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There is nothing better than a large glass of cold homemade lemonade on a hot summer day. It’s delicious, refreshing and endlessly customizable. It is extremely easy to prepare at home, because for this you need only lemons, sugar and water. But in order for lemonade to really quench your thirst, much better than sugary-sweet store-bought pops, it is important to keep the proportions and add a little magic!
Lemonade is nothing less than 1000 years old. The first written mention of it was found in Egypt and dates back to the 700th century AD. e. It is believed that lemons were brought here from Asia around the XNUMXs. The inhabitants of the banks of the Nile prepared a drink of lemons, dates and honey for themselves, and for others they mixed lemon juice with sugar – until the XNUMXth century, Egyptian lemonade, known as qatarmizat, was one of the main exports to world markets.
So, for a millennium, lemonade has not changed much. Still sweet and sour, refreshing and the perfect thirst quencher, it’s super easy to make at home. But do you add salt, cucumber or mint to it? Have you tried making lemon peel syrup? Obviously, the time has come to conduct a series of taste experiments and prepare lemonade that is perfect in every way. And, of course, you should start with its classic version, where the path to the ideal lies through the consistent preparation of simple sugar syrup and mixing it with lemon juice, water and other flavors. So, Old-Fashioned Lemonade!
When life hands you a lemon, don’t complain – make lemonade out of it! (Napoleon Hill)
Classic lemonade with variations
An easy-to-make “old-fashioned” lemonade to beat the summer heat. Recipe easy
scale – the ingredients should be increased or decreased proportionally. The variability is huge!
A type soft drink, lemonade
Prepare 10 minutes
Cooking 2 minutes
Total 12 minutes
Portions 6 glasses
Ingredients
- 1 glass lemon juice (4-6 lemons)
- 1 glass sahara (better than cane)
- 1 glass water (for syrup)
- 2-4 cups water (for dilution)
- any aromatic herbs (Optional)
- any fruits and/or berries (Optional)
Instructions
In a small saucepan, combine a glass of sugar and a glass of water. put on fire and
heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. bring water
boiling is not necessary.
While the syrup is cooking, squeeze out a glass of lemon juice and pour into a large pitcher.
Add 2-4 cups of pure water, depending on the desired concentration
lemon flavor and acidity. We recommend starting with 2 glasses, and fine-tuning the taste
better done later.
Pour the cooled sugar syrup into the pitcher (for quick cooling, the syrup pot can be placed in a large container with ice), controlling the sweetness of the lemonade to taste.
Adjust the taste of the drink by adding lemon juice, water or sugar syrup. Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes before serving.
Serve in glasses over ice, garnish with a lemon wedge or other garnish if desired. Fresh mint and cucumber slices are especially good here.
Field notes
Now that the principles of making classic lemonade have been mastered, you can also master its variability …
- Mix citrus juices: Use half a glass of lemon juice and half a glass of any citrus juice such as orange, lime or grapefruit. Or try the so-called “pioneer lemonade” (not because our pioneers drank it, but because American pioneers drank it for lack of lemons), replacing half the lemon juice with apple or white wine vinegar – vinegar is better to make yourself.
- Mix fruit and/or berry lemonade: Add a glass of strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, kiwis, grapes, cranberries, or any other ripe and fragrant fruit/berries (or a mixture thereof). Fruits can be cut into slices, and berries can be crushed with a wooden spoon, but it’s better to kill them in a blender with half the volume of water – it’s tastier and healthier.
- Mix herbal lemonade: Add a small bunch (about ½ cup leaves by volume) of mint, tarragon, basil, and lemongrass, a couple sprigs of rosemary, thyme, a sprig of sage, or 1/4 cup of dried lavender flowers. Herbs (one type or a mixture of ½ cup by volume) can be ground in a mortar or finely chopped and added directly to the pitcher with ready-made lemonade. But it is better to prepare syrup with them: mix sugar, water and herb leaves, heat with stirring until sugar dissolves, let it brew for 15 minutes, cool and strain into a mixture of lemon juice and water.
- More lemon flavor: before squeezing the juice, remove the lemon zest from all lemons (necessarily without white, bitter albedo) and add to sugar and water while preparing the syrup. Allow the zest to remain in the syrup while it cools, then strain.
- Mix ginger lemonade: add 30-50 grams of peeled and finely grated fresh ginger root while preparing the syrup (let it brew for 30 minutes). Ginger pairs well with mint and other botanicals, and it’s best to use honey as a sweetener. Ginger, oddly enough, is very effective in combating heat.
- Try a different sweetener: replace sugar with fragrant honey (3/4 cup of honey dissolved in warm water) or cooking molasses to taste. For “sugar-free” lemonade, use 2 tablespoons of stevia powder.
- Mix carbonated lemonade: Use neutral chilled soda water to dilute lemon juice.
- Mix alcoholic lemonade: Before serving, add a shot of vodka, gin, tequila or rum to each glass with ice to make a “grown-up” lemonade for an afternoon siesta. Herbs like mint and basil pair well with lemonade smoothies—garnish every glass with them.
Alternative Lemonade
The classic “old-fashioned” lemonade is quite sour and sweet at the same time, it lacks a bit of bitterness to better quench your thirst and help with digestion after a hearty meal on a hot day. Many do not like this, as well as an insufficiently pronounced lemon taste with only juice. Hence the alternative ways of preparing this refreshing drink.
