Orangeade Thyme Cooler

I clipped this recipe during my marathon magazine reading at the lake.    It sounded delicious and if I had had oranges then, I would have whipped this up.

Orangeade Thyme Cooler
Adapted from Tangerine-Thyme Cooler by Bryant Terry from Sunset (April 2013) 

1/4  c. raw cane sugar (or honey)
1/2 c. water
“bunch” of thyme (I like to use lemon thyme.)
6 oranges, divided
1 liter club soda, chilled
crushed ice (or “Sonic” ice if you can get it)

Place sugar and water and a small saucepan.   Strip leaves off of thyme and add to sugar water. Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Strain syrup into a large, glass beverage dispenser.

Juice 5 oranges and add to the pitcher.    Slice the remaining orange and add  for garnishing.   Add club soda and enough ice to fill up jug.

You may also garnish with more thyme sprigs.

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Let me comment here on Sonic ice.   If you do not have Sonics in your region, I am sad for you.   Sonic Drive-Ins started in Oklahoma in the 1950s.

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One of the original drive-ins in Stillwater, OK. (Picture from waymarking.com.)

Now again, I don’t love pre-packaged food or fast food.   But there are exceptions, right?

I love Sonic.

Do you love tater tots?

Do you love a good cherry-limeade?

Slushies?

Onion rings?

Cream pie shakes?  (What?  You have never had one?)

Have you ever had a choco-cherry-coke?   How about a vanilla Dr. Pepper?

Yep, you can have all of this great and unhealthy stuff at Sonic.

But, again, I digress and I need to talk about Sonic ice.    Sonic ice rocks.   It is soft and round and I love it.   (Some call it pellet ice but that reminds me of rabbit droppings. )

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Sonic ice.

Sonic is so popular that if you grew up with it and moved to an area that unfortunately doesn’t have a franchise, you seek it out whenever possible.IMAG4227

I have college friends that make Sonic their first stop upon returning to Stillwater (Go Pokes!).

My sister was super excited to have one open in her town in Iowa only to have it close.    She now has to drive to Des Moines to visit their lone location.    (And then she sometimes even stops in KC and Coffeyville, KS on her way home for even more great beverages.   She always enters my house at the end of a long trip with a Sonic cup in hand.)

My brother-in-law knows that there is one in a small town in the Oklahoma panhandle that he can hit on his way back from Colorado.

I may snub my nose at fast food and unhealthy offerings, but please don’t take away my Sonic.   I need a fix now and again.

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Good to the last drop. (Sonic ice rocks!)

Hope you enjoy this cooler.   It was delicious.   And thank you for listening to my Sonic rant.    (And, yes, we actually do own stock.)  🙂

Abigail, here is your virtual flower for the day.

toad

Okay, this is obviously not a flower but a toad stool growing in our yard.   We have had lots of these with all the rain we have gotten this summer.   Sometimes I even have fairy rings.

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