Description
Bright, beautiful, and majorly refreshing, this 5-ingredient blueberry lemonade is the perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day!
Ingredients
Scale
For The Blueberry Simple Syrup:
- 2 cups fresh blueberries*
- 1 cup granulated sugar*
- 1 cup water
- Optional: 1/4 cup fresh mint or fresh basil
For The Blueberry Lemonade:
- 1 batch blueberry simple syrup (above)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice*
- 3 cups cold water or sparkling water
- 3-4 cups ice
- Optional garnish: lemon slices, fresh blueberries, fresh mint or fresh basil
Instructions
- First Make The Blueberry Syrup. Combine blueberries, sugar, and 1 cup of water in a medium saucepan. Add fresh mint or fresh basil, if using. Bring the mixture up to a simmer over medium heat and cook 8-10 minutes, or until the blueberries have softened.
- Strain Out The Seeds. Pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer to strain out the seeds and press down with a spatula or wooden spoon to extract as much pulp as you can through the strainer. (Discard any remaining pulp).
- Cool Or Chill. Cool the blueberry syrup to room temperature (or chill up to 2 days, until you’re ready to make the lemonade).
- Combine Syrup & Lemon Juice. In a large pitcher, combined the cooled & strained blueberry syrup and the fresh lemon juice. Stir to combine. This is your own homemade lemonade concentrate! (Refrigerate the lemonade concentrate mixture at this point if you’re making it in advance. Finish the rest of the steps right before serving.)
- Stir In The Water & Ice Right Before Serving. Pour 3 cups of water or sparkling water into the pitcher and gently stir to combine. (Taste and add more sugar/sweetener as needed, depending on the tartness of your berries and lemons.) Then, add 3-4 cups of ice to the pitcher.
- Serve & Store. Enjoy immediately. Leftover blueberry lemonade will last 3-4 days in the refrigerator or up to 1 month in the freezer.
Notes
- Blueberries. Frozen blueberries can absolutely be used in this recipe! It’ll just take a bit longer for them to soften in the simple syrup since they’re frozen.
- Sweetener. We genuinely love the flavor of using classic granulated sugar or cane sugar here. If you like, you can use agave syrup or a 1:1 sugar alternative, but your flavor will be different from ours.
- FRESH Lemon Juice! It’s crucial to use FRESH lemon juice here, not bottled juice. Bottled lemon juice will be overly acidic and bitter, and will really throw off the flavor of this lemonade. It’s worth it to use fresh!
- Try It In a Blender. Alternatively, you can place these ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree them before straining rather than simmering them on the stove. Then, strain the fresh raspberry puree and proceed as directed. This is a great option when you need something FAST, but the flavor won’t be as strong as when you make the syrup on the stove. (The cook time gives the syrup a better chance to infuse with flavor.)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Drink
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
