Tequila Basil Lemonade

Name: Tequila Basil Lemonade
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: Tequila reposado — 60 ml (2 oz); Fresh basil leaves — 3 pcs; Sugar syrup — 15 ml (1/2 oz); Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Soda water — 30 ml (1 oz)

Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 15.6% ABV ∙

The Tequila Basil Lemonade shakes reposado tequila with fresh basil, lemon and sugar syrup, then tops it long with soda water. Bright and crisp, with a fizzy lift cutting through a silky, herb-flecked body that finishes clean and lightly sweet, never syrupy.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
Shake the first 4 ingredients with ice: Tequila reposado 60 mlFresh basil leaves 3 pcsSugar syrup 15 mlLemon juice 20 ml and fine strain into the ice-filled glass
Top with Soda water and gently stir
Garnish with a lime wedge and a basil sprig

Tips

Bruise the basil gently with a light shake first, then shake hard with ice — pounding it releases bitter, grassy notes.
Fine-strain into the ice-filled glass so no basil fragments or pulp cloud the finished drink.
Pre-chill the highball glass so the ice-filled build stays cold, and stir gently after topping with soda to keep the fizz.

History

The Tequila Basil Lemonade is a modern cocktail credited to bartender Chris Stave, who created it in 2011. It follows the template of a tequila sour lengthened with soda, using fresh basil muddled or shaken alongside lemon juice and reposado tequila to give a lemonade-style highball an herbal note. Beyond this creation credit, no further documented history of the drink's spread or adoption has surfaced.