Mixed Drinks Monday: raspberry limeade & frozen coconut lemonade

Back on tracks with two drinks this week.  Yay!

Raspberry Limeade
makes 4 servings

My favorite thing about this recipe is that the bulk of the work could be done ahead of time.  The ingredients were fairly basic and the base came together quick and easy.  I did this Friday afternoon before we left for the lake.  I even took a picture that I was working on this in daylight since most of my posts seem to start with "it was midnight before I started making a drink".

So that was progress.  All we had to do at the lake was add sparkling water which is as easy as opening a bottle.  It was good, the raspberry and lime flavors were nicely balanced but it was pretty sweet by my 3rd glass (Matt had one, I finished the rest over the course of the day).   It's something I would make again for a summery, nonalcoholic drink.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed if you are ambitious, bottle if you are lazy/cheap like me)*
1/2 raspberry puree (strained for seeds if you are ambitious, not if you are lazy like me)**
1 TB lemon juice
3 cups chilled sparkling water

Directions:
In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water and sugar, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Combine the raspberry puree with the lime & lemon juices in a pitcher.  Add the simple syrup.  Chill until ready to serve.

Add the sparkling water and mix.  Serve.

drinking glass #1 during a rain storm and glass #3 during my favorite golden hour

*If I was making this for company I would probably buy a few limes and hand squeeze them but for just Matt & I, I went the easy route.
**Again, if I was making this for company I would take the few minutes to strain the raspberry puree.  I did not and was left with this in my last glass:

 It was a lot of seeds.  I'd recommend straining.

Frozen Lemonade with Coconut Rum
This one is exactly what the name sounds like.  Exactly.  Again, I found the lemon flavor a little tart for me, maybe I should start staying away from lemonade based drinks?  I haven't had a lot of luck with them.   I used pink lemonade concentrate because Aldi always seems to be sold out of regular.  Maybe that's part of my problem?  But overall this one was pretty good.  The rum wasn't overwhelming and the coconut flavor was a nice touch to the lemonade.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 cups ice
3 TB frozen lemonade concentrate
2 TB coconut rum

Directions:
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until slushy.  Drink.

raspberry limeade
frozen lemonade with coconut rum

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In the summer I aim to make a new drink every week and share them all here, good or bad!  See them all in chronological order by following the "Mixed Drink Monday" tag here or check out my favorites by scrolling down to "Mixed Drink Monday" on my recipes page!