Orange You Glad It’s Summer – 5:00 Fridays

 

When Deal and Mac Daddy were away camping one weekend Bird and I wiled away some time at the flea market. It’s a favorite family outing where we stumble upon treasure and engage in some fierce people watching. The adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” manifests before our very eyes at the flea market. It happened to be a scorcher that day so we indulged in some orangeade. Wow, was that tasty. But for three bucks a pop for a lousy eight ounces, I knew I could recreate this summer drink at home.

Well, while Bird was away at camp this past week (clearly we do a lot of flip flopping to ensure one on one time with the boys), Deal and I experimented with our own orangeade recipe. The keeper recipe is less sweet than many others and certainly less sugary than what Bird and I had at the flea market stand. It’s summer in a cup, and in this recent heat, we’ll be stirring copious amounts. 

Orange You Glad It’s Summer

2 cups water
1 12/ cups sugar
peel from 1 orange
(Let water come to a rolling boil and add sugar and orange peel. Stir until sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Let cool and remove orange peel. Save this simple syrup for later.)

2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup lemonade
5 cups sparkling water (I used the Soda Stream for this.)

Pour orange juice, lemonade, and water into a large pitcher. Add simple syrup and stir. Serve over ice.

This drink is so refreshing and could be dolled up with some rum if you want a happy hour version. Cheers to Summer!