- baked lemonade. Cut 5 lemons in half, dip in sugar and roast in a thick frying pan or grill, cut side down, over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, until the sugar caramelizes. Remove the lemons from the heat, let them “rest” for 5-10 minutes and squeeze the juice through a sieve (it is convenient to use a manual squeezer for this) into a two-liter jug. Add 200 g of sugar, sliced lemon rings and a liter of water. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved and serve in glasses with ice. Yummy!
- cold maceration. Cut the lemons into slices and cover with sugar, then remove for 30-40 minutes in the refrigerator. Then squeeze out the syrup soaked in the juice and oils of the lemon peel and dilute it to taste with water. A good option, without the need to boil the syrup, but the bitterness and lemon essence are clearly not enough here.
No leftovers!
To extract as much juice as possible, lemons must be warm – in the cold, the membranes in which the juice is imprisoned harden and become tougher, it is much more difficult to squeeze juice out of them. Let the fruits rest at room temperature or dip them in a bowl of warm water until softened. You can also put them in the microwave for 10-20 seconds – then you will have 30-40% more juice. Another method for squeezing more juice out of lemons is to physically destroy the membranes. Roll the lemons on a hard surface with the palm of your hand before squeezing the juice.
- hot maceration. Remove the zest from 3 lemons, mix with the juice of 6 lemons and 150 grams of sugar. Pour the mixture with 1,4 liters of boiling water, mix well and leave overnight in a cool place. Stir the next day, taste and sweeten to taste if necessary. Then strain and pour into clean bottles. Keep refrigerated. This option gives a really balanced taste and moderate bitterness, but … heat treatment takes a long time.
- In a blender. Cut two lemons into cubes with peel and smash in a blender along with four tablespoons of sugar and half a liter of water. If desired, add a few slices of cucumber and a sprig of mint. Serve in a glass with ice. Preparing such a lemonade is really simple and very fast, but bitterness comes to the fore here, and not everyone will like this feature.
Our ancestors also knew a lot about soft drinks. For thirst quenching and health benefits, try making real kvass on rye sourdough or not so healthy, but easier to prepare bread kvass. And when the time comes, stock up on birch kvass for the future – in my memory this is the best thing you can drink in the heat with any physical exertion.
- More Indian. Mix one and a half glasses of water with the juice of one lime or lemon, add sugar to taste and stir until it is completely dissolved. Serve with ice and a lemon wedge in a glass. If desired, add a few grated mint leaves or a teaspoon of finely grated apple / pear. In India, it is nice to add a pinch of black salt (Kala Namak) and/or masala spices for tea to lemonade, where it is called “Nimbu Pani”. Just a few innovations make this lemonade one of the most refreshing and thirst-quenching in hot climates.
Well, now all that’s left is to cross a few of these cooking techniques together and make the perfect lemonade…
Recipe for the perfect lemonade with cucumber
This is a really easy and quick lemonade that can be drunk almost immediately. At the same time, its taste is very balanced in the context of sweetness / acidity / bitterness, and due to cucumber and a pinch of salt, which restores the water-salt balance in hot weather, it perfectly quenches thirst. So, to prepare approximately 1,2 liters of lemonade, you will need:
- 5 fragrant lemons
- 100 grams of powdered sugar
- 1150 ml of cold water
- 1-2 pinches of salt (optional, preferably black)
- ½ cucumber, thinly sliced
- small bunch of mint
Cut 1,5 lemons into small pieces and place in a blender or food processor. Add the juice from the remaining 3,5 lemons, sugar, salt if desired, and a small amount of water. Blend until pureed, add the rest of the water, taste and sweeten to taste if necessary. Pour the workpiece into a large jug, where you first add slices of cucumber and a couple of sprigs of mint (mint must be “revived” by patting between the palms or slightly crushed with a muddler / wooden spoon). Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator and serve in glasses with ice, garnish with a slice of cucumber and a fresh sprig of mint.
Note: If you want to make this drink carbonated, use only 300-400 ml of plain water in a blender, and then add to a pitcher of cold soda just before serving the lemonade.
What else to add here? Only Eastern wisdom!
Indian Lemonade “Shikanjvi”
From time immemorial, India and Pakistan have been preparing their own version of a lemon drink (and probably older than the Egyptian katharmizat), known as Nimbu Paani, Limbu Paani or Shikanjvi. Where a glass of cold liquid is appreciated is in the hot climate of Southeast Asia. A typical Indian lemonade recipe is described above (always with a pinch of black salt), but the real Shikanjvi, which is more common in northern India, should be considered separately. It differs from the classic Nimbu Pani by the almost obligatory presence of roasted cumin and ginger in the recipe.
- juice from 2 medium lemons or limes
- 1 st. l. sugar or more to taste
- 1,5 cm root ginger
- ¼ tsp black salt*
- regular salt to taste
- ½ tsp ground roasted cumin
- pinch of black pepper – optional
- 500-600 ml cold water
* – instead of the rare Kala Namak salt, you can use no less useful pink Himalayan salt, which is now sold everywhere in markets; in the markets of India you can find a special mixture of spices “shikanjvi masala”, which has everything for extremely quick preparation of lemonade (this is true, note to the tourist).
Peel the ginger, grate it on a fine grater and squeeze out the juice. Squeeze the juice of 2 lemons or limes into a pitcher and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly and pour into glasses with ice. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint if desired.
And how do you quench your thirst when it starts to bake around?