Cranberry season is upon us. These tart and tangy berries are perfect for holiday recipes. So it’s no surprise that cranberry-spiced everything is all the rage this time of year. If you’re looking for a unique holiday mocktail recipe, you’ve come to the right place. This lip-puckering cranberry lemonade is refined sugar-free, and oh-so-tasty.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclaimer for details.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Homemade: This cran lemonade is homemade using only the best quality whole food ingredients and natural flavors.
- Autumn Joy: It’s perfect for an autumn holiday party, a summer BBQ, or even a friend’s happy hour.
- Quick & Easy: This easy lemonade is ready in minutes, so that you can spend your precious time on other things.
Nutrition For Mental Health
Cranberries can provide many important vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, Manganese, copper, vitamin E, and K1. They are also high in antioxidants and bioactive compounds that can reduce symptoms and prevent UTIs [1].
Due to their slightly bitter and tangy taste, many people find cranberries too sharp to drink on their own; that is why this fresh-tasting lemonade is an excellent way to experience the benefits of this fruit while actually enjoying your drink too. Dietary vitamin C intake has been found to reduce the risk of depressive symptoms [2].
Ingredients + Notes
If you love Ocean Spray Cranberry Lemonade, you’ll love this recipe! Here are the ingredients for homemade cranberry lemonade.
- Lemon juice: For ultimate freshness, use lemon juice from fresh lemons, as it tastes the best!
- Cranberry juice: Unsweetened cranberry juice is ideal for this recipe. If you can only find sweetened, though, then that’s ok! The adjustment here is to add less maple syrup. Otherwise, it might be too sweet.
- Maple syrup – Maple syrup works great for sweetening drinks because it easily dissolves.
A full list of ingredients with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations
- Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice tastes the best, but you can use lemon juice that is sold in a bottle. However, this tends to be more bitter, so you may need to offset it with more maple syrup. If you decide to use bottled lemon juice, opt for organic lemon juice. (Buying it directly from your grocery store is more cost-effective.)
Another option is to use lemonade concentrate. If you go with this option, then you will most likely want to adjust the amount of maple syrup and add less. - Sweetener: I like using maple syrup because it integrates perfectly into the liquid. If you don’t want to use maple syrup, agave nectar is another great alternative. Using maple syrup or another liquid sweetener also saves you time from having to make simple syrup. Who doesn’t like saving time?
If you would like a sugar-free option, then I’d recommend stevia or monkfruit sweetener.
How To Make Cranberry Lemonade
Put a spin on classic lemonade with a bit of extra tartness from the cranberries and a splash of sweetness from some maple syrup. This cranberry lemonade recipe is perfect for any autumn holiday party, celebration, or plain weekday as the cranberry season lasts all fall. This easy lemonade recipe also makes for a great summer thirst quencher!
- Squeeze fresh lemon juice by using a manual citrus juicer.
- Pour freshly squeezed lemon juice, four cups of water, and maple syrup into a large pitcher.
- Stir thoroughly so that the sugar dissolves and all ingredients are fully combined.
- Add fresh lemon slices, cranberries, or mint, and a few ice cubes to each glass.
- Pour your delicious lemonade into glasses and enjoy!
Pro Tips
Here are my top tips for making this copycat Ocean Spray’s cran-lemonade the best that it can be!
How to get the most juice out of lemons:
Before cutting your lemons open, try rolling them on a hard surface with your palm a few times. This rolling action, along with some slight pressure, will loosen up the juices in the lemons and allow you to extract more of the fresh juice to use in your lemonade.
Would you like to save this?
Another way to get out the juice, which works well with slightly less ripe fruit, is to heat the lemons. Either microwave them for 15-20 seconds or place the lemons in the oven for approximately 10 minutes on low-medium heat (350°F/175°C).
Then cut the lemons in half before juicing. You may need to use more ice or keep the drink in the fridge for a little while before serving if the lemon juice causes the temperature of this cranberry juice and lemonade to rise, as this drink is best served cold.
Serving Ideas
Serve this cranberry lemon drink on its own or with a meal. Oh, and don’t forget about garnishes!
- Garnish: Put your own spin on this tasty lemonade by adding fresh mint, rosemary sprigs, or your favorite herb on top.
- Sides: Enjoy this tart drink with this cucumber salad with strawberries, whipped sweet potatoes, or almond milk mashed potatoes.
- Mains: This refreshing drink pairs well with the best veggie pot pie, potato dill soup, and orzo veggie soup.
- Dessert: Try this homemade raspberry sorbet, eggless pumpkin chocolate cookies, or chocolate chia seed pudding!
Storage Tips
I recommend storing this tasty cranberry lemonade drink in an airtight glass jar or pitcher. It can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days. You could freeze it, but I don’t recommend this since it is a quick recipe to make. However, you could freeze some cranberry juice so you could make this recipe any time of the year.
FAQ
This cranberry lemonade is a great source of riboflavin and vitamin C. It does contain 16g of sugar, so keep that in mind. If you would like to reduce the sugar content, you could use stevia or monkfruit sweetener.
Cranberry juice is a great source of vitamin C, so yes, it is good for you when you’re sick.
Sugar does the trick! You can use maple syrup, cane sugar (beet sugar), agave, stevia, or monkfruit sweetener.
If you tried this Cranberry Lemonade Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Recipe
Cranberry Lemonade
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries for decoration, (for decoration)
Instructions
- Combine freshly squeezed lemon juice, cranberry juice, water, and maple syrup into a pitcher and stir thoroughly.
- Pour over ice and add a few fresh cranberries if you like.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
We’d love to see! Tag @raepublic on Instagram!
References
[1] Jepson, R. G., Mihaljevic, L., & Craig, J. (2000). Cranberries for treating urinary tract infections. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 1998(2), CD001322. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD001322
[2] Wang, A., Luo, J., Zhang, T., & Zhang, D. (2021). Dietary Vitamin C and Vitamin C Derived from Vegetables Are Inversely Associated with the Risk of Depressive Symptoms among the General Population. Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland), 10(12), 1984. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10121984
This recipe is so refreshing and just perfect for Fall.
So happy you liked it!