Lime & mint
Swap lemon for fresh lime and be generous with the mint.
Blue Coconut Lemonade
Bright lemon, creamy coconut and a colour that looks almost tropical before you've tasted it.
Cold drinks
Blue Coconut Lemonade
Bright lemon, coconut and an almost impossible tropical blue.
What you'll need
- 150 ml coconut water
- 50 ml cold water or soda water
- 20-25 ml fresh lemon juice
- 10-15 ml simple syrup, or to taste
- 0.15-0.25 g blue spirulina
- Ice
- Mint and a lemon or lime wheel, to finish
If your coconut water is already quite sweet, go easy on the syrup. Taste it first.
Make it
- 1Mix the blue. Stir the blue spirulina into a small splash of cold water until smooth.
- 2Build the lemonade. Add the coconut water, lemon juice and simple syrup to a glass or shaker and mix.
- 3Add the blue. Stir in your blue spirulina mixture and watch what happens to the colour.
- 4Pour over plenty of ice. Top with soda water if you want some fizz, then finish with mint and citrus.
About that colour
This is one recipe where the colour itself can be part of the fun.
Blue spirulina and lemon don't produce exactly the same blue you'd get in plain water or milk. Depending on how much lemon you use, the finished drink can land anywhere from a brilliant aquatic blue to turquoise.
Don't fight it. Make the lemonade taste good first, then adjust the amount of blue spirulina until you have a colour you like.
If you want to play with the effect, make the blue coconut base first and add the lemon at the end. You'll be able to see the drink change as the citrus mixes through it.
Make it sparkling
Replace the cold water with soda water and add it right at the end.
For a bar version, build the coconut, lemon and blue spirulina base first, pour it over ice, and top with soda. A tall clear glass does most of the work for you.
Having trouble with the colour?
If it looks greener or more turquoise than you expected, don't immediately add more powder. The lemon itself is affecting what you're seeing.
If you want a cleaner blue, try reducing the lemon slightly, increasing the coconut-water portion, or using the citrus as a separate layer added at service.
If you simply like the turquoise colour you've got, leave it alone.
Try it with
Pineapple coconut
Replace some of the coconut water with pineapple juice. Expect the yellow juice to change the finished colour, which can be part of the point.
Frozen
Blend the finished lemonade with plenty of ice for a blue coconut slush.
Behind the bar
Use the lemonade as a base for a highball or spritz. Keep darker spirits and syrups light if you want the blue to remain the visual focus.
Making these for a cafe?
For approximately 1 litre, start with:
- 700 ml coconut water
- 200 ml cold water
- 80-100 ml fresh lemon juice
- Simple syrup to taste
- Around 0.75-1 g blue spirulina
Make the lemonade first and taste it. Then add the blue spirulina gradually until you like the colour.
Keep it refrigerated and make it according to the same food-safety and holding practices you'd use for any other fresh lemonade.
If you're developing a packaged drink intended for longer storage, that's a different job: test the finished formulation for colour stability over its intended shelf life rather than assuming a cafe recipe will behave the same way.
Make yours blue
PrismaBlu™ Vivid
Blue spirulina powder
Choose a pack