How To Make Red Currant Sparkling Lemonade

When I was a child, I used help pick the red currants off either my parents or my grand parents red currant shrubs. Then, we would go inside and make something delicious to eat with the red currants such as rødgrød med fløde.

This Red Currant Sparkling Lemonade combines all things summer time delicious. My recipe below is a quick way to make a homemade lemonade and add red currant juice to kick the lemonade up a notch. Plus, adding the sparkling water is as if you are creating your own homemade soda.
First Step: Make the simple syrup
Ingredients:

2 cups of water
2 cups of sugar
tablespoon of lemon zest (optional)

Kitchen Tools:

heavy pot
measuring cup
spoon

Directions:
Make the simple syrup by boiling the 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar in a heavy pot. When the the sugar water starts to boil, mix it until the sugar is dissolved. Add lemon zest to the sugar water (optional). Set the syrup aside to cool down.


Cooking Tip: Make sure your pitcher holds 10 cups of water. If your pitcher is smaller, you may want to reduce the quantities.

Second Step: Make the red currant juice
Ingredients:

1 cup of red currants
1/2 cup of sugar


Kitchen Tools:

2 bowls
fork
mesh strainer

Directions:
Sprinkle a 1/2 cup of sugar over a cup of red currants and mix it around in a bowl. Then, set aside the red currants with sugar in the refrigerator for about an hour.

An hour later, start pressing a fork on to the red currants. Keep pressing until juice are pressed out of all the currants. Once there is no more to press, pour the red currant mixture onto a mesh strainer. You will need to move the red currants mixture around until there is no more red currant juice running through the mesh strainer.

Cooking Tip: A colander with big holes won't work. A cheesecloth is another helpful way to strain the syrup too. Otherwise, you might have to strain it a couple of times.
Final Step: combine the ingredients to make the red currant lemonade.
Ingredients

fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
sparkling water, soda water or water
red currant juice
simple syrup
slices of lemons
plenty of ice
one cup of fresh red currants

Kitchen Tools:

glass pitcher that holds 10 cups of water
spoon
cutting board
knife

Directions:

Mix simple syrup, red currant juice and fresh squeezed lemon juice in the glass pitcher. Fill the rest of the glass pitcher with sparkling water.

Slice fresh slices of lemons on a cutting board. Clean the fresh red currants.

Add ice cubes, sliced lemons and one cup of red currants. This layered colorful look is gorgeous to look at. Stir the mixture.

Fun Drink ideas:

add either fresh raspberries or strawberries into the lemonade too
garnish the glass pitcher with a sliced lemon and a sprig of mint
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