Rosemary, Cinnamon, Honey Lemonade

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Hi dear friends!

This is Filippo from Italy!

I've already talked a lot about my passion for rosemary in one of my first Instructables, and today I'm here with a new recipe for using again my favorite spice!

The good thing about rosemary, it's that its particular flavor can be used in salty or sweet recipes, or even in drinks! This special lemonade is an example.

Inspired by the new #mikehacks contest, I'm going to show you an easy way to create a unique, original lemonade, different from usual drinks!

Let's go.

Step 1: What You Need

The ingredients' list is very simple:

• 5 big lemons (mine are from Puglia, South Italy :D)
  
• 4-5 stems of fresh rosemary
  
• Grinded cinnamon
  
• 1.5 liters (50.70oz) of bottled mineral water
  
• Organic honey

Other tools and equipment:

• A big jar
  
• A squeezer (electric or manual)
  
• Knife, spoon
  
• Pot

As you can see, nothing special!

Let's move on.

Step 2: Juicy!

Start by cutting the lemons in half with a long knife.

Don't scratch your eyes while cutting lemons!!! I've learned it the hard way XD

Then, squeeze all the juice you can with your squeezers.

My beloved Kenwood blender has a special accessory, which transform it in a electric and powerful squeezer. Very useful!

At the end, you should have from 400ml to 600ml of fresh, 100% pure lemon juice!

Pour it in the jar, you can help yourselves with a funnel, like I did.

Step 3: Prepare the Water

The next step consist in boiling the bottled water.

Why, you ask? Two reasons:

• help the melting of honey and cinnamon
  
• extract the essence from the rosemary

So, start by pouring the water in a pot, with a strong fire under it.

When the water is hot (but still not boiling!), add 3 big spoons of organic honey!

If you like your lemonade more sweet, add a 4th spoon.

Mix everything until it's homogeneous.

When the water starts boiling, it's time to add 2-3 stem of rosemary to the mix.

This step is fundamental to add that special flavor to our lemonade!

Boil everything for nothing more than 3 minutes!

We want a drink, not a broth.

Stop the fire and pour a full spoon of cinnamon into the hot water, and then mix everything until you have a light brow mixture.

Wait for the mix to be at room temperature.

Step 4: Mix Your Lemonade

Now, it's time to remove the boiled rosemary.

It look like an algae, now! :D

It's not a good idea leaving a boiled, squishy plant inside a fresh lemonade.

So, we are replacing the cooked one with a new, fresh stem of rosemary, that we can put directly into the jar with lemons juice.

Now, take you mix (be sure it's at room temperature!) and pour it into the jar.

You can always get a help from the funnel! ;)

Stir the drink with a long spoon for a minute or two.

Then, let it rest in the fridge for some hours.

Step 5: Serve and Enjoy!

After some hours of fridge, your special lemonade is ready!

Enjoy this new taste, feel the rosemary in the background and the strong lemons flavor on your tongue!

Refreshing and thirst quenching!

This lemonade has a very strong flavor, due to the high amount of lemon juice.

It's also very healthy, because the only sugar we are putting in is from honey!

Also, you can transform it:

fill a mug with your drink and microwave it for 2 minutes. Now you have a purifying and digestive tea!

I hope you like this recipe, and get the most out of summer!

Like always, from Italy, this is Filippo!

Ciao a tutti! :D