Description
This easy homemade lemonade recipe tastes like summertime and childhood! It’s a bright, refreshing summer drink that’s perfect on a hot day.
Ingredients
Scale
For The Lemonade:
- 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (8-10 medium lemons or 6-8 large lemons)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 3 cups cold water
- 3-4 cups ice
Optional Garnish:
- Lemon slices, lemon wedges, fresh mint leaves, fresh basil leaves, fresh berries, curled lemon peel, etc.
Instructions
- Make The Simple Syrup. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from the heat and let simple syrup cool slightly.
- Combine. In a large pitcher, combine fresh lemon juice, cooled simple syrup, and 3 cups of water. (If using sparkling water, wait to add it until right before serving to maintain the bubbles.) Stir to combine until the mixture is well blended. (At this point, the lemonade will taste strong since you haven’t added the ice yet. We prefer to dilute the lemonade with ice instead of additional water and THEN ice. That way, the melting ice doesn’t dilute the flavor too much later!)
- Finish With Ice. Top the lemonade off with ice and any desired garnishes and enjoy! (Let your tastebuds be your guide and feel free to adjust the amounts to suit your personal taste–dilute it with water if it’s too strong, add more sugar if it’s too tart, etc.)
- Serve ice cold with pretty garnishes and store leftover lemonade in the refrigerator 3-4 days. (Or freeze up to 1 month.)
Notes
- Don’t feel like turning on the stove? You can dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice, then add 4 cups of water. I prefer the simple syrup method because the sugar dissolves so well and it makes the lemonade smoother, but you can absolutely just stir-stir-stir to dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice.
- Infuse The Syrup! For a delicious twist, you can infuse the simple syrup with 1 cup of fresh mint or fresh basil, or 2 cups of fresh fruit (like berries, peaches, or nectarines!). Add it with the sugar and let the mixture steep 20-30 minutes before straining. Add strained syrup to the pitcher and proceed as usual.
- Make It In Advance! If you’d like to get ahead on your prep, you can actually make your own lemonade concentrate by JUST making the simple syrup & combining it with the lemon juice. This can freeze up to 1 month in advance or store in the fridge 1-2 days ahead of time. Then, just pour in the cold water and ice and you’re ready to go!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Drink
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
