Fresh Limeade with Sugared Glasses

Hot summer days and cold, refreshing drinks.  The stuff of summer.  You can't deny that they are better together then apart.

What seems forever ago... actually, more like half a lifetime ago (eek!), my long time friend Jenn, introduced me to making limeade.  We were teenagers, it was hot outside and it was a fun thing to make.  I had never seen someone make limeade using the entire lime before.  The result was delicious!  Fresh, cold, tangy and frothy (my favourite part).  We could drink the entire batch in one sitting!

This past week has been quite the heat wave here... so out came the blender and the limes... what better time to whip up a batch of this tasty thirst quencher!

Ingredients
4 - 6 fresh limes with thin, unblemished skin
1 cup white sugar or to taste, plus extra to rim the glasses
water

When picking out limes, you want to look for ones that have small pores in the skin.  The finer and smoother the surface and pores, the thinner the rind will be and the less pith there will be (that white layer under the skin).  You will get more juice and it will be less bitter because there is less pith.  That applies to citrus fruits in general if you didn't know already.  It's a good tip to know.

Wash your limes well and remove any stickers from the skin.  Chop them up into quarters.  Don't worry about seeds or anything of that sort.  Toss them into the blender, saving 1 small wedge of lime.

Add in the white sugar, then fill to the 6 or 8 cup mark on the blenders container.  Put on the lid and blend it until the limes are pulp and the juice is frothy and a little milky looking.

Strain the pulp out of the juice.  You'll be left with a fair amount, which you can either use in cooking or feed some plants in your garden that like acidic soil.  I throw it around my peppers and tomato plants.

Take your saved wedge of lime and cut a small slit in it.  Use it to coat the top of a clean glass.  Dip the glass in some white sugar and shake off the excess.  Add some ice to the cup and fill it up!  Delicious, sweet and tangy!

If you want to dye your sugar to make it look extra fancy, poor some white sugar into a bowl and add a drop of food colouring in what ever colour you choose.  Using a fork, mix it around until the colour is uniform.  If you used a few drops of dye (I only used one) let it dry out a bit then give it another mix with the fork to make sure it didn't form any clumps.  If you have leftover sugar, you can use it for future drinks or sprinkle it on cupcakes for decoration. 

Now, relax and enjoy some sunshine :)

*This is a highly adaptable recipe which can be adjusted completely to your liking by adjusting the amount of sugar, water or limes used.  Simple syrup is also a great way to sweeten this drink instead of granulated sugar.