Cheers to our cricket star

The vast majority of the time the kidlets are water drinkers, when it's not water, it's milk.  When we want to do something special in the kitchen then, it can be as simple as a 'fancy' drink - with anything other than cow juice or H2O considered exactly this. 

Miss Eight and Master Six both enjoy 'Milo in2cricket' so when the opportunity arose for Miss Eight and one parent (given his love for cricket The Lovely Man was always going to be said parent) to attend day 2 of this year's Boxing Day Test, including going onto the hallowed turf of the MCG during lunch for a spot of skills practice we were all thrilled, even Master Six....once he got over those pangs of envy!

The usual garb for our mini cricketers is the green and gold, but, for this huge event featuring only the girls from Milo in2cricket, they got to wear some magenta gear:

It may or may not be Miss Eight sitting with her back to us in this image - The Lovely Man was a little confused as to who was who under the hats!

In honour then, of this momentous occasion, I thought a celebratory drink would be in order, a drink of similarly spectacular colouration.  What good fortune then, that we still have copious amounts of last summer's blackberries in the freezer!  Perfect for me to make some sort of Blackberry Lemonade.

Joy of joys too, I was, apparently a very good girl this past year, as, while I might have secretly wished it, Father Christmas saw fit to gift me a beautiful cream Kitchenaid Blender in spite of me not telling a soul!  That man in red sure is magic!

Blackberry Lemon Drop

300ml water
260gm sugar (enough sugar to bring the water level mark up to 600ml)
250ml lemon juice
300g blackberries (ideally frozen)
1 x 250ml cups worth of ice cubes
250ml chilled water


Put the water into a microwave safe 1 litre capacity jug, I use Pyrex.  Add enough sugar to bring the liquid level up to 600ml, which should be about 260gm of sugar give or take.

Pop the jug in the microwave and zap for 2 minutes, remove from heat and whisk about until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Keep in mind microwave power can vary, this is enough for my water to heat without boiling - very important NOT to boil the water here as if the sugar hasn't dissolved it will crystallise.

Pour the sugar syrup into a blender and add the lemon juice and blackberries. 

Using the best option for your particular blender, mix the ingredients until everything is combined.  Add the ice cubes and blend until the crunching noise stops.

Pour the drink through a fine sieve and use a silicone spatula to assist the liquid ingredients to pass through into a jug.

Return the blender goblet to it's machine, and add the final cup of water.  Give it a quick buzz to remove the last of the juice, and pour this through the sieve too.  Transfer the lemonade to the fridge until ready to serve over lots of ice and with some extra frozen blueberries if you have them.

Makes about 1.2 litres of drink
I was going to call this drink a lemonade, but it was texturally just too thick to feel very lemonade-like.  It was however gorgeously smooth, not cloyingly sweet, and still very refreshing. 

This isn't a fizzy drink, though you could dilute it with some sparkling water to make it that way.  In fact, for my drink I did exactly that - a way to indulge without having quite as much sugar as the children.  I admit, I preferred it neat - the great handful of ice was just enough to dilute.

The children enjoyed the fact this drink had a head on it like beer or a 'spider', the froth making it just that much more fun - and the similarity of the froth to Miss Eight's special uniform didn't go unnoticed either.

The 'healthier' version of the drink, having the addition of some sparkling water.  It still tastes delicious, but it's truly not as good as the original.
So we held our glasses up to Miss Eight, for the chance to stand where so many of our most celebrated sport heroes have stood before and push an over-sized cricket ball around the 'G' using an equally over-sized cricket bat!  What an honour!