Herbal Pink Lemonade with Lemon Balm Recipe
This herbal pink lemonade features lemon balm! It's the most perfect drink for hot summer days or for those times in your cycle when you're feeling a little melancholy.
This recipe is so simple and so lovely. If all you have access to is strawberries and lemons, that is enough. If you have access to fresh lemon balm and stevia leaf, that is even better! As a substitute, you can find dried lemon balm leaf and powdered stevia leaf at most health food stores. (Full recipe is at the very bottom of the post.)
Lemon balm is cooling and uplifting, praised for its ability to ease mild depression and relax the nervous system. It's also gentle enough to share with kids to help mellow them out before bed time and dispel nightmares. It grows easily in pots!
As its name suggests, lemon balm smells very lemony and brightens your mood as soon as you smell it. The bees love it too! Once its tiny white flowers bloom, so many bees are buzzing around it that it also goes by the name bee balm. Another nickname is sweet Melissa, because it is a sweet uplifting plant and its latin name is Melissa officinalis.
This recipe is naturally sweet- no added sugar! This is where stevia comes into the picture. Have you heard of stevia? It's an herb that you HAVE to know about if you have a sweet tooth like me but are trying to watch your sugar intake. I'm growing stevia in my garden and it grows like a weed. Almost no maintenance, just water and sun. You can also find powdered stevia at health food stores which is a great substitute for the fresh leaf. (fresh leaf shown below)
gathering ingredients
Mashed up strawberries ready to steep in hot water
Lemon balm and stevia leaf ready to steep in hot water
It smells so good already!!
Time to let it steep, covered for 30 mins.
Once it has steeped, strain out the herbs and strawberries and add fresh squeezed lemon juice. Cool in the fridge for an hour.
Serve over ice and share with a friend!
Full recipe below
Thank you! Please share with a friend! I hope you enjoy this drink as much as I do!