Kics Lemonade

Kics Lemonade takes a family recipe to the market.

Karen Curtis hands over a sample of her sweet and refreshing lemonade on a hot day at the Trout Lake Farmers Market. She shares the story of how her grandmother used to make a lemonade syrup and give it to her sisters as children. When she died Curtis got the recipe and decided to share it with a new generation.

Curtis replaces the bottle in the ice bucket and recommends trying it with soda water, or better yet, beer.

When Curtis started Kics 16 years-ago she had one flavour of lemonade and has graduated to producing six staple flavours and four seasonal flavours like watermelon and blood orange. She also expanded the products to include marmalades, salad dressings and curds using her grandmothers lemonade syrup as the base to each recipe.

We tried the original lemon syrup and the grapefruit syrup and mixed it with plain old water. The syrup, is like a cordial, which truly does taste like the tasted like the real fruit – no imitations.  It was a bit on the sweet side, so if you like your lemonade a bit more tart, we recommend squeezing some fresh lemon or into it to make your lips pucker.

Curtis also teaches cooking classes and is a food columnist for the Tri-City News. Here’s one of her recipes for Lemon Basil Chicken.