Foobooz Six Pack: Lemonade


Editor’s Note: There’s no better way to get to know someone than to ask them what they eat. Thus, whenever we have a new face around Foobooz World HQ, we ask them to tell us by assembling their own Foobooz Six Pack, focusing on something they craved.

Today, we have Alissa Falcone. As an English major and French minor going into her senior year at Drexel, she insists that she’s spent more time complaining about sugar highs and food comas than hangovers. “On weekend mornings, I usually wake up and ask myself, ‘What did I eat last night?’ she says. “Mostly because I’m trying to remember if there are leftovers for the morning after. Plus, you know, I’ve basically been eating for as long as I can remember, so I’m pretty good at it.” Here, Alissa gives us a perfect Six Pack for a hot day: The best lemonade in Philadelphia.

Summer is usually the best picking times for lots of berries, but lemons deserve their own moment in the sun. After all, when you’re all hot and sweaty from the 90+ degree temperature, you don’t immediately reach for a handful of strawberries, do you? You don’t have to be stranded at an oasis in the Sahara to appreciate how life-saving lemonade can be on a hot summer day. So now that it’s officially lemonade season in Philadelphia, here are my picks to beat the heat.

Berry Lemonade – Blueberry Lemonade at White Dog Café

The purple-y color, along with the blueberry taste, of the blueberry lemonade at White Dog Café brings an unexpected twist to the standard berry-and-lemonade combo. This glass is two-thirds full of fresh-squeezed lemonade topped off with homemade blueberry simple syrup created using local blueberries, lemon juice and just a pinch of salt. Perfect for sitting outside and sipping on while people watching.

White Dog Café
3420 Sansom Street
(215) 386-9224

Dessert Lemonade – Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade at Lil’ Pop Shop

Now you can drink your lemonade and eat it too with the Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade pop at Lil’ Pop Shop. The local strawberries and rhubarb are frozen into the fresh lemon, sugar, and honey juice mixture, so even though the strawberry rhubarb lemonade isn’t the wackiest flavor available, it’ll definitely make you wish there’s a hammock outside of either location. Drinking lemonade outside in the sun is pretty nice, but eating the frozen lemonade on a hot day? Even better.

Lil’ Pop Shop
265 S 44th Street
(610) 919-0784
534 S. 4th Street
215-923-3509

Fruity Lemonade – Passion Fruit Lemonade at Buddakan

Forget about Starbuck’s Tazo Passion Tea Lemonade and go fresh with the Passion Fruit Lemonade at Buddakan. The lemonade relies on cocktail-like precision when it comes to the organic fresh-squeezed lemonade mixed with 1 oz. white peach puree with 3 oz. of Goya passion fruit juice and served on the rocks. The peach and passion fruit surpass the usual strawberry or lime or mango lemonades to be one of the city’s most original and interestingly fruit-flavored lemonades.

Buddakan
325 Chestnut Street
(215) 574-9440

 Healthy Lemonade – Green Lemonade at HipCityVeg

HipCityVeg is nominated in our Best of Philly reader’s poll “Healthy Lunch” category, but their Green Lemonade is really good for you too. Instead of using sugar like most lemonade recipes, HipCityVeg uses raw organic agave nectar, which is healthier than pure sugar and requires a smaller dosage to make the drink sweet. Plus, the shot of organic kale juice gives the drink a bright lime green color that will definitely turn heads wherever you enjoy it.

HipCityVeg
127 S 18th Street
(215) 278-7605

Frozen Lemonade – Yellow Granita at Max Brenner

A granita is a semi-frozen Italian dessert in the sorbet or Italian ice family, but Max Brenner is so used to doing things “the Max way” that the yellow granita becomes a dessert in a glass. Crushed, not whole, ice is blended with mint and lemonade made with lemon juice, simple syrup and water to create a drink that is slushy without being grainy. The mint gives the drink more of a green hue, but when it tastes this good, who cares about the misleading name?

Max Brenner
1500 Walnut St
(215) 344-8150

Spicey Lemonade – Ginger lemonade at Alla Spina

Though it’s only listed on the brunch menu, the ginger lemonade at Alla Spina is available throughout the week, which needs to be taken advantage of. Fresh ginger is cooked into simple syrup to extract the flavor and infuse it in the homemade lemonade. Ginger’s usually used with hot water and lemon for a healthy herbal hot drink, but Alla Spina’s take on it makes it much more summer-friendly.

Alla Spina
1410 Mt Vernon Street
(215) 600-0017