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Southern Limeade
Make a sugar syrup of 1 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar. To 2 tablespoons of this syrup, placed in tall glass, add the juice of one lime and generous cubes of ice. Fill with seltzer water, and serve with slices of lime. Individual serving.
A single-glass formula built on a keeping syrup, which is still the most reliable way to sweeten a cold drink. The proportions are sound; only a few details need spelling out.
- The syrupOne cup water to 3/4 cup sugar is a light syrup, thinner than the equal-parts simple syrup most bar guides now use. Heat only until the sugar dissolves and the liquid is clear; boiling it down concentrates it and throws off the two-tablespoon measure.
- Syrup yieldYou will get somewhere around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups, enough for roughly ten glasses at two tablespoons each. Refrigerated in a covered jar it should keep a couple of weeks; discard at the first sign of cloudiness.
- Juice of one limeSmall limes, Key limes among them, give perhaps 1 tablespoon of juice; a supermarket Persian lime yields closer to 2 tablespoons, so taste and add syrup if the balance is sharp.
- Seltzer waterPlain carbonated water, not club soda or tonic. Club soda carries added mineral salts and tonic carries its own sugar and quinine, either of which changes the drink.
- AssemblyCombine syrup and juice first and stir, then add ice, then the seltzer poured down the side of the glass. Stirring after the seltzer goes in flattens it.
- YieldOne tall glass, about 10 to 12 ounces once filled. Multiply the syrup and juice directly for a pitcher, but add the seltzer at the moment of serving.