Iced Is Nice

The heat of summer is breaking down our doors – time for a cold beverage! Give your iced-tea, lemonade, cocktail or even just plain water, a tasty colorful boost by using easy fancy ice-cubes or frozen fruit.

Go old school. Forget your icemaker. Find old-fashioned ice cube trays where you pop out the ice. Not only do they still make them, but they also have ice cube molds in loads of fun shapes and sizes.

Ideas to get you started:

Mint leaves and/or fruit pieces: How many mint leaves or pieces of fruit you add to each tray is up to you. I prefer to fill the trays with 2/3 fruit and 1/3 water – but free-style them YOUR way.

– Place fresh mint leaves into an ice-cube tray, then fill tray with water. These ice cubes go great in iced tea, lemonade, cocktails or just plain water or seltzer water.

– Place several fresh mint leaves into an ice-cube tray, then fill tray with LEMONADE. These mint-lemonade ice cubes go especially well in cocktails and iced tea.

– Freeze ice cubes of LEMONADE and add them into your favorite iced tea to convert it to “lemonade-iced tea”! Or add lemonade ice cubes into other drinks for a citrus kick.

– Freeze coconut water (not milk) into ice cube trays to enhance any drink with a hint of coconut flavor. Goes well in cocktails or fruity seltzer water.

– Add whole fresh or frozen berries into ice cube trays and add water. This fruity ice makes lemonade and cocktails more flavorful. Goes well in plain or seltzer water, too.

– Add crushed berries (can be a mix of several berries or all the same) to ice-cube trays. Add water and freeze. Crushed berries or other crushed fruit will be a more potent flavor than large chunks of frozen fruit.

– Experiment with freezing pieces of crushed or other frozen fruits such as apples, pineapples, peaches, etc. Adding these fruits can give boring lemonade, iced tea, etc., a totally new vibe.

– Pour leftover coffee into ice-cube trays and freeze. Add them to your favorite vanilla or coffee smoothie!

– NO TRAYS NEEDED: Wash whole lemons, limes and/or oranges, then slice them into rounds. Lay a freezer bag on a flat surface, open the pouch and place the slices side-by-side in the bag. Lay the bag “flat” when you freeze it. This way you can pull out individual slices as needed (and they won’t freeze into one big clump). Add to almost any drink to give an extra pop of flavor and color.

You can also keep a bag of whole frozen strawberries, pineapple chunks, etc., and simply plop the frozen fruit into your favorite drink or beverage. These will help keep the drink cold and add extra flavor as they melt.

GOT LEFTOVER FRUIT??? Freezing pieces of them in ice-cube trays is a great way to use them up and not waste them. OR: NO FREEZING NECESSARY if you simply add the leftover fresh fruit to your favorite seltzer water, plain water, iced tea, etc. Fresh crushed peaches in pink lemonade – fabulous!

Remember, crushing fruit releases more flavor than fruit that’s frozen or used “whole.” You choose! Summer is here and free-style your ice-cubes to makes your summer sipping even more fun (and colorful)!