Some cool updates to basic lemonade
With only three ingredients, you'd think there would be a limit to the amount of tweaking that could be done to lemonade. Lemon juice, sugar, and water seems to be somewhat limiting.
But add fresh herbs, other fruits, and edible flower garnishes, and one of America's favorite summer beverages starts to change quickly. In fact, versions of lemonade are on the menu at some top spots around town. This could be a defining moment for the deliciously sweet and tart drink that's been around for thousands of years.
The signature beverage on the lunch menu at Radius in the Financial District is fruit lemonade with whatever else is in season. That could be strawberries, raspberries, plums, watermelon, or peaches. Pastry chef P. J. Waters mixes up a batch of lemonade daily, using lemon rind, sugar, and fruit and refrigerates it overnight. The next day, lemon juice and water are added and when the lunch crowd comes, the restaurant goes through more than three gallons of the refreshing drink.
Lemons seem to be a suggestion for the drinks that can be made with an acidic fruit. Boston Public Meat's beverage and wine manager, Alexei Beratis, has a standing order with the restaurant's greengrocer for kalamansi lime juice. In Southeast Asia, where this fruit is popular, the tangerine-shaped lime, no bigger than a large grape, is squirted over fish and chicken. At Boston Public Meat, the milky-orange juice, a beguiling combination of lemon, lime, and orange, is sweetened and transformed into a tall and bubbly drink. Kalamansi and soda, with an edible flower garnish, is not your lemonade-stand cooler, but on a warm day, it hits the spot. "People love it," Beratis says.
The consensus among lemonade makers is that lemon oil is what gives lemonade its taste. "You want it to grab oil from the rind," says Fred Thompson, a Southerner who grew up drinking lemonade. In his book, "Lemonade," Thompson writes, "good lemonade starts sweet and leaves tart, and in between are all the intricacies that make lemonade great."
Sometimes, all it takes to give a lift to a glass of lemonade is one extra, unexpected ingredient. Fresh thyme is the secret to Scott Robertson's lemonade. Robertson, the chef at Z Square in Harvard Square, adds a couple of sprigs to a basic recipe and lets the flavor infuse into the lemonade. "It gives it an earthy taste," says the Cambridge chef.
The rosy-pink, strawberry-raspberry lemonade at Radius is no mystery once you taste it. In one sip, you get the essence of lemon and the sweetness of berries.
At $5 a glass, perfection doesn't come cheap. 