Cheers to the best lemonade recipe ever! This homemade lemonade uses just three simple ingredients and is ready in 5-minutes flat. This recipe for lemonade is the perfect refreshing drink for a hot summer day.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Refined sugar-free: This fresh-squeezed lemonade recipe is refined sugar-free. It uses maple syrup instead of simple syrup made from cane sugar.
- Sweet & tart: This easy recipe uses fresh lemons as they make for the perfect old-fashioned lemonade taste.
- Quick & easy to make: This easy homemade lemonade recipe is ready in just 5-minutes.
Ingredients + Notes
- Lemons – Fresh lemon juice from real lemons makes for the best old fashioned lemonade. In addition, having extra lemons on hand for adding lemon slices to the large pitcher or to each glass makes each cup even more drool-worthy.
- Water – Cold water makes for the best homemade lemonade. If you opt for room temperature water, make sure to add ice cubes to each cup.
- Maple syrup – Instead of using the traditional sugar syrup, maple syrup works great for making this sweet lemonade. I do tend to use a minimal amount of sweetener so you may find that this recipe has a very intense lemon flavor. Feel free to add more maple syrup one tablespoon at a time until you reach the perfect balance of sweet and tart for you.
Are you interested in using different natural sweeteners in this homemade lemonade recipe? Meyer lemons are sweeter than the traditional large lemons, so this would be a good option. In addition, adding fresh berries can bring additional sweetness and flavor. (Like strawberry lemonade.)
- Fresh herbs – I love adding fresh mint leaves to this summertime drink.
Step-By-Step Instructions: How to make lemonade
The best way to make a basic homemade lemonade recipe is to keep it simple. Use minimal healthy ingredients for a refreshing drink on a hot day.
- Squeeze: Get a bunch of lemons (roughly 9-12) and a manual citrus juicer and squeeze 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice.
- Combine: Pour one and a half cups of lemon juice, 5 1/2 cups water, and maple syrup into a pitcher and stir well.
- Add: Place fresh lemon slices to the pitcher or to each cup along with some ice.
- Serve: Pour fresh squeezed lemonade into glasses and enjoy!
How To Store Fresh Lemonade
For optimal freshness, store this recipe for lemonade in an airtight pitcher in the fridge for 4-6 days. (A half-gallon mason jar works great for this too.) Make sure to store it without ice so that this simple homemade lemonade recipe doesn’t get diluted.
FAQ
Fresh lemonade recipes are excellent sources of vitamin C and a good source of vitamin B2 (riboflavin).
You can make this recipe for lemonade with two cups of lemon juice! This fresh lemonade recipe only calls for one and a half cups of lemon juice. This means if you want to use up both cups of lemon juice, you’ll want to make a few adjustments.
Use two cups of lemon juice, 7 1/3 cups water, and 1/2 of a cup of maple syrup.
Lemons come in all different sizes and vary in juiciness, so they can vary a bit. However, there are roughly three tablespoons of lemon juice per lemon. With that in mind, you need one and a half lemons to make 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
How long a lemon lasts can depend on a few factors, such as how long they were already at the grocery store, where you are storing them, etc. Generally speaking, lemons can last roughly a week at room temperature and for two to three-plus weeks in the fridge.
If you find your lemons are starting to go bad, you can juice them and freeze the juice. The easiest way to do this is to pour your fresh squeezed lemon juice into an empty ice cube tray. Once the lemon juice is frozen, you can put your frozen lemon juice cubes into a Stasher sandwich bag or another freezer-safe storage container.
It can be easiest to use a lemon press or a manual citrus juicer. That being said, you can juice a lemon by hand as well. To ensure you extract the most amount of juice possible when juicing a lemon by hand, I recommend the following.
– Roll each lemon between the palm of your hand and the countertop. This will loosen the juice.
– On a cutting board, cut each lemon in half.
– Place a fine-mesh strainer or a larger strainer over a bowl.
– Hold half of a lemon in one hand, flesh side down.
– Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the strainer bowl combo. (The strainer will catch the seeds and separate them from the juice flowing to the bowl below.) If you don’t have a strainer, you can use your hand as a strainer of sorts. Simply place your second hand between the lemon and the bowl to catch any seeds that get too rambunctious.
More Homemade Lemonade Recipes
We hope you LOVE this fresh lemonade recipe! It’s:
Smooth
Tart
Sweet
Refreshing
& SO Summer!
If you try this recipe for lemonade, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and remember to take a picture and tag it #raepublic on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Cheers, lovely!
Recipe
Homemade Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- 5 1/2 cups water
- 1/3 cup maple syrup*
- Lemon slices + mint for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Squeeze: Get a bunch of lemons (roughly 9-12) and a manual citrus juicer and squeeze 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice.
- Combine: Pour one and a half cups of lemon juice, 5 1/2 cups water, and maple syrup into a pitcher and stir well.
- Add: Place fresh lemon slices to the pitcher or to each cup along with some ice.
- Serve: Pour fresh squeezed lemonade into glasses and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Lip puckering and refreshing! I’m trying one of your berry lemonade recipes next!
Wonderful!
I love a good lemonade, intrigued by the inclusion of maple syrup! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy it!