For reasons I cannot adequately put my finger on, if you show up to a potluck or picnic this weekend with carafes of freshly-squeezed lemonade, you will be welcomed and adored, but if you show up with the same carafes of freshly-made pink lemonade, people will actually freak out. Why is pink lemonade so much more exciting than the pale yellow that accurately depicts the lemons from which it is derived? It’s a mystery to me as well but I — a person who does not own a single pink garment and likes to consider myself immune to pastel-tinted charms — will always reach for it first.
Also fun is to ask a roomful of a people what makes pink lemonade pink, well aside from the Red Dye #40 in most bottled versions, and to realize that none of use really know. We’ve discussed it here a couple summers ago and while many of the suggestions are sound and probably delicious — grenadine! hibiscus! pink lemons! — I tend to gravitate instead to the fresh berries that hit the markets during the peak lemonade season ahead. Or, uh, distant-origin strawberry, blackberries and raspberries that were on sale this past weekend. Er, it’s not like we were growing lemons in our New York City fire escapes anyhow, as much fun as it would be.
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