3/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1) Bring basil leaves, sugar and 2 cups water to a boil in medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar and bruise basil leaves. Simmer 5 minutes without stirring. Strain, pressing on basil to remove liquid. Cool.
2) Pour basil syrup into large pitcher. Stir in lemon juice and 4 cups of water. Transfer to refrigerator and chill well. Serve over ice.
Review: This recipe said basil was one of a few options. This can also be made with rosemary, sage or thyme. Interestingly, this was also supposed to use 4 cups of basil. Mike didn't like that idea, so I used only 2 cups and this had a very strong basil flavor. I can't imagine twice this amount! This had a sweetness that was followed up by a strong peppery kick - total basil goodness. Mike thinks it would be great mixed with gin.
Adapted from:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/basil-lemonade/
Maybe mix it with iced tea?
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