How To Make Lemonade from Scratch

Sipping icy-cold sweet lemonade on a blazing-hot summer day is one of life’s finest pleasures, which is why we think making lemonade from scratch should be the easiest drink you make this summer. After all, it is just three ingredients: lemon juice, sugar, and water.

There’s absolutely no reason you should be heating up the stove or breaking a sweat to squeeze lemons. To make this lemonade-from-scratch recipe, juice the lemons and strain them, then use the lemon juice to dissolve the sugar, and add cold water to taste.

With this recipe you’ll learn two smart tips for making lemonade faster and more easily, plus we’ll help you find the perfect sweetness level for your taste with a ratio anyone can remember. Here’s the one lemonade recipe you need for back porch swinging, park picnics, and even your own neighborhood lemonade stand.

For the freshest-tasting lemonade, keep it simple.

• Lemons
• Sugar
• Water
• Ice

Once you’ve made this classic version, you can experiment with add-ins like fresh mint.

Here’s my strong summer opinion: You should never have to turn on the stove for lemonade. Ditch the simple syrup and instead use the lemon juice to dissolve the sugar in a 3-ingredient recipe that delivers tangy, sweet lemonade every time. This summer we’re not waiting for simple syrup to cool. (For limeade we like using maple syrup instead of simple syrup.)

You can use the standard ratio of 1 cup of lemon juice to 1 cup of sugar added to 1 1/2 quarts of cold water for perfectly sweet lemonade, or you can figure out your perfect ratio and you can have almost instant lemonade anywhere, anytime.

For a less sweet lemonade, reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup and keep the lemon and water amounts the same.

• Juice and strain the lemons. We know a few tricks for getting the most juice out of your lemons (rolling them, slicing the lemon lengthwise, roasting them). But through testing we found the best way to juice lemons is to use a hand-held Chef’n Fresh Force citrus juicer. That said, in the recipe I included directions for my personal favorite juicing method, using a stand mixer.
• Use the lemon juice to dissolve the sugar. Many modern lemonade recipes call for making a simple syrup — sugar and water boiled together — for sweetening summer lemonade, but if you stir the sugar directly into the lemon juice you can skip the simple syrup and get to lemonade faster — no heat required.
• Add cold water to taste. Since the lemon juice dissolves the sugar, we can go straight from lemon juice to cold water and ice and serve the lemonade straight away.

This lemonade keeps well for about five days in the fridge, although it’s a good idea to give it a swift stir just before serving each time. As for serving instructions, a tall glass, extra ice, and a sunny patio are recommended.