A non-alcoholic sparkling cranberry lime and pomegranate beverage — perfect for holiday entertaining!
When I was first married, I came to the stark realization that lots of things I considered “normal” were in fact very foreign to my husband. It turns out that families have different habits, traditions, and ways of doing things. Who knew? ? Merging our different backgrounds into our own family has been a great adventure and one we are still, and probably always will be, working on.
There have been lots of good laughs along the way though. On our very first Thanksgiving together as a married couple we spent it with my family. We made the sides, desserts, or whatever contributions we had decided on and brought them to the family dinner. The husband had bought a few bottles of cranberry juice to bring to the dinner. (I never saw him make the purchase.) Apparently his family always has cranberry juice for Thanksgiving dinner so it was completely normal for him to bring.
He brought it in to my family’s house and placed it in the fridge. As dinner began, he exclaimed, “Oh! I brought cranberry juice, we should grab it out!” My youngest sister giggled. Then my next sister started giggling. Until all the sisters (I have four) were laughing. They all explained that they were certain that he had a urinary tract infection and that is why he’d brought the cranberry juice.
Yes. Because in my home growing up, the ONLY reason we ever had cranberry juice was if someone had a urinary tract infection. That is a fact. My mom rarely bought any juice growing up. We were raised on milk and water. And sometimes chocolate milk ?. That is, unless one of us got a urinary tract infection in which she would buy gallons of cranberry juice and have us drink a cup about every hour.
In case you were wondering though, the husband and I with our two little boys? We now drink cranberry juice quite frequently. I’m a pretty big juice purchaser because we all enjoy it so much!
And this is our FAVORITE way to drink it! 🙂
- 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds
- 2-3 limes
- 3/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup for rimming glasses
- 2 and 1/3 cups unsweetened cranberry pomegranate juice
- 24 ounces club soda sparkling water, or sparkling soda
- Lots of crushed or cubed ice
- Optional: fresh mint, cinnamon sticks
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Deseed a pomegranate to get 3/4 cup pomegranate arils.
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Thinly slice 2-3 limes.
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In a bowl, whisk together the water and 3/4 cup white sugar until the sugar is completely integrated.
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Fill a large pitcher halfway with lots of ice. Pour in the simple sugar mixture of water and sugar.
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Add in the unsweetened cranberry-pomegranate juice.
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Add in the club soda or sparkling water. I used 1 bottle of mandarin lime sparkling water and 1 bottle of sparkling pomegranate soda (each bottle was 12 ounces).
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Stir together in the pitcher. Add in the sliced limes and pomegranate arils.
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If desired, rim your glasses in sugar! Dip the top of the glass into a bowl filled with water and then into a bowl filled with sugar.
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Pour the drink into the sugar rimmed glasses and garnish if desired with a cinnamon stick and/or fresh mint. Add a slice of lime if desired.
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Enjoy immediately. (To make ahead, combine everything except the ice and sparkling water/soda. Add ice and sparkling water/soda right before serving.)
More holiday entertaining recipes:
Blueberry Lime Sparkling Water
Delicious Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake bars with a Streusel Topping
Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Casserole
locoval says
thanks for sharing the recipe.
Sonja says
This sounds good but where’s the alcohol?
chelseamessyapron says
Hey Sonja, I actually don’t drink alcohol 🙂 Feel free to adjust the recipe however you’d like!