Blackberry Limeade

I made a pretty awesome drink with blackberries and limes. The first time I made the drink, I made it with sour blackberries from my friend's garden. I wanted to post the recipe, but then I realized that the drink had WAY too much sugar in it to mask the sourness of the berries, so I remade the drink with store bought berries. You don't even want to know how much sugar was in the first batch I made...

Last night I made the blackberry limeade to go along with dinner. It's really tasty and refreshing - make sure to serve it over ice! Enjoy.

4 ounces of Blackberry Limeade over ice -
SO tasty & refreshing!

Recipe for Blackberry Limeade

INGREDIENTS:
For the blackberry syrup:
4 cups of blackberries (fresh, not frozen)
1 cup of granulated sugar
3 ounces of water
For the lime syrup:
1 medium-sized lime, cut in very thin slices
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of water
To mix in:
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
5 1/2 cups of chilled water

DIRECTIONS:
For the blackberry syrup:
Put the blackberries in a medium-sized saucepan. Pour the 3 ounces of water and 1 cup of sugar over the berries, and gently stir. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring the mixture constantly. After 5 minutes, lower the heat to medium. Continue to boil the mixture on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the saucepan from heat and turn off stove. Carefully pour the mixture, in small batches, through a fine mesh sieve into a heat safe bowl. After pouring a small batch into the sieve, press down on the berries with a spoon or fork to extract as much juice as possible into the bowl, then discard the berries before pouring the next batch (you do not want any berries in the bowl, all you want is the liquid). Let the blackberry syrup cool at room temperature.
For the lime syrup:
Pour the 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar into a small saucepan. Put the saucepan over medium heat and allow the sugar to dissolve. Once the sugar dissolves and the mixture simmers, lower the heat. Add the thin lime slices to the sugar/water mixture, and arrange in a single layer. Allow the mixture to simmer on low for 20 minutes, flipping the limes over halfway through the process. After 20 minutes, remove the saucepan from heat and turn off stove. Carefully pour the mixture and limes into an airtight container and set aside to cool.

Once the blackberry syrup and lime syrup have cooled, pour them into a 2-quart drink pitcher. Make sure to add in the limes from the lime syrup. Add in the 1/2 cup of fresh lime juice. Pour in the 5 1/2 cups of chilled water. Stir. Put the pitcher in the fridge to chill for about an hour before serving. When ready to serve, pour into glasses filled with ice. I think 4 - 6 ounces is a nice treat - but Greg said he'd be able to drink 32 ounces of the blackberry limeade. Do what you think is best!

-Original Recipe-