• Harvest fresh lilac flowers (roughly half a grocery bag) of branches) inspecting the blooms to make sure you're getting them as fresh and perfect as possible. I cut them from the shrub when trimming my lilacs.
• Bring the branches inside, lay them on a tray in a single layer and give each branch a good shake. Wait 30 minutes to give any insects time to evict themselves.

Honey Lilac Syrup

• Combine the honey and water and warm until dissolved. Cool, pour into a bowl or jar, adding the flowers and pressing them under the liquid with a spoon. Refrigerate, tightly covered for 24 hours.
• Strain the flowers from the syrup through cheesecloth, squeezing out as much syrup as you can. Rinse the cheesecloth so you can reuse for the second infusion.
• Add the remaining flowers and repeat the infusing process.
• Meanwhile, fill the other jar half full with fresh lilac sprigs, then pour over the water, top with a lid, and allow to infuse at room temperature for a couple hours, then move the to refrigerator.
• Strain the lilac water through cheese cloth.
• Strain the second infusion of the honey syrup through the same cheesecloth.

Assembly

• Pour half of the lemon juice and ½ cup of the lilac syrup into the lilac water, stir to incorporate, then taste and adjust until it tastes good to you.
• Serve the lemonade on ice, garnished with a sprig of anise root or anise hyssop (optional) and a wedge of lemon.
• I think it has the freshest taste served right away. Over time after mixing with the other ingredients the aroma will mellow.

Lilac-Gin Cocktail

• Add your favorite gin for a refreshing cocktail. I'd start with 1 cup total for the quart jar batch to serve four people.