The BEST Strawberry Lemonade Recipe | Sweet Tea + Thyme (2024)

This easy fresh strawberry lemonade recipe is the perfect summer drink. A lemonade made with juicy strawberries and lemons for a seriously delicious drink with all the flavor and noblenderrequired! Skip the store bought stuff, fresh-squeezed lemonade at home is a welcomed fave on a hot summer day.

Love a refreshing summertime drink? Try my country fair lemonade, mint watermelon lemonade, or a sparkling tuscan lemonade co*cktail.

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The Best Refreshing Summer Drink!

Let me tell you, as soon as the weather starts to get warm, my family and I get excited to whip up some easy strawberry lemonade. It's the perfect companion for any outdoor activity - be it a picnic, a fancy brunch, or even a romantic date night in.

You just need some juicy strawberries and sugar to make a scrumptious strawberry simple syrup and mix it with your favorite lemonade recipe. It's terrifically effortless, and the kids love to lend a hand in the process!

The best part? You get to be the master of your lemonade universe! You decide how smooth you want it, how much strawberry flavor you desire, and what kind of sweetener would make it a knockout.

This splendid recipe is sure to be a hit with the whole family, and undeniably the ultimate summer drink. If you have any suggestions on making lemonade, pop them in the comments. I would love to learn about how you make the ultimate lemonade for your family!

Why You'll Love this Recipe

• More Affordable than Store-Bought - you can make gallons of lemonade if you wanted to for a much more affordable price than a half gallon at the market.
• Simple Ingredients - there's nothing wild or unexplainable in here, unlike many store-bought brands of lemonade. Four easy fresh ingredients that you most likely already have on hand are all you need.
• Very Customizable - I absolutely love how easy it is to add any type of delicious flavors to this drink. You can also swap the sugar for healthier alternatives, which I talk more about in this post!
• No Special Appliances Required - a lot of recipes require a blender, but we don't need one here.

How Pink Lemonade was Invented

Before this pink drink became the ideal refreshing drink of the strawberry season, it was something else entirely.

The story behind the kid-favorite lemonade with the beautiful pink hue is like so many other drink histories: murky, chaotic, with multiple people claiming ownership.

One story claims that someone at a carnival dropped hot cinnamon candy into the lemonade they were selling, making the lemonade pink.

The other story claims that another person at a circus ran out of water to make lemonade to sell so they stole a circus girl's washing tub, where she had just washed her red tights, dropped lemon slices in, and called it 'pink lemonade'. It sold like hotcakes.

Gross but...well, the work apparently ain't honest but it paid the bills!

Equipment Needed

• Citrus Juicer - I love this pressing juicer so much, it really squeezes every bit of juice out!
• Small Saucepan - we're making a simple syrup, we've gotta have a pan to do it in.
• FineMesh Sieve - you'll need a fine mesh strainer to make your sweet strawberry syrup.
• Large Pitcher -this recipe makes a good amount of lemonade so you'll need a large pitcher

Ingredients

The ingredients are simple: strawberries, lemons, water and sugar. No need to bust out anything weird or fancy here.

• Water.
• Granulated Sugar.
• Strawberries -frozen berries work if you can't get your hands on the fresh ones.
• A bunch of Lemons -freshly squeezed lemon juice from fresh lemons is best in this recipe, the bottled store-bought lemon juice can end up too tart.

Making Strawberry Syrup for the Best Strawberry Lemonade

So how do we make apitcherof easy homemade strawberry lemonade with actual strawberries and not red dye? With plenty of sweet ripe strawberries!

Making the fresh and delicious strawberry syrup is incredibly easy. Any extra can go into popsicles, slushies, co*cktails, you name it!

This is the time to use those older, wrinkly, or ugly strawberries you don't want to eat by themselves or have on top of a strawberry shortcake cake.

They're just delicious enough to make the perfect syrup.

