I wish I had been online this weekend and seen your post. Geneva went from feeling like London in October, to a scorching, humid 90° greenhouse without a breeze, in one day - needless to say our fans have been working overtime! This drink would have been just the thing. Have you tried replacing the sugar with agave syrup and if yes does it work well with the recipe?
Erika

Hi - Just reading the description and recipe for the mixer, I KNOW I'll love this. Almost made me feel like I've actually tasted it, even. Must try when/if I find blackberries.. (one of the hardest berries to find in Japan!). Thanks for sharing as always, and hope you are still blessed with the proper summer weather.

I believe this would be a wonderful mixed drink as well. Perhaps some cachaça rum would turn this into an incredible blackberry caipirinha.

My my, this sounds just incredible. I've still got another month or so here in northern California until blackberry season and hot weather. I can't wait to try it.

I love the gorgeous scarlet color of the drink -- that alone is a strong selling point. It sounds like a lot of work though -- perhaps I'll make it up in batches. I'm definitely lean toward the non-sweet camp as drinks go, so I'll be using sparkling water, and I may see if I can get away with less raw sugar too -- we'll see. Looks very refreshing and invigorating, perfect for the kind of humid days we get here.

Ooh, this limeade looks wonderful! But personally, I'm more intrigued by the cantaloupe martini with basil and mint. Sounds perfect!

Looks perfect for a baby shower I will be hosting this summer. Love the color

Thanks!

This sounds like a beautiful drink Heidi. It's starting to (finally) get a little warmer in London now and I could just sink one of these! I think I would be tempted to put some alcohol in there though, what does that say about me?!

This is wonderful! Being in and from the South myself, I have to say cool, refreshing drinks are high on the priority list. Georgia summers can start in April and end in November. That's a lot of drinking!

I'm a big fan of quick spritzers using pungent fruit juices and/or herbal tea, sparkling water, fresh herbs and perhaps a touch of agave nectar which lends a light honey-like flavor and dissolves right into a cool beverage.

I've posted a spritzer or two on my Life Chef blog as well if anyone's interested.

I got thirsty just reading the title!

I have to get this cookbook. If you live in Louisiana you can never have too many cold drink recipes.

We also drink hot Dr Pepper with a slice of lemon in the winter.

oh that looks so so refreshing, i've been craving lemonade since it got hot I can't wait to try this it sounds even better than regular old lemonaide

Wow, this looks great. I wish I had this recipe over the weekend when it was 112 degrees!

THIS is what a breastfeeding mother needs. OH! I'm so thirsty.

First I shall nurse and then I shall make this delectable drink.

This, plus some tequila, is very close to a Blackberry Mint Margarita that I have made from a Hungry Cat recipe. I was already thinking about making it again and I think this has sealed the deal!

This sounds wonderful, but sweet. I tend to love slightly tart citrusy drinks because all that sweetness seems to only make me more thirsty. I wonder how much sugar a tart version of this would need?

I drink blackberry iced tea all the time, but now I'm going to have to try blackberry limeade! Love the photo of the squeezed limes.

Lovely twist to a classic recipe Heidi! I've tried it with easpberries, but blackberry!! interesting:)

Boy would that be freshing here in Mesa, AZ! Ever been to AZ during the sizzling heat? The freshest berries we get here are actually strawberries, but nothing like the ones you can get in CA at the markets right off the road. As for raspberries and blackberries, mold starts to appear right there in the grocery store. I returned my high priced moldy berries pronto.

What a delicious beverage. I love limeade; I made a version with fresh ginger that got us through last summer's heat.

Thanks for sharing Martha's cookbook with us! Another beautiful cookbook is Frank Stitt's Southern Table. Southern recipes can be heavy on the fat, but also very satisfying. Having grown up in Louisiana, I miss foods like mirliton casserole, my grandmother's butter beans, and of course, boiled crawfish. Of course, it's great to have some super food alternatives, too!

