Vodka cucumber lemonade

Make your own lemonade to lift the flavour of this vodka and cucumber cocktail, though you can use shop-bought to make the recipe even quicker and easier

Ingredients

• 170 g golden granulated sugar
• 6 large unwaxed lemons, juiced, plus extra lemon slices to serve
• 2 organic medium cucumbers, chopped into cubes
• ice
• 300 ml vodka
• soda water, for topping up

Steps

1. Mix the sugar with 180ml hot water in a heatproof bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool completely. Stir in the lemon juice.
2. Tip the cucumbers into a blender with a splash of water and blitz until liquified. Tip some ice, the vodka, the lemonade from step 1 and the puréed cucumbers (see tip, below) into a large pitcher and stir well.
3. Top up the pitcher with soda water and stir well again, then drop in a few lemon slices just before serving.