As I’ve mentioned here about 20,000 times, my approach to Drink of the Week is that these are reasonably quick and easy to make cocktails for the home, not major DIY projects. While I love the companies that send me free drinks and (for the most part) really good cocktails, if a recipe calls for, say, a ginger-asparagus-truffle reduction syrup, I’ll skip it. If it demands that I use freshly ground nutmeg, I’ll very likely just stick with the store-bought pre-ground stuff, thank you very much. In other words, I’m kind of lazy and I think you might be, too!

So, when I saw that today’s recipe called for “fresh lemonade,” my heart sank. The Hornitos Tequila people have been very generous to me, both in terms of freebies and in sending me good-to-superb recipes to share with all of you, and I trust them. Also, I am a big believer in the cocktailian ethos that demands fresh juices as much as possible. (Yes, sour mix is a crime against both God and man. You can quote me on that.) I really wanted to do this recipe right, but I just didn’t feel like making my own lemonade.

I decided to get tough with myself. After all, lemonade is just lemon juice, sugar and water. How hard could it be to simply make a mini-lemonade and add it to the drink? Well, it really wasn’t difficult at all, but all I know is that when I substituted the 1 1/2 ounces of fresh lemonade in today’s recipe with 1/2 ounce of lemon juice, a tablespoon of sugar and an ounce of additional water, the mixed drink that resulted was kind of disappointing. A bit too sweet, perhaps. Way too sweet? Maybe. I’ve never made lemonade before and my poor math skills were not helping in terms of trying to make a very small amount of the stuff based on the many recipes I found online.

So, rather than spending the rest of the night adjusting the amount of sugar, I decided to cut to the chase and instead used a “not from concentrate” grocery store lemonade, Simply Lemonade (“Fresh Taste Guaranteed!”). The resulting beverage was just about perfect in terms of balance and just boozy enough to be interesting. Score another win for the Hornitos mixology team and my lazy cocktailing style. Of course, you’re free to try your own homemade lemonade in today’s drink.You’re just going to have to get the recipe from some place else.

Let’s get started.

The LeMANade

2 ounces Hornitos Plata Tequila
1 1/2 ounce ginger ale
1 1/2 ounce lemonade (no Countrytime, please!)
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
Lemon peel (desirable garnish)

Start with either a relatively large highball glass or a relatively large collins glass. (They’re both roughly the same in terms of shape, but you’ll need a bit of extra room for ice in this one.) Combine the ingredients in the glass, add ice and stir. Then add your lemon peel. That’s it.

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I have no idea what makes the LeMANade more manly than any other lemony-sweet booze beverages. However, if made properly, it is a reasonably well-balanced, refreshing drink that’s boozy enough to be interesting. It was definitely ideal for the San Fernando Valley heatwave that was still underway when I was working on this one.

In regards to my ingredients, I didn’t get experimental in terms of seeing how this drink would work with a brand X alternative white tequila, so I don’t have a whole lot else to say about branding choices. I can say that my ginger ale was your basic Canada Dry, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt, I imagine, to use a higher-end product — I didn’t really have the time to get experimental on that score, either.