HOW TO MAKE LEMONADE AT HOME — 10 simple recipes

You don’t need anything supernatural to make homemade lemonade. Here you will find options on how to make lemonade. Cook and enjoy!

How to make homemade lemonade: the usual classic

The equipment requires a sieve, cheesecloth or a juicer, ice, nice glasses or other dishes for the finished drink.

No more than 15-20 minutes are spent on preparation, more time will be spent on cooling the drink. If there is not enough time, you can make preparations in advance, for example, pour into molds and freeze ice cubes.

What is needed:

• lemons (limes) or fresh juice;
• granulated sugar, water;
• lemon balm or mint.

This is the basis for any other variations. After preparing such a preparation, you can add any other ingredients to your taste.

Preparation

We get fresh lemon. If you don’t use citrus peel, there will be no bitterness, just a fresh sourness. To do this, you can take a citrus press or manually squeeze the liquid from a lemon. To get more juice, leave the fruit at room temperature for a while or put it under a stream of warm water. Additionally, you can squeeze it with your hands or roll it under the pressure of your palm. After that, get juice.

Step-by-step actions:

1. Dilute one glass of sugar with a liter of water.
2. Squeeze juice from 5 citrus fruits.
3. Mix syrup with juice.
4. Send to the refrigerator for several hours.
5. Place ice and a few mint leaves at the bottom of a glass and pour chilled drink.

Peppermint or lemon balm leaves are not only good for decorations, but also add a sense of coolness. Lemon slices can be used as decoration.

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Tricks and secrets

In order not to spoil the drink, there are several secrets:

1. It is easier and faster to dissolve sugar in heated water. And in order to preserve useful substances, freshly squeezed lemon juice should not be mixed with hot syrup. Cool and only after that combine with lemon.
2. The syrup can be prepared as a reserve and used as needed. This will save time.
3. If you put the lemons in a jug with the peel, do not leave them for a long time. The drink can be bitter because of the skin.
4. Ice looks spectacular, frozen together with lemon, lime or berries.

It is important not only how to make lemonade at home, but also how to serve it. Chilled drinks in glasses of unusual shapes made of thick glass look cool. You can also use a nice transparent pitcher or a lemonade pot — a special container for cold drinks with a faucet — for serving.

How to make lemonade at home: top recipes

Homemade lemonade is not just sweetened citrus water. You can add any products to it and experiment. Berries with acidity, such as cranberries, are good. Cucumber is often used as a vegetable. Of the herbs, rosemary and tarragon complement the taste well.

How to make lemonade at home from different types of citrus fruits — you will learn from the proven recommendations described below in the text. You can create your own masterpieces based on them.

Read: What is better: a blender or a juicer — 5 arguments about devices

With mint leaves

Mint lemonade can already be considered a classic, mint goes so well with lemon or lime. But, in addition to simply adding a few mint leaves to a glass, we recommend a few more options.

Necessary:

• 4-5 lemons or limes, better both;
• 1 Art. granulated sugar, 1 liter of water;
• bunch of mint and ice.

From the equipment you will need a grinder or a mortar and dishes for serving.

Step by step guide:

1. Squeeze lemon juice.
2. Cut one lime or lemon into circles or slices.
3. Pour sugar into warm water and stir until dissolved.
4. In a separate container, preferably in a mortar or using a grinder, crush the mint with sugar, so it will release more juice.
5. Mix all the ingredients. Pour a mixture of crushed mint leaves and citrus slices into glasses. Ice is better served immediately before use in each glass, you can crumble it. And pour the previously obtained liquid.

If you do not like sweet drinks, but prefer sour drinks, you can use less sweeteners. To make a non-alcoholic mojito, use carbonated water instead of regular water.

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From oranges

In any recipe, you can use orange instead of lemon, but then it will taste like fanta. An alternative option is to make orange-lemon lemonade.

Necessary:

• 5-6 oranges and 4-5 lemons;
• 1-2 st. l of sweetener, you can use honey or any syrup;
• 1 liter of mineral water;
• ice and mint leaves for decoration.

Preparation:

1. Leave one orange and one lemon for serving and cut into slices. Cut other fruits in half and squeeze out as much fresh fruit as possible.
2. Add sweetener to the container with juice. If you use honey, it is better to take liquid. If it becomes sugary, first dilute it with warm water.
3. Before serving, mix everything in one container. Pour into glasses with ice. Garnish with orange and mint.

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Cucumber lemonade

Cucumber lemonade can also be without sweeteners — it’s even healthier that way.

Necessary:

• several citrus fruits (lime or lemon), 3-4 cucumbers;
• sugar as desired and still water;
• cucumber slices are suitable for decoration.

The equipment includes a blender. If it is not there, a grater will do.

Preparation:

1. Leave one cucumber for decoration.
2. Make a base from lemon juice, water and possibly sugar.
3. Wash the cucumbers and extract juice from them. A blender or grater will help. Filter the resulting puree or rub it through a sieve.
4. Add cucumber extract to the base.
5. Cut the cucumber into thin slices. If you don’t have a slicer, you can cut with a vegetable peeler. Pour into glasses, add cubes or crushed ice.
6. Pour the cooled lemon-cucumber mixture.

