My Mother's Lemonade

I'm basing my 'servings' on a 'cup' ... or 250ml wine glass or 1/2 pint mug of the finished product.

This is how my mother made lemonade. She usually made it in winter, as a cold cure (cure for when you come in from making snowmen OR as a cure for when you have a sniffley cold!). There was a wooden spoon she used as a measure (which I have) and a particular white pottery jug/pitcher. I based my measurements on these utensils so I can guarantee that the measures are authentic!

My mother generally used white granulated sugar, because it was the cheapest, but demarara, which is a granulated, light brown sugar, adds some flavour of its own. Don't use dark brown or 'moist' brown sugar: this has too much molasses and kills the top notes of the lemon (from the peel).

If you keep the lemon/sugar ratio constant, you can make a very successful 'lemonade syrup' by using less water ... e,g, 4 lemons, 600g sugar, 1 litre Water will make a syrup that you can dilute 1:4 with ice and sparkling water or with hot water and whisky ... depending on whether you want a 'hot cure' (something to cool you down) or a 'cold cure'! I can vouch for the fact that it works as both!