The easiest and best homemade lemonade recipe! It’s so easy to make, lightly sweetened and perfectly tart. Perfect for a hot summer day!
Lemonade is a classic drink that’s made around the world. It consists of fresh lemon juice, water, and sugar. The best lemonade is lightly sweetened and made with fresh-pressed lemons.
It’s a sweet spring and summertime drink that’s nostalgic to warm summer days and celebrations. It’s bright and has a vibrant lemon flavor.
If you’re hosting an outdoor gathering, check out our lemonade stand for adults! It’s a great entertaining idea!
The other great thing about lemonade is that you can use it to create other delicious recipes! We make the best lemonade popsicles and even a lemonade margarita!
How do you make lemonade from scratch?
It’s very simple! You will need a citrus squeezer and a medium saucepan as well as measuring cups.
Ingredients
- Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice – About 5-6 lemons will give you 1 cup juice.
- Water
- Sugar
Directions
Squeeze enough lemon juice for the recipe.
In a saucepan combine 3 cups of water and 3/4 cup sugar.
Heat on medium only until the sugar has melted, then let it cool.
In a pitcher add the lemon juice and 1 cup water. Pour in the sugar water and mix.
Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator. It taste best when it’s nice and cold!
Serve with ice and slices of lemons.
Why is it called lemonade?
When you think of citrus juice, you would automatically assume it’s the name of the fruit with juice at the end. For example, orange juice or pineapple juice. However, when juice from fruit is mixed with sugar and water it becomes something different like limeade and lemonade. That is the drink form.
Lemon Juice on its own is too tart to drink and needs to be mixed with other ingredients.
Different Types of Lemons
There are several types of lemons and they all of a unique flavor! At our house, we grow Meyer lemons and Eureka lemons. Meyer has a sweeter taste to them and they are really juicy! Eureka is your standard, super yellow lemons with a tart lemon flavor.
Here are more varieties of lemons you can use!
Sweeteners for Lemonade
There are several sweeteners you can use to make lemonade. Here are a few options that you can try.
- Granulated Sugar – This is the most popular and traditional way of making lemonade.
- Stevia – If you want to make a recipe with low sugar, stevia is a great, natural source to sweeten.
- Honey – This is one of my favorite sweeteners when making lemonade. We use it in our lemonade popsicles too.
- Brown Sugar – Another unique sweetener is brown sugar which is sometimes used recipes in Northern Ireland.
How do you sweeten lemonade naturally?
Try using honey, stevia or Truvia to sweetened lemonade naturally.
Lemonade Recipes You’ll Love
Recipes Made with Lemonade
Three Ingredient Lemonade Popsicles
Thyme Lemonade and Tequila Cocktail
Lemonade Mimosas with Blood Orange
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Homemade Lemonade Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup lemon juice , fresh-squeezed only
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- Squeeze enough lemon juice for the recipe.
- In a saucepan combine 3 cups of water and 3/4 cup sugar.
- Heat on medium only until the sugar has melted, then let it cool.
- In a pitcher add the lemon juice and 1 cup water. Pour in the sugar water and mix.
- Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator. It tastes best when it’s nice and cold!
- Serve with ice and slices of lemons.
Tried this with lunch today and it was delicious! Looking forward to enjoying this all summer long; so yummy!
A simple easy to follow recipe. Thanks! Perfect for summer!
Looks yummy but am I missing something? The Ingredient List calls for 5 cups of water but the instructions account for 4 cups of water. Should I use a total of 4 or 5 cups of water? Thanks so much!
Hi! Thank you! Fixed it… 4 cups of water! You could add 5 at the end if you felt it needed it but we like it with 4 and 1 cup lemon juice! Yum 🙂