It’s spring here in Winnipeg but it really doesn’t seem like it. Time to start acting like it is with this refreshing sparkling lavender lemonade recipe! Perfect for brunch, Mother’s Day, by the glass by yourself or in a pitcher for a crowd.

Making drink syrups

I learned to make drink syrups when I took a Mocktails Workshop at Pineridge Hollow with Getty Stewart. Getty is a master of all things gardening and using seasonal ingredients. She took us through the orchard at Pineridge Hollow and we picked fresh herbs and fruit to concoct our drink syrups.

You start with equal parts of sugar and water, then you can pretty much add any fruit and herbs you like. I like to experiment with different combinations based on herbs we have in our garden in the summer . This syrup is a simple syrup, but we also learned to make shrubs in that workshop. I’ll come up with a summer shrub to share with you soon!

Lavender Lemonade Simple Syrup

This recipe really is simple! Add all the ingredients to a pot, bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves and remove from the heat to cool completely. Once the lavender lemonade syrup has cooled, strain it into a mason jar and store it in the fridge.

Mixing a drink

Simply add two tablespoons of drink syrup to one cup of lemon flavored sparkling water, top with ice and enjoy. To make a pitcher, add the whole batch of syrup to 8 cups of sparkling water. You can definitely add some vodka to this if you’d like to make it cocktail!

Other combinations

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try to come up with your own drink syrup combinations. If you aren’t using citrus fruit that you can zest, mash up a bit of the fruit into the sugar before you add the water or squeeze out the juice and top it up with water to make one cup of liquid. Strawberry basil, Cucumber mint and Grapefruit rosemary are great combinations to try.

Enjoy!