Sonic Drive-In has led me down a path. A very dark, very delicious path that has brought me right here. To this sweet, tangy, boozy, tropical take on that most holy of beverages: the limeade.
Don’t get me wrong—there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the classic limes + sugar + water recipe, but if you have the chance to spice things up with a little sweetened condensed milk, coconut water and rum, why not go for it? And this leads us to the Brazilian limeade. The beauty of this sub-equatorial recipe lies not in the add-ins (although the sweetened condensed milk does lend a luxurious creaminess to the mixture) but in the way the ingredients are blended together.
You toss a couple of whole limes into the blender with your other ingredients and whip them to a pulp, thus releasing the zesty, aromatic oils locked in the peel and adding an astonishing depth of lime flavor to the whole situation. All that’s left to do is strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to create a rich, frothy, incredibly refreshing afternoon tipple.
Spiked Brazilian Limeade
adapted from this recipe
Ingredients:
• 2 limes
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup young coconut water
• 1 cup white rum
• ice
• coconut frozen fruit bar for garnish (I like this brand)
Directions:
1. Wash the limes well, then slice off both ends and cut into eight wedges. Add to blender with sugar, sweetened condensed milk, water, coconut water and ice-cold rum. *You can certainly omit the rum if you want your limeades virgin, just use 1 1/2 c. water and 1 1/2 c. coconut water instead.
2. Add a few cubes of ice to the blender then blend until the lime is completely chopped up.
3. Strain your mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and serve over ice with a creamy coconut popsicle float for extra flavor and style.
