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Endless Lemonades

By Anna Jones

We’d all like an endless summer. I make these throughout summer and into autumn, trying to stretch out the season as long as I can.

Photography by Ana Cuba

I keep a bottle in the fridge for sipping. When I am in LA I go to a lemonade bar that has at least ten different homemade favours, and I am like a kid in a candy shop.

It’s so easy to make lemonade, and using agave syrup makes it even easier, as there is no need to make a syrup. If you can’t get agave syrup, 125g of sugar bubbled until dissolved in 125ml of hot water will do – just pull back on the added water a little at the end.

When I have a party I like to make a few favours and line up the candycoloured lemonades in glass bottles for people to pick and choose. They make a really good base for a great cocktail – just add some booze, fruit and a couple of sprigs of mint or basil.

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  • Serves: Each recipe makes about 1.5 litres

Ingredients

  • 6 unwaxed lemons
  • 125ml agave syrup
  • 1 litre ice-cold  water(still or fizzy)

Watermelon
Instead of the litre of ice-cold water, add 500g of blitzed deseeded watermelon and 500ml of cold water.

Lemongrass and chilli
Put 2 sticks of lemongrass and a red chilli into the agave syrup. Leave to infuse a sit cools, then discard the lemongrass and chilli. Top up with ice-cold water in the same way.

Blackberry and lime
Use unwaxed limes instead of lemons – you may need a few more limes to make up the same amount of juice. Instead of the litre of ice-cold water, use 250g of blackberries blitzed with 750ml of water.

Blueberry and mint
Instead of the litre of ice-cold water, add 250g of blueberries blitzed with a few sprigs of fresh mint and 750ml of water.

Honey and lavender
Use honey in place of agave syrup. Add a few heads of lavender to the syrup as it infuses, making sure you strain them out before adding the litre of ice-cold water.

Goji and ginger
Soak 4 tablespoons of goji berries in water for an hour. Blitz them with 100ml of water and a grated thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, and add this to the lemonade with the litre of ice-cold water.

Rooibos iced tea
Add 2 bags of rooibos tea to the syrup and allow to infuse as it cools. Discard before adding the litre of ice-cold water.

Method

  1. Slice 1 of your lemons and put it into a big pan with the juice of the other 5 (about 200ml of juice). Pour in the agave syrup and 100ml of water and bring to the boil. Mix well, then turn off the heat and allow to cool completely.
  2. Top up with 1 litre of still or fzzy water.
Anna Jones

Anna Jones is a cook, stylist and writer.

One grey, late-for-work day, she decided to quit her office job after reading an article about following your passion by which bit of the newspaper you read first.

Within days, she had a place on the training programme at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in London. After earning her stripes there, she went to chef at Le Caprice in London and also cooked in Spain and the Chianti fields of Tuscany. She then returned to the Jamie Oliver family to work as his food stylist, writer and food creative on books, TV shows and food campaigns. During that time, she cooked in all sorts of places, from East End school kitchens and Sydney beaches to American Indian reservations. She helped shape up the fattest town in America, led cooking classes at the TED talks and cooked for rock stars, royalty and the G20 at Downing Street.

After seven incredible years at Jamie Oliver, Anna now works independently as a stylist and food writer in London. She has worked with some of the best-loved cooks and chefs of our time, from Antonio Carluccio to Yotam Ottolenghi, Sophie Dahl to the Fabulous Baker Brothers. She has also worked with some of the country’s biggest food brands, including Daylesford, Leon and innocent drinks, for whom she wrote the book Hungry?

Anna believes that vegetables should be put at the centre of every table, and is devoted to helping people make a long-term commitment to eating well and feeling amazing. She is led by the joy of food – the spritz of freshness when you peel an orange or the crackle and waft of deep savoury spice when you add curry leaves to a pan of hot oil – and thinks that healthy eating is as much about pleasure as anything else.

Anna writes regular columns for The Guardian Cook and The Pool. She lives, writes and cooks in Hackney, East London. For examples of her styling work, please click here.

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