Only a few drinks are as refreshing as an ice-cold glass of homemade lemonade on a hot summer day. Sweet, tart, and zesty, lemonade is an easy-to-make drink that is guaranteed to stimulate your taste buds and improve your day.
Do you want to make fantastic homemade lemonade for you and your family? We have created a guide that can help you do this below.
How to Prepare a Fantastic Homemade Lemonade
Homemade lemonade is incredibly easy to prepare. All you need are the following ingredients and you are good to go.
Sugar and water: Homemade lemonade always starts with sugar syrup, which is made by dissolving sugar in boiling water. The resulting syrup ensures that the lemonade feels smooth and cohesive and that there is no sugar residue in the pitcher.
Ice: Ice is crucial to your refreshing lemonade as it ensures that it stays cold.
Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon in water is the best option as it tastes better than any other type. However, if you can’t get fresh lemons, use bottled juice.
Honey: If you like honey in your lemonade, it should be one of your ingredients. It adds a subtle taste that gives the drink more depth and makes it pop.
Now that you have all your ingredients, it is time to make the best lemonade ever.
Step One: Juice your lemons
Start by rolling your lemons around to break their juice vessels, making the juice easier to release. After, cut the lemons in half and squeeze their juice out with your hand or a juicer.
Ensure to squeeze the lemons into a measuring cup to know how much juice you have to work with.
Step Two: Make your syrup
Making syrup is easy. Mix sugar and water in a small saucepan and boil the mixture. Continue stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Step Three: Add your lemon juice and syrup
Pour cold water into a pitcher. Add your lemon juice and stir. Add sugar syrup to taste. Also, add honey to taste, if you are a fan of honey.
Step Four: Serve
Avoid adding ice to your lemonade drink until you are ready to serve. This is because the ice could melt into the drink, thus diluting the taste. So, leave out the ice until you are ready to drink your ice-cold lemonade drink. Also, add a fresh lemon slice – and pulp – to garnish your drink.
Tips for Making Fantastic Lemonade
Here are six tips to help you make the best lemonade drink ever.
- Collect more lemons than you think you need – A normal-sized lemon produces about three tablespoons of lemon juice. If you plan to make about six glasses of lemonade, buy at least twelve lemons as you will want more. Also, carefully inspect each lemon to ensure that they are not moldy.
- Keep the lemons at room temperature – It is much easier to break the juice vessels of room temperature lemons than cold ones.
- Don’t just add sweeteners – Don’t just add sweeteners into your drink. Perform taste tests after each drop of sweetener to ensure that the taste is perfect for your tastebud.
- Use high-quality ingredients – When your ingredients are of good quality, your lemonade drink will taste incredible.
- Add a twist to your lemonade – Add fruit purees to your lemonade to give it an extra twist. Add sweeteners after the puree to ensure that the taste is perfect.
Include pulp if you want – You can add the pulp to your drink if you like pulpy lemonade. If you don’t, however, strain your lemonade after juicing it.
