I've made summer lemonade!
'A dear child has many names' is a saying over here, and this drink has many names: Louhisaari drink, the Marshal's mead (the marshal being Mannerheim, born in Louhisaari manor), the priest's liquor...
It is a fresh drink with a perhaps slightly peculiar, summery taste that can be hard to place - it is leaf juice, made out of black currant leaves.
The lemonade is very easy to do, made by collecting fresh black currant leaves, rinsing them and then soaking them in water with lemon over night. In some versions you boili the water to pour over the leaves, in others you heat the mix up to boil. In some versions sugar is added right away, in other's the next day after the leaves have been filtered away, before bottling.
This drink is most often made into mead with a little bit of yeast added and the bottles set to ferment. I made all mine as lemonade this year as some of my bottles went a little over last year and exploded in the fridge, making everything smell like cat piss for weeks. (Bit forget about that and think of fresh leaves and flowers and a summery breeze sipping thos out int the garden instead alright?)
The lemonade is best mixed out with water; sparkling water works very well.
(I made my last batch with some raspberry- and mint leaves in the soak as well, and am most hopefully I am zipping it sitting a chair by the sea right now as you read this; I set this post scheduled as I am still in midsummer mode!)
