On a hot afternoon in Tel Aviv, Amman or Beirut, this is what you order: a glass of pale green slush, sharp with lemon and so full of mint that it cools the whole mouth. It is simple, fast and ideal when the thermometer passes 30 degrees.
1½ oz
lemon juice
1 oz
simple syrup
12 leaves
mint leaves a small handful
2 oz
water
Garnish: Mint sprig and lemon wheel · Ice: Served up, no ice
Limonana
Very fresh and tart, with intense mint and bright lemon balanced by sugar. Icy, slushy and cooling.
Mint lemonade is common across the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, sold in cafés and juice bars from Israel and Jordan to Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. The name Limonana combines the Hebrew and Arabic words for lemon (limon) and mint (nana).
In Israel the name is linked to an often repeated story from the 1990s: an advertising campaign promoted a mint lemonade that did not yet exist in order to show how effective bus advertising was, and so many people asked for it that cafés began to make it. Whatever the details, the frozen, blended Limonana is today standard on summer menus throughout the region.
It combines limon (lemon) and nana (mint), the words used in Hebrew and Arabic.
Yes. It is made from lemon, sugar, mint, water and ice.
Yes. Muddle mint with syrup, add lemon juice and water, stir and pour over crushed ice. It will not be slushy, but it tastes very similar.
The perfect sound
Minty lemon cool in the Levant.
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