Homemade Strawberry Lemonade

Whip up this easy Homemade Strawberry Lemonade as a special treat on a hot day! So quick and simple to make from scratch (no mixes!) and it tastes absolutely delicious.

I honestly didn’t even know how to make lemonade from scratch until I researched fun summer projects for the kids a couple of years ago. And homemade lemonade has been on our must-do list for hot and lazy summer days ever since!

It’s incredibly easy to whip up a batch of this recipe, and the taste is so fresh, fruit-filled and delicious! You might never go back to store-bought again 😉

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Lemon juice: I think freshly squeezed lemon juice yields the best flavor, but you can easily use bottled if that’s what you have on hand.
• Strawberries: Both fresh and frozen work. If using frozen, I recommend letting them sit on the counter for 10 minutes before blending. It helps to add one cup of the water to the blender if you can’t get the frozen ones blended.
• Water: For a sparkling lemonade, just replace the 5-7 cups water added in the end with club soda.

How to make Strawberry Lemonade from scratch

This is a very simple recipe you can quickly whip up with just a handful of ingredients:

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1. Sugar syrup: Bring 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar to a boil over medium heat, until the liquid is clear (it will look cloudy/grainy before it is ready). Set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Strawberries: Blend the strawberries with the lemon juice until smooth. Combine with the cooled sugar syrup.
3. Strain: Strain the strawberry mixture through a fine mesh sieve. I strain once without discarding the pulp, then I pour about 2 cups of water over the pulp to strain again/make sure I get all of the flavor and sugar into the lemonade.
4. Finish and serve: Add the strawberry mixture to a 2 quart jug and fill up with 5-7 cups of water. Serve chilled over ice.

Recipe tips

• Straining: You don’t HAVE to strain the drink for this recipe to work, but the seeds are a little annoying in the drink. I definitely prefer pouring the lemonade through a fine mesh sieve to remove any seeds before serving. It gives the lemonade a less gritty feel and makes it look prettier and more clear. It also has a much better texture for kids.
• Quick chilling: If you don’t have time to chill your lemonade, fill glasses half full with ice and serve the lemonade over it for instant chilling. You can also use chilled bottled water to make chilling quicker.
• Tartness/sweetness: Adjust the amount of lemon juice and sugar to your taste. As written, the recipe makes a quite sweet lemonade. For a more tart, less sweet drink, try 1 ½ cups of lemon juice and/or reduce the sugar to ½ cup. The amount of sweetener needed will also depend on the tartness of your berries.

Storage tips

Freezer: You can freeze the blended and strained strawberries/sugar syrup mixture as a homemade concentrate. I like to freeze it in ice cube trays, then transfer the cubes to a labelled ziploc back and freeze for up to 3 months. Just thaw and add water when you’re ready to serve some lemonade!

Fridge: The fully assembled lemonade can be stored, covered, in the fridge for up to 2 days.

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Recipe first published on 05/14/2019. Updated with new photos, better text and tweaks to recipe wording on 06/12/2021.

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