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This delicious Lemonade Concentrate is a refreshing homemade drink. Made with freshly squeezed lemons and lightly sweetened, this is a tasty beverage that the whole family will love.
This easy homemade lemonade concentrate is flavored with fresh lemon juice to make a delicious beverage. It’s perfect for an afternoon treat or serve it as a tasty drink at your next BBQ or picnic.
Lemonade Ingredients
This recipe has:
- Fresh lemon juice – for the best results, use real lemons and not bottled lemon juice.
- Sugar – I used fine granulated organic sugar, but see notes below on using alternative sweeteners.
If you have leftover lemons, check out our post on how to freeze lemons.
How to Make Homemade Lemonade Concentrate
*I’ll walk you through it here with some photos and tips, and you’ll also find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post with exact measurements, etc. You can click “jump to recipe” to skip down.
You’ll start by juicing the lemons. When buying lemons, choose large, heavy fruits with thin skin.
To get the most juice out of the lemons, roll them a few times on the counter while applying firm pressure with your palm.
Cut the lemons in half and juice. This handheld juicer works great for small batches. When I need to juice a lot of citrus at once, I use this attachment that works with my KitchenAid stand mixer.
Remove any seeds and if desired, use a fine mesh strainer to remove pulp.
Combine the freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until all the sugar has dissolved, ~5 minutes.
Cool the mixture slightly and test that the sweetness is to your preference. If you’d like it sweeter, return the saucepan to medium heat and add sugar 2-3 tbsp at a time until it’s perfect for you.
How to Use Lemonade Concentrate
Combine 1-2 tbsp of concentrate with 8-12 oz of plain or sparkling water. A little goes a long way, so start with 1 tbsp and add more if desired.
If you’re serving this for a crowd, use 1/4 cup of concentrate per quart of water.
How to Store Homemade Lemonade Concentrate
Storing Leftovers: Allow the concentrate to cool and store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. A pint-sized canning jar works best.
Freezing Leftovers: I freeze the concentrate in our 1-cup Souper Cubes. Remove and transfer to freezer storage once they have frozen solid. Due to the high sugar content in this liquid, it will take 12-24 hours to freeze fully solid.
It will keep in the freezer for 3-6 months.
To thaw: allow the frozen concentrate to sit in an air-tight container overnight in the fridge, or for a few hours at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. If you want to replace the sugar with an alternative sweetener, you can.
For honey, start with 3/4 cup and then adjust to taste.
For Splenda you would want to use a 1:1 ratio, so 1 cup of sugar would be 1 cup of Splenda.
To replace the sugar with Stevia, you would use 1 tsp of powder or liquid concentrate to 1 cup of sugar. Please note, without the “bulk” of the sugar, the overall yield of the lemonade concentrate made with Stevia will be reduced.
I cannot find any literature that indicates this is safe to can, but honestly, lemons and sugar are two preservatives used in canning all the time.
While I cannot advise you on how to can it, I’d recommend proceeding at your own risk.
Absolutely! Since you’re using 1-2 tbsp of this concentrate in each glass, freezing it in ice cube trays/small quantities works great!
Use your favorite ice cube trays or these small Souper Cubes.
Variations
You can use this concentrate as the base of our delicious Rose Lemonade.
Or drizzle in any of our amazing simple syrup recipes such as Strawberry Simple Syrup, Blackberry Simple Syrup, Mint Simple Syrup, Jalapeño Simple Syrup, or Lavender Simple Syrup.
You can also add in mint ice cubes from this tutorial on how to freeze mint.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- If you love a bold, intense lemon taste, add 1-2 tbsp of lemon zest to the lemon juice and sugar mixture while it is heating.
- Don’t leave the kitchen while the lemon and sugar are simmering. Anytime you’re heating sugar, it has the potential to boil over and cause a giant mess.
- If you’d like to serve this right away, fill a glass with 1-2 tbsp of concentrate, 8 oz of water, and 4 oz of ice cubes.
More Drink Recipes You’ll Love
Lemonade Concentrate
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice {~5-7 large lemons}
- 1.5 cups sugar {add up to an additional 1/2 cup if desired}
Instructions
- Roll lemons on the counter while applying pressure to soften them.
- Squeeze enough lemons to produce 1 ¼ cup juice. Remove any seeds.1 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- Optional: strain to remove pulp.
- In a medium saucepan combine sugar and lemon juice over medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Stir often to prevent the sugar syrup from boiling over.1.5 cups sugar
- Cool the mixture and serve 1 tbsp of lemonade concentrate with 8-12 oz of flat or sparkling water.
Notes
- If you love a bold, intense lemon taste, add 1-2 tbsp of lemon zest to the lemon juice and sugar mixture while it is heating.
- Don’t leave the kitchen while the lemon and sugar are simmering. Anytime you’re heating sugar, it has the potential to boil over and cause a giant mess.
- If you’d like to serve this right away, fill a glass with 1-2 tbsp of concentrate, 8 oz of water, and 4 oz of ice cubes.
- Storage
- Fridge: Allow the concentrate to cool and store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.
- Freezer: Will keep in the freezer for 3-6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This just unlocked a core memory of making lemonade concentrate with my grandma when I was a kid. I will be making this asap. Thank you for this! 💛
Aww, I love that! Those food-based memories are the best.