Cucumber Agua Fresca with Lemon and Mint Recipe

Sorry y'all, I had a more intense, deep, and thought out post planned for you today, but I had a rough day today, found out that a friend of mine just died out of the blue, and I really wasn't in the proper headspace to be writing that post, because when I write it, I want to write it well, and today I'm not capable of that...

So instead, I'll leave you with this terrific recipe for cucumber agua fresca, a refreshing drink made from cucumbers, lemon, and mint, and is the perfect thing to do with cucumbers that are past their prime, or accidentally got frozen.

I originally got this recipe from the awesome gluten free transcontinental cooking blog, GirlCooksWorld.com 2 summers ago, and made it a lot when I was visiting family. I was afraid at first that the combination of flavors would make less adventerous people think it was weird, but my mother in law fell in love with it so much that she asked me to give her the recipe.

I've since played around with the recipe, and came up with this version that is refined sugar free, but I've also  included instructions on how to make it as cheap as possible, just with regular sugar.

I make mine with both a juicer and a food processor, but you can use a high powered blender instead.

P.S. You might be wondering about the timing of this post. I mean, hello, New Years Eve??? This seems more like a post that would be good for the middle of the summer... But hey, its the middle of the summer in the southern hemisphere, and they can enjoy this nice refreshing drink... And it was a wonderful 60 degrees here today, so also good weather for a refreshing drink. But really, the biggest reason why this drink is on my mind is because I got lots of free wilted cucumbers lately, and together with lemons and mint I forage, I have been able to make this drink practically free lately. And I've been having it to start off my day, and its really awesome... Gives me quite the energy boost!
But if you're the type that prefers only hot drinks in the winter, just file away this recipe for when its warmer weather. Because seriously, this is one recipe you've gotta try out!

Cucumber Agua Fresca with Lemon and Mint Recipe

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cucumber juice or 1 very large or 2 small or medium sized cucumbers
6 cups water
4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons raw honey or regular honey or 1/3 cup sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat
1 heaping teaspoon fresh mint leaves, plus extra for garnish

Instructions:
1. If you've got a high powered blender, stick the cucumbers, 2 cups of water, mint and honey together in the blender, blend up, and then add the rest of the ingredients, and then drink. If you don't, move on to step

2. If you don't have a high powered blender, but you have a juicer, stick the cucumbers in the juicer until you get 3/4 cup of cucumber juice.

3. Put the raw honey, lemon juice, and fresh mint leaves into a food processor or blender, and blend until the raw honey is completely mixed with the liquid lemon juice and mint.

4. Add the cucumber juice and blend/process again until you have a uniform mixture.

5. Add the cucumber/lemon/mint/honey to the rest of the water, serve with ice, garnish as desired, and drink.

Enjoy!

Have you ever had a drink made out of cucumbers? Does this recipe seem like something you'd try out? Why or why not? Which variation do you think you'd try?
What do you typically do with accidentally frozen or otherwise less than crispy/crunchy cucumbers?