This drink is de rigueur at hoity-toity British summer festivities: Wimbledon, opera festivals, cricket matches, and other pinkie-erecting affairs. It’s usually heavily garnished with fruits like apples, strawberries, lemons and oranges, although some take it only with a thin slice of cucumber. You could also substitute whole berries like blueberries or blackberries for the sliced strawberries in the recipe below.
Many recipes call for ginger ale, but be careful if you’re in the US or another country that prefers saccharine-sweet ginger ale; that ingredient is far less sweet in the UK and is closer to ginger beer. Bitter lemon soda is actually our fizz of choice here, and even a sweeter lemon soda like Sanpellegrino’s is quite nice. For a lighter flavor, sparkling water (or a flavored sparkling water like cucumber, lemon or berry) is lovely as well.