Step 1 | Make the strawberry syrup by dissolving the sugar in asmall saucepanwith 1 cup of water with chopped up strawberries over medium heat. It simmers a bit, the strawberries release all their color and flavor, and you have the best smelling and tasting simple syrup ever.

Step 2 | Let the simple syrup simmer (never boil!) for 5 minutes, then strain the syrup through a mesh strainer to remove the strawberry mush into a heat-safe bowl or container. This will also get out any strawberry seeds and there's no worry about if the sugar is dissolved enough in the lemonade.

How to Make Strawberry Lemonade at Home without a Blender

Step 1 | Now, chop up some fresh strawberries and macerate them inside of your largepitcher. That means cover them in sugar and let them release all that good strawberry juice. This is an optional step, but it adds so much more of that strawberry flavor.

Step 2 | Next, stir the fresh lemon juice, water, and macerated strawberries together

See Also

Easy Homemade Strawberry LemonadeBest Homemade Strawberry Lemonade Recipe - Little Sunny KitchenStrawberry Lemonade RecipeEasy Strawberry Lemonade Recipe

Step 3 | Now that your water is in, add the strawberry syrup and give it a really good stir.Cover the top with plastic wrap or put a lid on it, and put that baby in the fridge to get it nice and chilled and ready to serve. You can also add in a few cups of ice but if you do, reduce the amount of water you use so it's not diluted.

Step 4 | Pour lemonade into glasses with or without ice and add in frozen fruit if you'd like!

Best Natural Sweeteners for Strawberry Lemonade

For this strawberry pink lemonade, you have a lot of choices for what sweetener you want to use, especially if you want to make this a keto or healthy pink lemonade recipe!

Agave Nectar, which is a syrup with a fructose concentration that's way sweeter than sugar. So a little goes a long way.

Honey,which gives it a beautiful floral flavor.

Raw Sugar, it's less processed than granulated white sugar and can give a slightly rich taste.

For my keto friends, you can usestevia(if you are used to the aftertaste) andmonkfruit. I've seen them pretty frequently in mainstream grocery stores, so they're not difficult to find!

Tips for Perfecting Your Homemade Lemonade

• Strain your strawberry simple syrup, the flavor and color has been leached from the syrup's strawberries so they should be discarded.
• Different lemons have a different impact on your lemonade! Meyer lemons are sweeter and have a distinctly different flavor than your typical fresh lemons.
• Use a blender or food processor if you love having strawberry puree in your lemonade.
• Strain your strawberry simple syrup, the flavor and color has been leached from the syrup's strawberries so they should be discarded.
• Freeze strawberries and add them as 'ice cubes' to your pitcher. Your lemonade won't get watered down! You could also make lemonade ice cubes and add them as well!
• Use frozen strawberries as 'ice cubes' to yourpitcher. Your lemonade won't get watered down! You could also make lemonade ice cubes and add them as well.

Variations and Substitutions

• Instead of making the simple syrup, you can just follow the directions for making this recipe, just add the full amount of sugar to macerate the strawberries and stir the lemonade well for a quick strawberry lemonade recipe
• Swap the strawberries for raspberries! Raspberry lemonade is so, so good. The perfect drink when raspberry season comes around.
• Make Strawberry Limeade - Change the lemons for limes and make a fantastic strawberry limeade!
• Use frozen strawberries instead if you can't find fresh strawberries out of season.
• Turn it into a refreshing summer co*cktail - add a splash of tequila or make a yummy vodka strawberry lemonade co*cktail!
• Try pouring it into popsicle molds for a sweet summery treat! Drop in some
• Strawberry Lemonade Soda - do you pour still water into the strawberry lemon mixture or spice it up by pouring in club soda and making strawberry lemonade soda? If you've never made your own soda, this summery drink is the time to do it! It's one of my son's favorite things.

How long will Strawberry Lemonade Last?

Cover thepitcherof lemonade with a lid or plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days. This makes it perfect to make ahead before your next cookout, brunch, or summer party.

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