Trials 
You are finishing the marathon with a bang Rajani. This is such a awesome idea and your presentation is too good. Love that these are so healthy will real fresh fruits.
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Love this, few months back my son and his friends did it in our estate. After seeing your stand, I remember my days as a kid when we use to do such things and make stand. I like that you have made with all fresh fruits. The presentation is simply awesome
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Loved this post, saving it :)
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The lemonade stand is simply superb and I wish this year kids had school so that they can showcase this. Bookmarking it to try some flavors. Only one thing is missing for me here – tea bags. I love lemonade tea. :-)
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What an excellent way to showcase the lemonade stand. Love the setup, mortar pestle, fruits everything. Loved the way with words too – goodbye to summer fruits’ et al..
I need to get a mortar and pestle for chutneys I have different sizes of them but need a bigger size now :)
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Awesome post Rajani, trust you to come up with such a brilliant theme..loved all your posts and enjoyed reading through your cooking process. Was surely a memorable month!
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Believe it or not, the first thing that caught my eye was the mortar and pestle in the first image even before I went through the post and I was wondering why it was placed next to the stand. :) The lemonade stand idea is cool and I like the idea of customizing one’s drink concept.
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Lemonade Stand looks very exotic and the basic concept is very interesting . It’s a great idea to keep everything ready and then just pour the lemonade on top . Make your own lemonade ! Just the way we have – make your own sandwich , or salad or pizza ! Awesome !
Well even I have posted a drinks platter today- but of course that’s another story :)
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