I stood parched drinking a glass of water, and thinking it was quite boring! It’s been hot lately, and hydrating should really be more festive. I decided to brew some iced tea, when I noticed the stack of unused ice trays and an abundance of herbs in my kitchen. Then it occurred to me . . . I was going to spice-up my H2O with some homemade summer ice cubes! Now, frozen water cubelets aren’t inherently exciting, but using fresh, seasonal ingredients and your freezer, and there we have a ridiculously easy way to jazz-up your beverage.
I looked at my stores and decided to pull out fresh watermelon, raspberries, mini cucumbers, lemons and limes. I also thought we could pair these with fresh herbs like rosemary, orange mint, and basil. There are endless combinations, but here are how the pairings went down for my first batches:
- Raspberry with rosemary
- Lime juice with basil
- Lemon juice, basil, mint & cucumber
- Melon ball with mint
- Raspberry with lemon juice
- Cucumber with lemon juice
- Lemon juice with rosemary
- Melon ball with basil
Thirsty yet?! Good, let’s cube stuff:
Summer Ice Cubes
with fresh fruits & herbs
Brighten up your summer and your beverage with these easy summer ice cubes boasting fresh fruits, herbs and citrus! Perfect for a glass of water, or a creative cocktail.
What to get:
- 1 mini cucumber, sliced
- watermelon, using a small melon baller
- fresh raspberries
- juice of 2, sweet lemons.
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 2 limes
- zest of 1 lime
- 1-2 bottles of water, or distilled water
- fresh rosemary sprigs
- fresh mint, or orange mint variety, (cut leaves smaller if large)
What to do:
- Clean and dry two ice cube trays (you can do as many as you like, in varying cube sizes!).
- Assign different fruit and herb combinations to each tray/portions of trays.
- I made: raspberry rosemary, melon ball & orange mint, melon ball & basil, lemon & rosemary, lime & basil, basil & mint & cucumber, cucumber & lemon.
- First place in fruit and dry herb combos.
- Next add about 1/2 cube's worth of citrus juice to respective tray.
- Lastly, fill to top, covering ingredients with the bottled water.
- Freeze for a few hours.
- Use in festive drinks!
Notes
This is as easy, but make sure to use ingreds that are fresh and small enough to fit into your ice cube trays. Trays of different sizes can be used to!
These look pretty sharp in a drink, and would certainly be festive for a holiday BBQ. With the 4th of July approaching, maybe patriotic blueberry, strawberry cubes? Just saying! I had a couple of sizes of standard ice trays on hand, but these days you can find them in just about any shape and size. You can freeze a small segment of a citrus fruit if you want to keep it simple, but with the mixology craze these days, I can see getting a little experimental and loving it! Perhaps a cosmo with the raspberry rosemary cubes, or a vodka soda with the cucumber-lemon-mint-basil combo. Is it 5:00 yet? Well, until my next Happy Hour, my water was just upgraded with a melon ball & mint leaf—so long Crystal Light.
Hey this is a great idea. if You boil the water first it will be a clear cube when frozen.
Thank You Sharon! and thanks for the boiling tip also. I used bottled water hoping it would be clearer, but am definitely going to try boiling it for my next batch!
[…] Mazliet savādākas garšas izjūtas: avenes ar rozmarīnu, laims ar baziliku, gurķis ar piparmētru un citronu, melone ar piparmētru. Mājas lapa: The Dinnervine – www.dinnervine.com […]
[…] Mazliet savādākas garšas izjūtas: avenes ar rozmarīnu, laims ar baziliku, gurķis ar piparmētru un citronu, melone ar piparmētru. Mājas lapa: The Dinnervine – www.dinnervine.com […]
This ice cube thing is so simple and so beautiful…THANKS
Thank you Myrna! Hope you enjoy them, and thank-you for visiting the dinnervine!
ICE CUBES LOOK GREAT, CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THEM.
I would loveee to try your ice cubes …
What about using lemonade or another juice instead of water for added flavor or color?
Hi DB, that would work well too! I used fresh squeezed lemon, but if you have already prepared lemonade, that could work well. You could use other juices also, though I used water since I wanted the cubes as transparent as possible, so to see the fruit & herbs. Thanks for visiting the dinnervine! Hope you enjoy these.
I think this is a great idea.!!!!!!!1
Thank you Maria! It is fun to do in summer, mixing and matching fresh herbs and fruits you have on hand! Thanks for stopping by the dinnervine.
[…] Summer Cubed: Brighten up your beverage with these easy, festive ice cubes boasting fresh fruits, herbs & citrus! Perfect for glass of water or creative cocktail. […]
where can i buy the larger size ice cube trays? I’ve only seen them in one size { standed ]I would love to try them.Looks great.Thank You,I never would have thought to do this.
Hi Terry,
Thank you for visiting the dinnervine & my ice cube recipe!
I actually found some larger cube trays at my local Sur La Table store (like these online: http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-18219/?affsrcid=Aff0001&CAGPSPN=pla&CAWELAID=120120820000120022&catargetid=120120820000151819&cadevice=c&gclid=COThhuDsgMYCFQxqfgodHDQA7g)
Though, in this post I actually used regular trays; they are standard ‘cube’ size I think, but I now have the larger ones and they work better! I like the bigger size also when making pitchers of drinks, like sangria iced tea or lemonade, since they stay frozen longer. I Hope you enjoy them and thank you again!
This is definitely a great idea! – R