Homemade Strawberry Lemonade
on Jul 21, 2019, Updated Jun 28, 2024
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Homemade strawberry lemonade is a sweet and fruity refreshment for hot summer days and long afternoons in the sun!
It doesn’t get much more refreshing on a sweaty and hot day than a full glass of iced down strawberry lemonade. Kids love it, adults love it, heck, I’m sure the dog would love it (but I don’t recommend or advise anyone gives their dog lemonade!).
It’s such a fun treat and an easy beverage to make and enjoy for a week or two. OR next time you’re going to a pool party or plan to spend a lot of time outside, add this to your morning to-do list… Everyone will be thanking you as they sip it down!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Refreshing Flavor: The combination of fresh strawberries and freshly squeezed lemon juice is so refreshing and tasty.
- Homemade Goodness: If you’re a fan of powdered strawberry lemonade, you’ll go crazy for the homemade stuff.
- Make-Ahead Convenience: You can make the simple syrups ahead of time and mix the lemonade up whenever you’re ready.
Ingredients
For the Fruit Simple Syrup
- Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
- Water
- Sugar
For the Lemonade
- Fruit Simple Syrup
- Lemon Juice: Use fresh squeezed, not bottled, unless you can find the fancy kind at Costco
- Water
- Ice
- Sliced Lemon or Additional Strawberries: for serving, optional
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
Popular Substitutions or Variations
- You could easily use the Fruit Simple Syrup recipe to make syrups from other berries and use that to make all kinds of delicious flavored lemonades. Raspberries and blueberries go really well with lemons in just about anything.
How to Make Homemade Strawberry Lemonade
Step #1. In a medium sauce, bring all the fruit syrup ingredients to a boil until the sugar is dissolved and simmer for several minutes until the fruit is soft, stirring often.
Step #3. Pour the fruit syrup mixture into a fine mesh sieve placed over a bowl. Mash the fruit through with the back of a spoon. Discard the remaining pulp and seeds. Place the bowl’s contents into a heat proof container, like a mason jar, and store in the fridge to chill.
Step #2. Remove the pan from the heat, mash the fruit with a potato masher and set aside to steep for 10 minutes.
Step #4. To make the lemonade, combine the fruit simple syrup, lemon juice, and water in a pitcher and stir to combine. To serve, pour over ice and garnish with lemon slices and additional strawberries as desired.
Recipe FAQs
Pink lemonade that you might get at a store or restaurant is often colored with raspberry juice, cranberry juice, or crushed strawberries. Sometimes, it’s just red food dye. So unless it says “strawberry lemonade,” I wouldn’t assume it will have a strawberry flavor!
Fun fact: Lemons actually have more sugar than strawberries! A lemon has about 70 percent sugar, while strawberries contain only 40 percent. But lemons taste more sour than sweet because they have a much higher level of citric acid (between 3 to 6 percent) that makes them more tart flavored.
Homemade strawberry lemonade will last in the fridge for up to 5 to 7 days!
Expert Tips
- Make a double batch and use some in popsicle molds for sweet and cold treats for the summer.
- Make some strawberry simple syrup to keep on hand and add to other favorite drinks: ginger ale, lemon lime soda, or even make some homemade Italian sodas. So, so fun for parties and family gatherings.
- Adding a few mint leaves to your Strawberry Lemonade pitcher will make it look so fancy and add another delicious flavor to the combo. If you’ve never tried it, you definitely should. (Stir the mint leaves in 30-60 minutes before you’d like to serve it.)
More Strawberry Recipes to Consider
Dessert Recipes
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
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Homemade Strawberry Lemonade
Ingredients
For the fruit simple syrup:
- 1 to 1.5 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, if fresh, remove stems
- 2 cups water
- 1.5 cups sugar
For the lemonade:
- Fruit simple syrup
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3 to 4 cups water
- Ice, at least 2 cups
- Sliced lemon or additional strawberries for serving, optional
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, heat the 2 cups of water, 1 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries, and 1 cup of sugar for the simple syrup over medium-high heat, until the sugar is dissolved. Stir it often.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to let it simmer for 3 to 6 minutes, until the fruit is soft.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Use a potato masher to crush the fruit. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, while the fruit steeps in the hot water.
- Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium-sized bowl (a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup works well for this), and pour the hot fruit simple syrup through the strainer. Use the back of a spoon to press the fruit against the strainer to remove all of the extra juice. Discard the pulp or seeds (or feed it to your chickens!).
- Place the fruit simple syrup in a heat-resistant container (a mason jar with a lid works well for this), and then let it chill in the fridge.
- In a large pitcher, add the simple syrup, lemon juice, and 3 to 4 cups of water. Stir to combine well. Serve over ice, and garnish with sliced lemon and/or additional fruit.
Video
Notes
- To speed up the process, you can replace the water called for in the lemonade part of the recipe with ice to cool your simple syrup faster. Just be sure you don’t dilute it too much and get watery lemonade.
- I don’t recommend bottled lemon juice for this recipe, unless you can find that fancy volcanic lemon juice from Italy (sold at Costco). Here’s what it looks like on Amazon, but it’s silly expensive there. Other options would be high-quality lemon juices that aren’t from concentrate.
- Make a double batch and use some to make popsicles.
- The fruit simple syrup recipe is a great base for using other berries to make lots of flavors of simple syrup and then make all kinds of lemonades.
