Strawberry season is here and I am putting my favorite berry to use and making a refreshing Honey-Sweetened Strawberry Basil Limeade. This is a refined-sugar free, non-alcoholic recipe that you can serve to everyone in your family throughout the summer.
If you have never tried the combination of lime, strawberries, and basil, it is time that you start because it is out-of-this-world delicious. Sweetened with honey syrup, this strawberry basil mocktail recipe takes less than 10 minutes of hands on time to make and can be made ahead of time.
Ingredients:
You will need fresh limes, strawberries, basil leaves, water, and honey simple syrup (honey and water).
While you can use store bought lime juice, I highly recommend taking the time to juice your own because the difference between is taste is worlds apart. Freshly squeezed limes deliver a much more refreshing taste.
You might ask, how many limes will I need for 1 cup of lime juice? The answer is that it depends on the size of your limes, but I usually use 10-12 limes.
How To Make Strawberry Basil Limeade?
The recipe for this refined sugar-free limeade recipe has 5 folds:
- Make honey simple syrup: Mix together 1 cup of honey with 1 cup of water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat until honey fully dissolves. Set it aside to cool.
Related: Having been sharing only naturally sweetened recipes since 2016, I only use honey syrup to sweeten my alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. If you want to know more about it, be sure to check my detailed post of how to make honey syrup at home.
- Zest & Squeeze lime: In order to up the lime flavors in my strawberry basil limeade, I zest the lime and add it into the honey simple syrup. It is an optional step but it is an easy way to make it even more delicious.
Squeeze the limes and place in a large jug. - Prep strawberries and basil: Cut up strawberries in chunks and place it in the jug along with torn fresh basil leaves.
- Add in water: Pour in 6 cups of water and now cooled honey syrup. Give it a stir, cover it with a lid (or cover it with stretch film),place it in the fridge, and let it rest for 2 hours, preferably overnight.
- Serve: When ready to serve, fill glasses with ice, pour in strawberry limeade, and garnish with sliced lime, fresh basil, and chunks of strawberries.
Make Ahead & Storing Instructions:
- Make ahead instructions: You can make this basil limeade a day in advance. As a matter of fact, I recommend doing so. The time spent resting in the fridge brings everything together and makes the most delicious summer drink. Simply follow the recipe as written and give it a good shake before serving.
- Storage: If you are planning to serve it on the next day I recommend placing it in a bottle (I like 1 liter Weck bottles (affiliate link)) with a lid so that it will stay fresh. This way, it should stay fresh up to 3 days.
Variations:
With just a few quick swaps or addition, you can change up this easy strawberry and basil drink recipe.
- Use fresh mint instead of basil: I have made this strawberry basil drink many times by switching mint with basil. It is an easy 1 to 1 swap and just as refreshing and delicious.
- Muddle Strawberries with basil: I like to leave the strawberries in chunks but you can also muddle them with fresh basil leaves before putting them in the liquid mixture.
- Strawberry Basil Lemonade: Don’t have limes on hand? Use lemons and turn it into a lemonade.
- Honey Basil Simple Syrup: If you want more of a pronounced basil honey flavor, simply place a few fresh basil leaves in the honey syrup and let them steep for 10-15 minutes before adding it into the drink.
- Strawberry Basil Cocktail: If you want to turn this strawberry basil drink into a refreshing summer cocktail, you can add in a shot of (2 oz. per serving) tequila, vodka or gin. I honestly cannot imagine a better happy hour cocktail.
Other refreshing sugar-free drinks you might like
- Mint and Rosemary Lemonade
- Ginger Iced Tea
- Lemongrass Ginger Rhubarb Soda – Vanilla and Bean
- Strawberry Sweet Iced Tea (honey sweetened) – Perchance to Cook
- Need more inspiration? Check out all our easy drink recipes
Other strawberry drinks you might like
Strawberry Basil Limeade Recipe
Ingredients
To Make the Honey-Sweetened Simple Syrup:
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup water
For the Limeade:
- 10-12 medium size fresh limes plus 1 more as garnish, you need 1 cup of lime juice
- 1 cup strawberries, sliced – plus more as garnish
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped – plus more as garnish
- ice
- 6 cups water
Instructions
To make the honey-sweetened simple syrup:
- Place honey and water in a small saucepan. Cook until honey is completely dissolved. Set aside and let it cool.
- Zest 3 limes and place the zest in the saucepan with the dissolved honey.
