Prepare for Memorial Day (aka the start of summer) with our perfect homemade lemonade recipe! This isn’t your overly sugared supermarket lemonade. Our recipe is just like our teas as it combines the perfect ratio of flavor and sweetness. Preparation is also simplified as you only need three ingredients to make this lemonade - lemons, sweetener of choice, and water. So run to the market, get a few lemons and get a sip of summer with our easy recipe.
We don’t suggest that you mix a bowl of water, lemon and sugar together. You won’t get a great taste and the sugar will most likely drop to the bottom. Our suggested method of making lemonade is making a syrup and mixing it with the lemon juice. We’ll explain more in detail below.
Ingredients
- 10-15 lemons (For best flavor, use freshly squeezed lemon juice from real lemons, not store bought bottled lemon juice).
- 2 additional lemons, sliced for garnish (optional).
- Mint leaves for garnish (optional).
- 2 cups of sugar (You can make a healthy lemonade by substituting the sugar with a natural sweetener like honey or stevia).
- 8 cups of water.
Preparation
- Thoroughly wash the lemons with warm water.
Instructions
- Slice your lemons in half and strain or squeeze the lemon slices in a large bowl (or glass measuring cup), using your hands, potato masher or a wooden spoon. If you have a juicer, you can easily simplify this step by having your juicer extract the juice.
- Keep squeezing until you have 2 cups of lemon juice.
- Now let’s make your syrup. Heat the 8 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar together in a pot until the sugar is completely dissolved.Water will be clear which is when you know it’s done.
- Mix the syrup with lemon juice in a pitcher. You can find a variety of pitchers on our site here.
- Dilute the lemonade to your taste by adding ice.
- And adding additional lemon slices in the pitcher is ideal for extra flavor and as a garnish.
- Store lemonade in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy!
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