If the lemonade came out with cucumber pulp, serve with a wide cocktail straw.

How to make lemonade without lemon

If you want cool drinks, and there is no lemon or lime at hand, you can take any other products with acidity, for example, sorrel, sour strawberries. Or replace with a pinch of citric acid.

How to do:

1. Grind the products to puree, squeeze out the liquid or rub through a sieve.
2. Mix water with sugar and whatever you choose as an alternative.

If you decide to make lemonade, but there are no citrus fruits, powdered citric acid will help. It is diluted with water and replaced with freshly squeezed juice. This is how you can make a drink from the largest berry — watermelon. It is juicy, it is enough to mash it into puree with a fork or an immersion blender. And pour the previously dissolved powder. If the berry is sweet, you can not add sugar.

Lavender lemonade

If you like the smell of lavender and a slight bitterness, take a look at this recipe.

You will need:

• 3-4 limes (or lemons), 1 tbsp. granulated sugar;
• water (about a liter) and 2-3 tbsp. l dry flowers of culinary lavender;
• sprigs of lavender for decoration.

How to cook:

1. Squeeze juice from citrus fruits and mix with boiled syrup.
2. Infuse lavender flowers with boiling water and strain.
3. Combine all ingredients, cool the drink.

Add a few ice cubes to the glass before serving. And one sprig of fresh lavender for decoration. Lavender gives bitterness, so it is not worth adding sprigs to the total capacity.

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Ginger lemonade

This option is delicious even warm.

You will need:

• 4 sour citrus fruits and 100 g of sugar;
• 1 liter of water, a little mint;
• 3 cm of ginger root.

Preparation:

1. Dissolve sugar in water. You can put it on the stove and heat it until it dissolves.
2. Add mint, peeled and chopped ginger root to the syrup.
3. Add fresh citrus. It can be served both cold and warm.

Strawberry lemonade

In this recipe, you can use lemon juice along with strawberry puree, and if the berries are sour, you can do without lemons.

You will need:

• 0.5 kg of strawberries, 1 liter of water;
• 0.5 tbsp. sugar, sprigs of basil to your taste and ice.

Basil goes well with strawberries. But if you don’t like it, you can do without it. Both green and purple varieties are suitable. The latter can color the lemonade.

Preparation:

1. Prepare a syrup from sugar and water and be sure to cool it.
2. Beat the strawberries with a blender, tap them with a fork or rub them through a sieve.
3. Leave a few basil leaves for decoration. Grind the rest in a mortar or grind. Basil should be added only at the very end, to lemonade that has already cooled.

If the berries are sweet, you can acidify them with lemon juice. Serve with ice cubes, whole berries and basil.

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With tarragon

If you add tarragon instead of the usual mint, you get a new drink.

Necessary:

• 2 lemons, 0.5 tbsp. sugar;
• bunch of tarragon (tarragon) and 1 tbsp of water;
• 750 ml of sparkling water.

If you do not use carbonated water, you can take ordinary water.

How to make lemonade with tarragon:

1. Leave a few leaves for decoration. Pour water into a pan, dissolve sugar in it and send tarragon there. After cooling, get the floating leaves.
2. Add lemon juice to the base.
3. Dilute everything with sparkling water before serving.

Serve with ice and tarragon leaves for decoration.

Turkish lemonade

This recipe uses zest, which gives a special aroma to the finished drink. So that it does not become bitter, it is important to remove it correctly: only the upper yellow or green (in lime) layer without the white peel.

You will need:

• 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 orange;
• 1 liter of water and 100 g of sugar.

Preparation:

1. Citrus must be thoroughly washed.
2. Remove the peel from all the fruits. It is better to use a fine grater or vegetable peeler, this will help remove the thin top layer.
3. Boil the syrup and add the zest to it. Squeeze the juice from all the citrus fruits there. Leave in the refrigerator for several hours.
4. Serve garnished with lime.

Carbonated lemonade

To get carbonated bubbles at home like in a purchased drink, it is enough to dilute with carbonated water before serving. Yeast will help to achieve the same effect as for kvass. As a result of yeast fermentation, bubbles are produced. By adding such leaven to any base, a carbonated drink is obtained.

You will need:

• 2 lemons and 1 tbsp. granulated sugar;
• 15 grams of yeast, a bunch of mint and 2.5 liters of water.

Fermentation takes about a day. Therefore, prepare this drink in advance.

How to make lemonade with gas:

1. Wash the citrus fruits and cut them into circles, put them in a container. Send the washed mint there.
2. Dissolve sugar in drinking water, cool to 40-50 degrees. Pour into the container. It is important that it is not filled to the edges, otherwise it may spill out of the container during fermentation.
3. Dissolve the yeast separately with 1 teaspoon of sugar and add it there.
4. Leave in a dark place at room temperature for about a day.
5. Strain and store in the refrigerator. Serve with a slice of lemon and a mint leaf.

How to make lemonade: we compare cooking options

The proposed recipes use various cooking methods with different levels of complexity. It is convenient to choose the appropriate one in the table:

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