Homemade Lemonade

One of the things on my summer bucket list with the family was to make some fresh squeezed lemonade. I love fresh, genuine lemonade and I don’t mind putting in a little elbow grease to make sure it’s freshly squeezed and yummy.  

A had never had lemonade until this year and she fell in love with the Luscious Lemon Bars this summer so I decided it was the perfect time for her to try it.  She decided mama knows what she is talking about and that lemonade is delicious.  Little did I know that Ryan thought he didn’t really like it very much either but after having my freshly squeezed lemonade he learned it’s delicious. 

I think sometimes lemonade gets a bad wrap because of the over-processed juices that we find in the refrigerated section or on the store shelves that taste more like sugar or artificial lemon. Yuck.

Anyways, I’m getting ready to make some more lemonade again this afternoon and decided what better time than to share the recipe I use with all of you. Lemonade isn’t very complicated and the little bit of work that it does take is well worth it. 

Lemonade takes minimal ingredients – sugar, water and freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Save yourself the headache and put the little bit of extra work in to squeeze fresh lemons instead of getting frozen lemon juice. I promise it’s worth it. 

Start out squeezing your lemons either by hand or with a juice press.  Remove seeds from the juice but you can either leave or remove the pulp based on your preferences. 

Next you are going to get a saucepan and fill it with 1.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups of water over low/medium heat regularly stirring until the sugar and water combine and form a loose syrup.  Once your syrup has formed, remove your saucepan from the heat and let cool. 

In a large 1 gallon pitcher, pour your 1.5 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice and add in your syrup mixture once it has cooled to a lukewarm temperature and stir. Once you have combined your lemon juice and syrup add ice cold water until your pitcher is full. Stir generously and serve cold!

Enjoy! 

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Do you enjoy lemonade? Have you made homemade lemonade before?