Diabetic Friendly Lemonade

A few years back, when I lived in Brooklyn, I was returning some camera equipment to an Iranian TV presenter (this was the kind of life I lived. Sigh) and she offered me some lemonade, because it was the hottest summer the city had seen in 10 years and I think my pale skin looked pretty flustered after lugging the equipment up the L Train and then getting a little bit lost.

What she gave me, and kindly even filled in an empty water bottle for me to take away, was this homemade concoction of wonder: water, freshly squeezed lemons, mint, ice and cinnamon sugar. This simple mix travelled much further with me than back down the L Train (not least because I kept refilling the old bottle with the used mint and lemons in it for at least 2 weeks - gross but it worked) - it's also travelled round in my mind for years since. My plight has been the cinnamon sugar, which I am STILL YET TO FIND. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.

As a diabetic, I probably shouldn't be dedicating my time to finding sugar. I don't want to confuse people - I'm a Type 1, which means sometimes I physically need sugar (something which a lot of people don't seem to understand), but it's not really something I should be consuming as often as I do water. So the other day, I was just staring at my spice rack (I do this sometimes) and my two little sticks of cinnamon basically jumped into my face and started saying 'Lemonade! Lemonade!'. The obvious answer was a long time coming. If I just replaced the cinnamon sugar with natural cinnamon bark, I would still get the unique taste of this wondrous marriage of ingredients - and in a Diabetic Friendly way, too. Cinnamon's even been reported recently to lower bloodsugar, so double score.

Here is how I made this beautifully simple but necessary-to-life drink:

Diabetic Friendly Lemonade

1) I like using a good aesthetic carafe for stuff like this - but any old jug will do. Fill your chosen vessel with ice - lots of it, and squeeze the juice of each of your lemon quarters over it. Then chuck in the squeezed lemons with the ice.

2) Add your mint and cinnamon. Give it a slight mix, then at this point, add the agave syrup if desired. I used this because it's really low in sugar compared to - um - sugar, and other alternatives like honey and golden syrup. It's got about 7g carb per serving, so if you divvy that serving up in regards to your whole carafe, you're really only getting a few grams of sugar. But please - it is honestly just as nice without this, just slightly zingier.

3) Fill with water. Mix. Place the jug in the sunshine and take a moment to admire your work. Even if you DID use any old jug, this is still something that's just beautiful to look at. It's better if you let it infuse for a little while, but you probably won't be able to wait for this, so enjoy a little glass to start with.

(I love the way the ingredients just naturally separated themselves - cinnamon at the bottom, mint taking the middle and lemons owning the top, like it was some colourful, aesthetic agreement.)

It goes without saying, this is perfect for summer eves such as these (although as I'm writing this, it's started thundering down with rain. I'm definitely not living abroad any more, am I). It's great if you're trying to cut down on alcohol a bit - I find that when I get home after a long, hot day, I really do enjoy an ice cold beer or a cider, and this fills that gap just nicely if you don't want to do that every single day. Although - the lemonade would also be AWESOME with a bit of gin or whisky thrown in, winky face.