Fizzy Guava Limeade (A St. Patrick's Day Mocktail!)

A few of the bloggers I follow on Instagram recently made a whole party's worth of St. Patrick’s Day cocktails, and I thought it looked so SO fun! Now, I can’t drink yet, but I at least like to pretend I could be the Apartment Bartender! Nothin’ wrong with spicin’ up your limeade, right? And especially if I add a little garnish or two, this drink just makes me feel so fancy and grown up!

Now, this is definitely not specifically St. Patrick’s, but I figured that the colors work well AND it’s super tasty, even for the non-drinkers out there. It’s also extremely customizable, because it is essentially a thick syrup, some store bought limeade, and just a touch of ginger ale. So customize away! But maybe you need the actually recipe before you can do that…

(But first, this backdrop: doilies from my Thanksgiving table runner + glitter scrapbook paper from my Valentine's backdrop + a repurposed Christmas tree garland. Don't you love it? I mean, I do A LOT! Yay for repurposing your craft supplies!)

Fizzy Guava Limeade (makes 5-6 drinks)

4 guavas

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

Limeade (I used Simply brand)

Ginger ale

To make the syrup component, wash your guavas, cut off the ends or any bruised sections, and cut them guavas in half. Combine with HALF of the water (1/2 cup) in a food processor.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, using the back of a spoon to push it through a little (it’s essentially a puree at this stage), but being careful not to force through any seeds.

Add the extracted juice, the other 1/2 cup of the water, and the sugar to blender, and blend until well combined. This is your “kind-of-a-syrup” base for the drink.

Stir together equal parts of this syrup and limeade and pour into a pretty glass! (Yes, the glass must be pretty. That is a requirement of this recipe.) Then pour a little ginger ale on top (probably about an ounce). The ginger ale will add a pretty, fizzy touch to the beverage, and adds just a little more complexity to the final flavor!

So whaddya think, can you customize it now?

To get this vivid green color, I added some green food dye to the “syrup” before mixing the rest of the beverage. I love the fun touch all the color adds, not to mention the rim of gold sprinkles, but if you want to go classy, add just a slice of lime instead. We also had white flesh guavas, which produced a pale yellow drink without any dye added. So for me, the green color worked nicely, but if your guavas are pink, GO PINK! (Seriously, I would be so jealous.) I’m pretty sure the St. Patrick’s Day color scheme includes rainbows now anyway.

Do you have any nifty drinks you’ve crafted lately? Don’t worry, I’ll pass on the alcoholic ones to my older sister! ;)

Stay lovely,

PS: Need more drinks for your party? Try some Strawberry Rose Lemonade Punch, or keep it simple with Sweet and Sour Shirley Temples!