Can anyone say 4th of July? I was just wondering what drink I should make. This sounds perfect! Though knowing my family, I bet it'll end up with some Grey Goose in it before the fireworks start!

That looks so refreshing! I bet that it would be great with stevia as well. I don't like stevia in most things, but it works great with limes or lemons, for some reason.

it's crazy that you post this today because i was just thinking about what i'm going to do with the 10 baskets of berries i bought at the farmers market yesterday. and i LOVE cardamom and limes! this is perfect for a hot sacramento evening!

HOORAY!!! It's so nice to see that key limes are finally getting the credit that they deserve as being extremely versatile for more things than just Key Lime Pie (not that pie is bad)!!! We use these a lot in South American food/drink, and I get very creative with the beautiful, crisp flavor these little beauties can give. I cannot WAIT to try this limeade... seems like the flavors would go perfectly together. Try using key lime juice in your guacamole & other dips; gives a much better flavor than plain old limes. I use it for no-bake cheesecakes, dressings, you name it!

Great recipe, Heidi!

What a great recipe - will be very refreshing in my world where it has been about 111 outside (in the shade ;)). I wonder how it would taste with a splash of Vodka added to it. Hmm sounds like a must try for this weekend.

Cheers and Thank You
Cathy
www.wheresmydamnanswer.com

this looks ... amazing! and now i am longing for a tall, cool glass ...

This recipe sounds wonderful. I think this warm Seattle day calls for a drink like this.

healthy and yummy!

it must be delicious~

love it！

i seem to be the only one under 50 who posts on these things (im 11)

but i cant just exit out without giving you props

it would be a great and healthy substitue for lemonade
maybe i will get a stand selling these for 99 cents or something

looks great!!

This sounds like it would go wonderfully with various Indian cuisines. We'll have to try this with grated jaggery -- though, blackberries being both scarce and expensive, we may try substituting tamarind. (Tamarind, ginger, and jaggery would also make a wonderful drink, I'm thinking!)

HS: sounds great! Please report back if you give that combo a try :)

This does sound really good! I think I might try your recipe with the different spices. I live in south Louisiana, and work in Metairie (a suburb of New Orleans); we have been picking blackberries in the back yard for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I have a big stash growing in the freezer. At the end of May, they had the strawberry festival nearby, and my husband was able to get a whole flat of LA strawberries for $10 on the roadside. We made jam, we made popsicles, some with blackberries, some without.

My favorite, however, was to take the leftover "popsicle" mix (blackberry & strawberry), and pour it into the small ice cube trays, and pop those fruity ice cubes into white wine spritzers. Delicious!

Our blackberries were on earlier this month in the Low Country. This recipe would be perfect with a fresh Halibit fillet, some fresh snap beans wild rice and for the last course a scoop of Ice cream with some fresh berries on top:) I have gained a greater appreciation for Limeaide since moving from the west to the southeast!

The kaffir lime and cardamom sound amazing in this. but it seems like a lot of sugar. Do you think it could be reduced, perhaps even by half?

Erika--I have used agave nectar in lemonade and some other homemade fruit concoctions lately, with nice results. It's such a mellow kind of sweet that dissolves easily in other liquids, particularly if you like to control the sweetness.

Indeed, nyc has been socked with August-like temps/humidity lately, so this is perfectly timed, Heidi!

I make a drink similar to this that you might enjoy. Since I moved to WA from FL I have been freezing excess berries. Once you thaw them (when you really want a summer drink in midwinter) the juice just falls out of them, they are very easy to squeeze. Personally I don't think I ever add sugar to anything I do with them though, they are so sweet as it is.

Heidi, those look like Bearss limes, not Key limes. Since Key limes are intensely flavored and slightly bitter, the amount of sugar would be correct in the recipe as written, but too sweet when using limes other than Key Limes.

Also, this may be a perfect time to repeat the recipe for hibiscus flowers. I just made a batch yesterday and sweetened it with Stevia and it was sooo refreshing.