To make the limeade:
- Squeeze the juices of the limes. You should have at least one cup of lime juice.
- Place the honey mixture and lime juice in a pitcher. Add in sliced strawberries and chopped basil.
- Add in 6 cups of cold water and give it a good stir. Place it in the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours.
- When ready to serve, pour limeade into glasses filled with ice and garnish with chunks of strawberries fresh basil leaves, and a slice of a lime.
Notes
- Make ahead instructions: You can make this basil limeade a day in advance. As a matter of fact, I recommend doing so. The time spent resting in the fridge brings everything together and makes the most delicious summer drink. Simply follow the recipe as written and give it a good shake before serving.
- Storage: If you are planning to serve it on the next day I recommend placing it in a bottle with a lid so that it will stay fresh. This way, it should stay fresh up to 3 days.
- Got any questions about the honey syrup? Be sure to check out my Homemade Honey Simple Syrup recipe to get all your questions answered.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was originally published in May 2016. It has been updated with a few new photos and additional helpful information in April 2021. No changes have been made to the recipe.
Your photos are stunning! This drink looks perfect for summer. I love your blog 🙂
What a beautiful drink – I can picture this being a signature drink for a bridal or baby shower. Can’t wait to make it.
Thank you Zully. I agree with you. This would make the prettiest drink for a bridal or baby shower.
Cheers!
Beautiful! Love how much fruit you put in it!!
Thank you Eden. More strawberry never hurts, no? 🙂
Such an interesting perspective to hear about the restaurant side of photography. It sounds stressful! I think you captured the light and brightness spot on. I just found your blog yesterday and have been loving reading through your posts and ogling the pictures. Tropical living sounds lovely. 🙂
Hey Christy, Thank you so much for your kind words. It always surprises me how restaurant professionals’ vision an request is different from print and online media.
Yes, tropical living was nice, but we are no longer living there. Though I have to say, I recommend it to anyone.
Thanks for stopping by.
Ice
PS: I love your blog too. :))
You know me – I LOVE these bright, happy photos! Gorgeous post and interesting perspective 🙂 xo
I knew it! I was thinking about you when I was photographing this drink. 😉
Omg love love love this combination!!! It looks so refreshing and the photos are absolutely gorgeous!!
I love the lightness of these photos, especially for a summer drink. Makes me feel like I could take that drink right out the door to my sunny deck. But I also like your dark photos for their strong mood. It is great that you are experimenting and stretching your skills. Cheers!
I cannot tell you how interesting I found this post- it’s my dream to someday do more freelance photography work for restaurants and companies, but I’m a bit intimidated to be thrown into situations completely out of my control. So glad to hear about your experience, how you challenged yourself, and how you grew from it. These photos look so natural and looks as if it came so easily to you. I struggle with styling and props, which is partly why I adore your photos and find them so inspiring. Two thumbs up for you. 🙂
I am glad to hear that my experience resinated with you Emily. It always amazes me when I work with restaurants as their styling and composition expectations are so much simpler than the kind photography that we produce for our blogs or any other websites. They usually want a simple photo of the dish (most of the time with a close up image) with almost no props around it.
I am sure you will get there someday. I still am working really hard to get work but once you start connecting with the right people and offer great service you start getting business. Most of the time it is not glamorous and lighting is almost always a big challenge, but with good intentions and communication things work out.
Styling is a tough one for me as well. I guess it is a working progress for all of us. And let me tell you, it doesn’t come easily to me.
If there is any way that I can help you with any of this, do not hesitate to contact me. I am here to help anytime.
Thank you for your kind words my friend.
What a beautiful post, Ice. The colors are so vibrant & bright. I really love it.
Btw, you are right the bright photos are hard to shoot, and esp. harder to shoot without a proper light. I don’t doubt you pull it off, my dear friend. Congrats!
P.S. Rachel is one of my favorite food photographers 🙂 I, too, love her blog.
Oh Pang thank you so much for your kind words. Finding the right “white” and making sure it is the same tone in every photo was the biggest challenge. But I am working on it. :))
Cheers!
Sounds like it was a really great experience! I think you did a great job with these photos! It is really challenging for me as well! It’s so easy to blowout parts of the photos or they end up too blue or too yellow. I love both dark and light photography. xO
Oh yes, I hate it when parts of the photo is over exposed while other parts are not exposed at all. And you are right on finding the right tone of the white. I guess it is all a part of the fun. Right? :))
Thank you for stopping by Stephanie! <3