Surprisingly, this year my basil has taken off and is growing in mass amounts. I say ‘surprisingly’ because for the past…well, forever…I’ve been a basil killer. A serial basil killer if you will. I always try to grow it with the best of intentions, and then it dies a horrible, brown-leaf-falling-over-ugly death.
This year I spoke with as many people as I could and consulted the almighty Google. What had I been doing wrong?
Not watering it enough! Basil is apparently SUPER thirsty and requires lots and lots of water.
So with my watering can in hand, I watered away, and now I have so much basil I am topping everything with basil (see my Basil Blueberry Chocolate Cake, making pesto (recipe coming soon), and adding it to my lemonade to make it THE BEST LEMONADE EVER!!
The refreshing basil mixed with the sweet tangy lemonade just screams refreshing!
Also, as with all of my cocktails, this can be made into a mocktail and by leaving out the liquor, and it will be just as good!
The reason I’m making a cocktail for this weeks Five Ingredient Friday? Because I’m blogging to you from St. Louis where my best friend is getting married and I’m her Maid of Honor (or is it Matron of Honor because I’m married? I prefer Maid lol) and she owns an awesome bar in St. Louis called The Heavy Anchor so a cocktail only seemed appropriate 🙂
Enjoy this super refreshing cocktail

Ingredients
- 3 Lemons juiced
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 3/4 Cup Water
- 1 Cup Basil Leaves
- 6 oz Vodka
- 24 Ice cubes
Instructions
- Juice lemons. Add water, lemon juice and sugar together and stir to make the lemonade.
- In a pitcher add ice cubes, then put basil leaves on top, then pour in the lemonade. Stir to combine, then add the vokda and stir to combine.
- Serve over ice.
[…] *my kind of lemonade […]