Summer Cocktail: Mint Lemonade with Krupnikas

All of those words sound delicious.

In honor of my dearest friend Rimantas, I recently shared some Brothers Vilgalys Krupnikas with some good friends and, as a result, got them totally hooked (suckers).

Krupnikas (http://brothersvilgalys.com/) is a Lithuanian spiced honey liqueur. A friend of mine started his own distillery in Durham, NC (only the greatest city in the US of A). This liqueur tastes like Christmas in your mouth, and if you have access to it you should definitely pick up a bottle. You can drink it straight up (krup in a cup), make delicious mixed drinks, or cook with it! We'll cook with it in a later post.

This is my first bottle of Krupnikas that I got to buy in the store. It was WAY too exciting. Also Gabe bottled it which basically makes it a limited edition since he ran away to New Zealand.

If your'e REALLY lucky, you can get one of these bottles with my name and jersey number. Are you kidding me? This was seriously one of the greatest coincidences of my life. 

This recipe is not THAT sustainable but it does offer 2/4 local ingredients so we’ll count it.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sugar

1 handful mint (totes local if you have it growing on your porch)

6 lemons
8 cups water

Krupnikas*

*only if you’re 21+. If you’re not old enough for the krup, this lemonade is still delicious. Something about waiting until you're old enough to drink and delayed gratification is a beautiful thing. Also patience is a virtue.

First you need to get out your awesome ball jug and citrus reamer that you have sitting around and never use. My Uncle Tom bought me my ball jug and the citrus reamer because I’m his favorite niece in Pennsylvania. Grab a handful of mint from your awesome porch garden. Tear it up a little to really let the flavors come out. 

My mint lives with my tomatoes. They're basically a thing but don't tell Rosemary.

Put 8 cups of water on the stove to boil. While you wait, cut the lemons in half and juice them either using your awesome citrus reamer, a juicer, or just peel them and throw them in a blender with a little bit of water. 

My awesome citrus reamer catches the seeds and pulp. I think Tom and I found it at a thrift store in Cleveland for $2. Dreams really do come true.

Once the water is boiling, pour the water, sugar, and mint into the awesome ball jug until the sugar is dissolved in the water. As you get the lemon juice from the lemons, pour it into the ball jug and let it cool. This fills about half of my jug so I fill the other half with ice to help it cool. 

 This is the near finished product (sans ice) unless your'e over 21. 

This recipe might be a little to sour for you. If you can't handle how sour it is you have a few options. The first is to add more sugar (duh). The next option is to add artificial sweetener. Unfortunately, this is not actually an option because that stuff is both nasty and terrible for you. The best option, is to add krupnikas and ice and make it a pheNOMenal summer cocktail. Add about 4oz lemonade, 2 oz krup over ice.

I got these awesome cocktail glasses in Cleveland too. 

Delicious Level: 5/5 Noms (om nom nom nom nom nom)

Difficulty Level: Easy Peasy.

Lesson Learned: Bring back more Krupnikas next time I'm in NC.

Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!