HS: Hi James! I love that hibiscus cooler. Thanks for the comment. I'm pretty sure these were Key limes - the photo actually makes them look a bit different. A couple little stickers on the limes said Key limes - they tasted like the Key limes I've had in the past, and were the right size.

Haha! Thank you for sharing the warm weather with the Midwesterners, because I was feeling the heat and also made a sparkling beverage--mine's grapefruit and orange (http://sprouted.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/refreshing-grapefruit-orange-sparkler/ if someone wants it), but the berry one sounds like it's on my list for next time. Cardamom notes sound delicious, and I have a bag of pods asking to be used in more ways than I've thought of. I love a naturally carbonated beverage.

I am looking forward to trying this. I love the sound of the cookbook and of her descriptions. I like being able to picture that world as I drink my limeade.

Your suggestions for the mixer sound delicious. I am not much of a soda person either.

Sounds like a good Louisiana drink! I can't wait to try it! It is hot as ever here in Louisiana. Thanks for sharing. I will want some by this evening when it is 90...:-)

As a Northerner committed to learning to cook Southern for a year this book is on my shelf with the other great Southern cooks ( Edna Lewis, Scott Peacock, James Villas etc.) Glad to see your lovely post on Martha's book.

I'm so excited to try this! I have a stock of key limes that have been sitting in my fridge since our beach outing last weekend. This'll be the perfect conclusion to my key lime exploration. Thanks for always having great, healthy recipes!

I love the use of cardamom in this recipe. And who knew blackberries could make limeade so sexy!? I love it!

it looks so good! but tastes only okay. it's a lot of work to get blackberry juice via the cheesecloth method. it took three 6 oz packages to get 3/4 cup. i'd definitely suggest other methods. in the end, it's extremely sweet, even with sparkling water instead of ginger ale. i'd suggest cutting the sugar down to 3/4 cup or possibly even 1/2 cup. i'd put a couple of cardamom pods in, too, to bring out this more interesting dynamic.

HS: I'll add a little mention in the sidebar -for some it might make sense to keep the components separate - making it easy to mix each drink to order. That way each person can control their own level of flavor/sweetness.

This looks so beautiful and delicious. Nothing could be more quenching on a hot day...

Yum! We have a huge thicket of blackberries in our backyard and always make blackberry lemonade in the summer. Can't wait to try this with my homegrown berries!

Hi,
Nothing could take place of homemade fruit juice. I just made lemonade and it was delicious.

Looks like a yummy and refreshing drink. I will have to try it.

I've had many "ades" mixed with berry-raspberry lemonade, strawberry lemonade, but never blackberry limeade.

I buy bags of limes every other week at the store to make personal size limeades-squeezing half a lime into a glass of water, adding some raw cane sugar and tada!

This was divine! We have a bumper crop of blackberries from the big patch in our back yard, and my 8 year old son thought sqeezing the blackberries was the funnest thing ever!

I, too, took the sugar down a bit. I didn't have kaffir lime leaves, so used a mint leaf instead, which worked nicely. Also used seltzer instead of ginger ale.

Am going out picking more blackberries now!

this is perfect for a hot summer in the inland empire!!

Berries hand-twist-pressed through cloth... genius... The three of us went Strawberry picking at a local farm last weekend (a must-do in the Southern Willamette Valley)... we couldn't resist trying this with the classic pairing... So we did strawberry lemonade, and infused with jasmine according to your process... After swashing up the batch, we couldn't resist icing up a quart in the shaker with some agave tequila... and wazoo... It was patio night.

When berries turn later in the summer, we'll color inside the lines!

Thanks as always.

Oh my god. You ladies have way, way, waaay too much time on your hands if you're spending time making this! The first line ("Lay a doubled piece of cheesecloth on a non-porous work area.") is already too involved for a damn glass of limeade. Save yourself the trouble: buy the store brand frozen limeade concentrate, add a good stiff belt of vodka, and you won't care about the lack of blackberries!