Sparkling Cherry Lemonade

This post is sponsored by the Cherry Marketing Institute, who represents America’s tart cherry growers and processors. Thank you for supporting companies I believe in and allowing me to create more unique content for you!

The first trimester of pregnancy, while usually accompanied by severe nausea and fatigue, is full of food cravings and aversions. My pregnancy includes more aversions than cravings. This includes terrible aversions to desserts, especially chocolate. Sad. On the bright side, however, it’s also home to lots of fruit and tart cravings! Woohoo!

When I was contacted by the Cherry Marketing Institute a few weeks ago about developing some recipes with their Montmorency tart cherries, I was over the moon! Tart and delicious in all of their glory, these superfruits contain a flavonoid called anthocyanins, which are good-for-you phytonutrients that contribute to their bright red color, distinguishing taste and have even been linked to a number of health benefits.

The tart cherry’s harvest season is from July-mid August (quite short, if you ask me!), but (thank goodness!) they are available year round in dried, juiced, frozen and concentrate form. Hooray!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some delicious tart cherry recipes! I’m going to incorporate them in everything from appetizers to dessert. I’ve also got lots of interesting tart cherry facts that I’ll be sharing, that I’m really excited about.

To kick us off, I’ve made this refreshing and fun drink for a summer day! Sparkling Cherry Lemonade is sweet, tart, cold and sparkly, all in one! Perfect for a pool party, if you ask me.

Cheers!

Sparkling Cherry Lemonade

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 cups cherry juice
• 3 cups sparkling water
• ice cubes

How-To

1. In a small sauce pan on medium heat, warm the lemon juice and honey until the honey has been combined. Remove from the heat.
2. In a large pitcher, combine the lemon and honey mixture with the cherry juice and sparkling water. Stir in enough ice cubes to fill the pitcher.

This post has been sponsored by the Cherry Marketing Institute. I received compensation for this post and all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for further information.