The Best Lemonade

This is The Best Lemonade to me. In my humble opinion. I’m a lemonade lover – but only real lemonade. Don’t give me nothing from concentrate or a powder can. I like tart lemonade, sweet lemonade, pink lemonade, Strawberry Lemonade — I just love lemonade! When I make it at home tho? It’s sweeter than it is sour.

To me, great lemonade is sweeter than it is tart. This means I find Simply Lemonade to be quite tasty, but in need of sugar. There is actually no commercial lemonade I can say I absolutely love; I’m a homemade girl. My favorite lemonades are housemade by two local joints here in NC: a chain called Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes and Fries, formally known as Andy’s Cheesesteaks, and a soul food joint in Durham called Vittles at The Park.

The Best Lemonade Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this The Best Lemonade recipe:

• Filtered water: I have a water cooler, so I used Deer Park spring water. Just make sure it’s quality water if you can. Off tasting water makes for off tasting lemonade.
• Granulated sugar, Kosher salt: For the simple syrup. The salt just further brings out the flavor, trust me. If you want this to be vegan make sure to use organic sugar!
• Lemons: This is where it gets tricky. Not every lemon is as lemony as the lemon next to it. Like most fruits, sometimes you get a very deeply flavored one, and sometimes you get one that only tastes like a hint of itself. Try to use local lemons, as freshly picked as possible. I like to use Meyer lemons for this, as they have a sweeter, more floral flavor than regular lemons. Regular lemons work here too, just expect it to be more tart than it would be with lemons. Do. Not. Use. Bottled. Lemon. Juice. Freshly squeezed only!

How to Make The Best Lemonade

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this The Best Lemonade recipe:

• Make the Simple Syrup. In a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat, add all of the sugar and Kosher salt along with two cups of water. Whisk together, and bring everything to a boil. Whisk intermittently, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Make The Best Lemonade. In a large pitcher combine the lemon juice and simple syrup together. Add the remaining cups of water, and give it a taste. If it’s too sweet for you, you can add another cup of water, but I’d also add another few tablespoons of lemon juice, too – otherwise you might drown out the lemon flavor too much. Chill in the fridge for 4 hours before serving, or serve immediately over ice if you can’t wait. I prefer the refrigerator chill so the flavor doesn’t get watered down at all.

Obligatory Pinterest Graphics –

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