Drinks are my favorite.

I’ll take all of them:  alcoholic, nonalcoholic, traditional, crazy.  If it’s a drink, I’m all over it.

My ‘Drinks’ Pinterest board is the truest representation of my drink obsession.  With 1,614 pins & counting, it’s something to be marveled at.  While I enjoy creating drinks on my own, I think I love pinning the drink recipes of others even more!

With Memorial Day being the unofficial start to summer, I thought it was time to pick ten drinks to make this summer.  The fun thing about having a blog is that I can make these drinks & tell you if they’re good or not!  Every single one of these recipes look super refreshing & I can’t wait to make them! 

This might look familiar because I did a similar post last year about my classic lemonade. With summer quickly approaching, though, it's time to take a second look at this lemonade! This is the perfect recipe to get you through those hot days. I also revised the recipe a little, by using less sugar.

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't always the biggest fan of making homemade lemonade. In fact, I used to avoid it at all costs. The lemon squeezing sounded completely terrible. I didn't have time to squeeze lemons forever! I came across an electric juicer in our things when we moved and decided to give it a try one day. That citrus juicer changed my life forever! It can juice lemons in minutes! I went from avoiding lemonade at all costs to looking like a professional!

Recipe by Tiff @ www.onthecreekblog.com

A summertime classic!

Total time: 5 minutes

Yield: roughly 64 ounces

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

1. To make simple syrup:
2. In a small saucepan, mix 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar. Heat until sugar is dissolved.
3. Let cool and pour into the bottom of a pitcher.
4. Add fresh lemon juice and add water to fill. Stir to combine. Chill and enjoy!

Note: I put in the recipe to let the simple syrup cool before putting it in the pitcher. This is only because the simple syrup gets super hot. So hot that I'm concerned with it cracking a plastic pitcher. Because I have no patience whatsoever, I used a glass pitcher. That allowed me to add the syrup immediately.

Easy peasy!

I was super excited to go to Starbucks when we were in Niagara Falls, NY, last week. Living in the middle of nowhere has its perks, but sadly, Starbucks isn't one of them.

One of my favorite drinks from Starbucks is the Iced Passion Tango Tea Lemonade. I ordered a Venti when we were in Niagara Falls & absolutely had to find a way to recreate the recipe at home.

I headed to the grocery store in search of the perfect tea. Tazo Passion Tea is an excellent choice. I'm relatively sure Starbucks uses Teavana teas for its drinks, but Tazo is an excellent alternative.

To make the passion tea lemonade, all I did was steep a bag of tea following the directions for hot tea. Once the tea was cool, I added some store-bought lemonade (in the refrigerator section) & my copycat recipe was complete!

This might be the best thing I’ve made all year!

It’s a new spin on the famous Grandma’s Punch.  A more shamrocking version, if you will!

The only thing I changed with the recipe is that instead of the traditional red Hawaiian Punch, I used the Lemon Lime Splash flavor.  Also, instead of using the rainbow sherbet, I just used lime.  I was kind of worried how the new flavor combo would turn out but it really tastes great!  It’s a perfect St. Patty’s day drink, but I liked it so much I would make it year round!

We’re finally here!  It’s Thanksgiving eve and the last of my drink recipes! 

I raided the liquor cabinet for this set of recipes.  While they definitely won’t be winning any awards for originality, I used my ingredients from the past drink recipes to create some incredibly easy cocktails!  They’re an easy last minute addition.

To make each recipe, I took a shot of alcohol and poured it into a solo cup.  Then I added my second ingredient and finally finished with a splash of the third ingredient.  Feel free to mix up the amounts according to your taste!

Jack/Coke/Cranberry Juice

Seagram's 7 /Cranberry Ginger Ale/Cranberry Juice

Bacardi 151/Vanilla Cream Soda/Apple Cider

Seagram's 7/Vanilla Cream Soda

Remember how I said I thought my Caramel Apple Punch would make a good float?  It has actually outdone itself with how good it really is.

So good, in fact, that I drank that entire glass after the photoshoot.

Aaand I even made more of the punch so I could make even more floats!

I really hesitated in calling my Caramel Apple Punch a “punch” because, in our family, a punch isn’t complete unless there’s sherbet on top and my punch had nothing like that in there…until now.  How amazing would this be in a punch bowl with the ice cream on top, acting as the sherbet?!

Hold on, I’m digging out my punch bowl right now!

Also, there’s no actual fruit hanging out in there this time!  With a drink this good, I figured trying to drink around the fruit would ruin it!  Who needs distractions when there’s ice cream?!

To make this drink, all you need to do is mix some of my Caramel Apple Punch and add ice cream!  Easy peasy!

Floats forever!

I know I’ve been stirring up some great drink recipes over the past couple weeks, but sometimes ain’t nobody got time to be in the kitchen measuring stuff up!  So, confession time…the drink in these glasses is Kool-Aid!  I made my classic lemonade (recipe below) and then when it was about empty, I put in a packet of Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid and made it per packet instructions right in my oversized mason jar!  I still had the lemons in there from before and it looked like I actually tried to make something!  It tastes great and really works in a pinch.

But really, though, Classic Lemonade is the easiest thing to make.  If you have an electric juicer and about 5 minutes, fantastic lemonade isn’t so far away.

I used to be intimidated by lemonade.  More specifically, the lemon juicing part.  I pictured myself in the kitchen, squeezing lemon juice for days.  It was just never something that was for me.  When we moved, I found an electric juicer that had been hanging out in some forgotten cabinet for probably 9 years.  I took it to the new house and gave it a try.  Mind. Blown.  Juicing lemons is sooo easy now. I can literally juice an entire 2lb bag of lemons in just a few minutes.

Before we get to the recipe, I have to warn you…my lemonade is super sweet.  I believe my mom referred to it as “hummingbird nectar”, so you might want to tone the simple syrup down a bit.  But it’s super easy to do because the simple syrup is just equal parts sugar and water, so feel free to use less if all.the.sugar is not your thing.  You can also thin it out by adding more water at the end.  I like my lemonade super sweet and super concentrated, but I know that’s not for everybody!

print recipe

Classic Lemonade

by Tiff @ www.onthecreekblog.com November-3-2016

Extra sweet and tart lemonade. Can easily be modified for taste by adding less simple syrup or more water.

Ingredients

• About 8 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 2lbs Lemons

Instructions

Simple Syrup - Mix 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until all of the sugar is dissolved. Set aside and allow to cool. Lemons - Set aside 2 lemons for garnish and juice the rest, about 5 lemons. Lemonade - Slice the 2 lemons for garnish and place in a 64oz pitcher - Add simple syrup and lemon juice and fill the rest of the pitcher with cold water. Chill or add ice and you’re done!

Details

Prep time: Cook time: 5 mins Total time: Yield: roughly 64 ounces

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This is a fun little recipe.  It brings together all the fall feels.  The peach also adds a last nod to summer before we dive into the winter months.

I randomly saw some sparkling peach apple cider the other day & wanted to try it.  Of course, I could have stopped there, but I wanted to expand on the flavors of the peach apple cider.

To make the recipe, I added white cranberry peach juice cocktail, another drink with all the fall feels.  

Both of these items should be located in the juice aisle of any grocery store.  You just go down that one aisle and you’re done!  So easy!