Do You Add Salt to Lemonade or Limeade?

It might sound strange, but in many parts of the world, lemonade and limeade are usually salted, making a drink that balances tartness with both sugar and salt. We know that some of you salt your fruit, but do you ever add salt to your citrus drinks?

Citrusy cocktails like margaritas and salty dogs are served with a rim of salt, so although it shouldn't seem so odd to drink a salty limeade, I was fairly repelled the first time I tried it in Thailand. (I wasn't warned that it was salted beforehand, which didn't help.) Now, though, I like the interplay of sour, sweet and salty, which is especially refreshing after a long hike or other sweaty activity.

Recipes to try:
• Mark Bittman's Sweet or Salty Lemonade or Limeade - New York Times
• Chanh Muoi (Vietnamese Salty Lemonade) - Wandering Chopsticks
• Astor Bake Shop's Sea Salt Lemonade - Village Voice

Alternatively, you could treat your limeade like a margarita and dip the rim of the glass in salt, or a combination of sugar and salt, before filling it.

Do you ever add salt to your lemonade or limeade?

(Image: Flickr member Robert S. Donovan licensed under Creative Commons; Whole Foods Market)

Comments (13)

I love this when it is hot - which it is not most of the time here in northern CA. When I was traveling in Indian I drank salty limeade all the time. Mmmmmmm...

My dad used to add a few grains of salt to his coffee if it was bitter. When I taught classes, I would have students taste a little tonic water and then have them add a few grains of salt to it. This made it taste sweeter. A good teaching tool to show students just how versital salt is.

I do add a tiny pinch of kosher salt, crunched into smaller flakes between my fingertips, to the lemon-sugar syrup before I mix in water or club soda. It's not enough to give a salty taste, though, just enough to give a tiny spark to the flavor.

Hmm, it hadn't occurred to me to salt the rim of a glass of limeade. I'll try it.

A latin friend of mine taught me to add salt to lemonaide to make it taste sweeter. I don't always do it but I tend to more often than not.

grated ginger also tastes very good as well as a little bit of ground cumin

Yes! I love limbu sarbat ... I drank this daily when staying with family in India. It's basically a pinch of salt, some sugar, freshly squeeze lime and water. Drinks with a bit of salt are common in India since the salt helps combat some of the electrolytes lost in all that heat--though if you asked most Indians, they'd just tell you that it's "cooling". :)

No, but I tend to make my lemonades and limeades on the sour, puckery side. My husband loves to add salt to Coca-cola though, to cut the sweetness.

Isn't it basically making Gatorade?

It never occurs to me to add salt but I LOVE Chanh Muoi so I really should. It's so great on a hot and humid day...

Mmm, I had salted lemonade at a Vietnamese restaurant last time I was in NYC. They put a whole lemon in a blender with a bunch of salt and sugar and then added water. It was strange, but very good.

Mmm I want to try this. I grew up putting salt on watermelons and green apples. I bet this would be delicious.

I love salty limeade -- more than the sweet version. I first had it in Kenya and it's become my favourite summer drink.

Nam manao! Quite possibly my most favorite Thai food ever. I love how all the vendors sell it in plastic bags with a straw. I like mine with salt and blended with ice....