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When Life Gives You Lemons Make Lemonade

partysugar — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 01:31:38 -0700

It is believed that lemonade was originally created by the medieval Egyptians over 1500 years ago. At this time in Cairo, the bottles of lemon juice were mixed with sugar to make a popular drink known as qatarmizat.

Years later, in 1873, the popular pink version was, according to legend, accidentally invented at a circus stand in New Jersey. One of the female bareback riders hung her red tights to dry precariously close to Billie Griffith's brewing batch of lemonade. A strong wind blew the tights into the lemonade and tinted it pink. With crowds already arriving, Billie was forced to serve his pink-tinted lemonade.

Why all these lemonade fun facts? Today is Lemonade Day, so make yourself a pitcher! For my classic recipe, as well as one with an alcoholic twist, read more

Lemonade
From Martha Stewart

3 cups lemon or lime juice, about 20 lemons or 25 limes freshly squeezed
2 cups superfine sugar
4 cups cold water
4 cups ice
2 lemons or limes, thinly sliced for garnish

Into a large serving container, strain the citrus juice, mix it with sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Add 4 cups cold water and stir again until well combined. Add ice to fill and a few lemon or lime slices.

Makes 10 cups.

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PartySugar's Hard Lemonade
From Bon Appetit magazine

1 cup packed mint leaves, chopped
2/3-cup sugar
1-cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups vodka
Crushed ice for serving
Fresh mint springs, optional for garnish

Combine chopped mint and sugar in a large bowl or pitcher.
Stir in lemon juice and vodka.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Strain mixture into serving pitcher.
Fill six 6-8 ounce festive glasses with crushed ice. Pour mixture over. Garnish with mint springs.

Serves 6.

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Source: Clifford Wright
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Yummy Links: From Lamb Burgers to Lemonade Cocktails

partysugar — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:50:24 -0700

Learn how to make the perfect lamb burger. - Saveur
A conversation between Adam Platt and Frank Bruni. - Grub Street
The future of fish farming has arrived. - Eat Me Daily
Make French food in a flash with this easy lamb chop recipe. - Serious Eats
What to do if you bust your friend’s china. - Chow
At your next party serve finger food in homemade paper cones. - Hostess With the Mostess
Jen Zevala talks about being the first contestant kicked off of Top Chef.- The Feedbag
Celebrate National Lemonade Day with 10 spiked lemonade cocktails. - The Epi-Log

Can You Match the Advertising Slogan to the Beverage?

YumSugar — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:00:54 -0700

Grab a glass and fill 'er up, today is National Beverage Day! Whether your liquid of choice is a tasty lemonade or a luscious lemon drop, just be sure to drink up something.

To celebrate today's "holiday" I thought it would be fun to test your knowledge on beverage slogans. Do you know your king of beers from your real sodas? Find out when you take our quiz!

Source

Take the quiz

Which Will Win? Red Vines or Twizzlers?

YumSugar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:01:33 -0700

In addition to being grilled cheese day, this Sunday is also National Red Licorice Day. To help us celebrate, the folks at Red Vines recently sent us a care package of various flavors. The Sugar HQ is actually full of die-hard Twizzler fans, so I decided to see what they thought of my fave Red Vines. I took the three Red Vine flavors - pink strawberry, red cherry and original - and strawberry Twizzlers and put them into unmarked bowls.

I then asked folks to come taste them, and rank them from fave to least fave. With 21 taste testers, the results were more or less split down the middle. However there were a few surprises with the Red Vines strawberry option. To see what happened in our oh-so-scientific taste-test, read more.

To begin, the votes were broken down as follows:

9 for original Red Vines
7 for strawberry Twizzlers
4 for red cherry Red Vines
2 for pink strawberry Red Vines

While this wasn't that interesting - nearly split down the middle like I expected - the surprising part was in the comments. Overall, we decided that Twizzlers have a plastic texture, while Red Vines have a rubbery texture. We also learned that if you were a Red Vines fan, then you ranked Twizzlers last, and vice versa. It was the difference in texture that seemed to be what people used as a ranker. Those who grew up with Twizzlers thought it tasted "more authentic" while Red Vines people thought their choice was the real deal.

The intriguing part came from the two die-hard Twizzler fans who ranked strawberry Red Vines as favorite. They thought the flavor was great - I thought the two were really close in flavor - and wondered how they could swap their loyalty so easily.

To follow up on this, I did a blind-taste test with a few other folks. They agreed that the flavor of the two were quite similar. Yet I was surprised that it received such few votes. Turns out it was the bright pink Barbie color that really threw everyone off. Folks told me they thought it should taste like Starburst, or something "tropical" and a few folks even swore it had to be pink lemonade.

In the end, it really comes down to texture, flavor and what you grew up with. What do you think? Have you ever forced yourself to do a licorice taste test? Do you think your results would change?

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