This sweet & perky homemade lemonade concentrate is your all-natural, ready-to-mix lemonade free of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Mix some up today!

Homemade Lemonade Concentrate

This post may contain affiliate links, including those from Amazon.com, which means we earn a small commission off your purchases. And here's the thing: We only mention services and products that we think are truly worth your attention, whether they're free, paid, or otherwise. This site relies on YOUR trust, so if we don't stand behind a product 110%, it's not mentioned. Period.

This sweet & perky homemade lemonade concentrate is your all-natural, ready-to-mix lemonade free of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Mix some up today!

I don't know about you, but where I am, it's unseasonably HOT – and somehow lemonade is so absolutely refreshing in the heat. The kids and I take a break from school to sip homemade lemonade on the porch and somehow all seems well. 😉

However, I like to have lemonade on hand for quick pouring – I don't always want to mix it up on demand. But I can't stock my refrigerator with gallons of lemonade, either. Neither space nor freshness will allow it!

Thus, I make this homemade lemonade concentrate, which I keep in the freezer but which can be canned in a water bath if you prefer. Now you've got a ready-to-mix lemonade just like the kind you can buy in the store but without high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors. Just dump, stir, and go. Yay for a super-fresh summer!

This sweet & perky homemade lemonade concentrate is your all-natural, ready-to-mix lemonade free of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Mix some up today!

Homemade Lemonade Concentrate

Prep Time10 minutes
Inactive Time6 hours
Total Time6 hours 10 minutes
Servings: 6 pints of concentrate // 2 1/2 quarts of lemonade (once mixed)
Author: Kresha Faber

Ingredients

For the concentrate

  • 8 cups water
  • 1 ½ - 2 cups honey or unrefined cane sugar
  • 12 lemons

To mix the lemonade

  • per 1 pint lemonade concentrate
  • use 1 1/4 cup of water

Instructions

To Prepare the Concentrate

  • First, scrub the lemons, then peel them using a vegetable peeler so as to get as little pith as possible attached to the peels. Place the peels in a large bowl (you can use only half, if desired).
  • Place the water and honey in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring just to a boil, then pour the hot mixture over the peels and let sit until cooled, 30-45 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, juice the lemons and pour the juice through a sieve to remove any seeds or large pieces of pulp. Place juice in a large bowl or jar that's easy to pour from. Set aside, then prepare freezer containers for the concentrate.
  • A Note About Containers: I find leftover pint-sized sour cream containers or pint-sized Weck jars work very well for this purpose, but you can use anything that's freezer-safe and pint-sized. I prefer not to use Mason jars in the freezer, merely because of the curved top you have to thaw them completely before using them. With straight-sided Weck jars, you just have to loosen them before plopping them in your pitcher to mix. That said, mason jars are a great option if you want to can them in a water bath!)
  • When the honey mixture is cool, remove the peels. Pour the sweetened liquid over the lemon juice and stir well.
  • Pour into prepared containers and freeze until solid.
  • (If using glass, BE SURE to leave at least an inch at the top to allow for expansion. Otherwise, you'll likely be dealing with broken glass in your freezer... )

To Mix the Lemonade

  • To prepare lemonade using homemade lemonade concentrate, stir together 1 pint of concentrate and 1 1/4 water (use more or less as desired).
  • Stir in raspberries, rosemary, mango, or other add-ins as desired.

 

What's your favorite summer drink?

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

4 Comments

  1. Fabulous. Did this with Limes too. Added a 1/2C roughly chopped (and cleaned) mint leaves to the lime peels before pouring the syrup over it. Tastes like a mojito… SO YUMMY!

Leave a Reply to Kresha Faber Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.