Cyprus Lemonade (Yia-Yia’s Lemonatha)

1.Make sure you have a dry bottle to hand. If there is any water inside the bottle, eventually your lemon squash will become sour. Much like when you make jam, the bottle should be completely dry. Place it in the oven at a low temperature to sterilize it. Leave it to cool while you prepare the lemon squash.

2. Wash the lemons and dry the same.

3. Squeeze the lemons. It is best if you can squeeze some of the oil from the peel as well. This is hard unless you happen to have a coffee-shop like juice extractor in your home, which (I think) would be rare. Instead, just squeeze the lemons as much as possible when juice them. The oil from the peel is useful because I think it helps a little with the taste, and eventually the oil will rise to the surface and better preserve the lemon squash. However, don’t worry if you cannot squeeze some of the oil from the peel out, as it is not fatal to the taste.

4. Add the sugar to the juice. Stir together with a wooden spoon until the sugar has been dissolved. If you wish, you can do this over the stove at a very low temperature. Do not let the mixture get too hot as the lemon squash will become bitter, and the vitamin C will get destroyed.

5. Once the bottles are cool, poor in the lemon squash and keep in the fridge.

6. To pour yourself a cup of lemonade, I usually use about 1/4 cup of lemon squash for every 1 cup of ice cold water. But it really depends on how sweet you like your lemonade. This lemonade is super refreshing!