Homemade lemonade tastes so much better than the frozen concentrate. This recipe is super simple and delicious.
Lemonade is a huge favorite at our house. In fact, the other night, hubs requested a date night stop at Chick-fil-A for lemonade instead of the Peet’s coffee that he would normally indulge in.
Thankfully, my dad has a Meyer lemon tree growing in his backyard so during lemon season, we get to drink lemonade to our heart’s content. I juice hundreds of lemons and freeze the juice for later. A delicious way to get your day’s supply of Vitamin C.
Here’s our recipe for lemonade that matches (or beats!) Chick-Fil-A anyday.
Lemonade like Chick-Fil-A Makes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 5 cup water
Instructions
- In a large pitcher, combine the lemon juice and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Stir in the water. Chill until ready to serve.
- Serve over crushed ice.
Notes
Nutrition
My cookbook Best 100 Juices for Kids includes recipes for 100 juices, smoothies, slushies, popsicles, and sports ades, all with a healthier bent.
Diandra
When I make fresh lemonade, I use less sugar and often add a pinch of salt. Got that idea from an Indian cookbook, and it’s delicious!
JessieLeigh
I do! Your recipe is easier, though. Mine requires cooking sugar and water into a simply syrup, allegedly to avoid any grittiness. Perhaps this is totally unnecessary, though?
Jessica
@JessieLeigh, I’m too lazy for simple syrups. This is not gritty. 😉
Candi
I don’t know, girl! Chick-Fil-A’s lemonade is super, syrupy sweet. Yours looks better! 🙂
Susan
Candi,
I worked at Chick-Fil-A for four years. I don’t know the equivalent to the above ratios used in this recipe and the one at Chick-Fil-A, but we used to cut and squeeze lemons and use just the juice, water, and sugar. If you wanted “Diet Lemonade,” instead of regular sugar, we would put a packet of Splenda in it. We never used syrup of any sort…
Steph (The Cheapskate Cook)
Since there aren’t a lot (any?) of lemon trees growing around here, we use from-the-bottle lemon juice – 1 cup sugar with 1 cup lemon juice and a gallon of water and voila! Frugal lemonade without all those mysterious ingredients that make it glow yellow-green like the mixes do.
Therese
I appreciate the fresh lemonade recipe. Do you know how to make lemonade (and iced tea) with fruits and flavorings? I’d love to have some special beverages on occasion. Thanks. Therese
Nikki
@Therese, I slice fresh strawberries and occasionally one slice of lemon in each cup then pour this recipe over the fruit and ice…we think it taste amazing!
Grace
I know you posted this a long time ago but I have GREAT flavored tea recipes! To make a 2qt pitcher I use 4 cups boiling water mixed with 1cup sugar, then stir until dissolved. Steep 1 Luzianne iced tea bag and 4 Celestial Seasonings flavored tea bags (our favorites are Wild Berry Zinger, Raspberry Zinger, or Mandarin Orange Spice) for 4-5 minutes then mix with 4 cups cold water and chill. To make a gallon, double the recipe 🙂 my family LOVES this. The Celestial Seasonings tea bags are attached in pairs so you will take two pairs or four individual bags 🙂
Hope that helps if you still haven’t found a good flavored tea recipe!
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for sharing!
karen
Don’t forget to freeze lemon juice! I freeze lemon juice and zest (fresh and free from my neighbor’s tree!) in large yogurt containers (four cups, I think) to make fresh lemonade all summer. I make a simple syrup using palm sugar–the palm sugar adds something to the lemonade.
Melinda P
We had a whole bunch of lemons in our produce drawer, so my mother-in-law, who is currently living with us, juiced them all, froze the juice in ice cube trays, and makes her own lemonade a glass at a time, LOL.
Nora@ The Dollar Hollering Homemaker
This looks super yummy!
Jennifer W
We make lemonade a lot. Its my 7 year old daughter’s favorite but since she is 7 she wants pink! We add grape juice and viola…pink lemonade. Unfortunately in Upstate NY where we got 13.5 inches of snow, we have to use lemon juice in the bottle. :0)
Susan
never been to chick-fil-a myself but i DO make homemade lemonade! i usually use agave nectar in place of the sugar and its WONDERFUL!
Angela L
@Susan, How much agave nectar do you use?
Marina
We do this but with limes instead!
Micha
I haven’t made lemonade in ages. I guess next time I eat CFA I’ll have to try theirs.
Jenni
I love chick fil-a lemonade and your recipe was wonderful! It tasted just like it. The only problem I found is that 2 lbs of lemons in KY is 3.49! Yikes. It took all 2 pounds to make a quart, so I don’t really know how frugal it is to make all the time. I’m going to try bottle lemon juice to see how it compares to the fresh. Thanks for the recipe!
Amanda
Ah, thank you for this! I was just thinking I needed to find a homemade lemonade recipe for the spring/summer.
Angela L
Just like CFA! I use to work there as a teen and remember the days of taking cases of lemons, slicing them, and then juicing them. It literally is lemon juice, regular sugar, and water. The acid in the lemon juice disolves the sugar, to not make it gritty.
I’ll definately have to try this! Thanks so much for posting!
MH in OH
Last summer I was inspired to make lemon shake-ups at home. And since the weather is finally sunny and warming up again here in the Midwest I’d been thinking about them again. I make simple syrup and put that 1/2 cup of that in the blender with ice and the juice of 2 lemons and 2 limes. I also had fun experimenting with adding other in-season fruits – strawberries are good but a peach is the best. I have some old oranges in the fridge right now, wonder what I could do with those…
April
@MH in OH, I also add a litte orange juice and slices of lemon and orange
Saralyn
We make our in much the same manner, but substitute 2/3 of the sugar with Lemon Drop Stevia.
AMy
JUst like it!!! So good
Elizabeth
We make lemonade using the bottles of lemon juice concentrate from Sams or Costco. I think we use 2 cups of lemon juice and 2 cups of sugar and fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water. That makes a gallon. We’ve tried using less sugar — but it was too sour. My 9 year old son considers this his special job in the summer time — making lemonade daily! 🙂
LaLa
Omgee! I just made this!! Soooo tasty and worth it…however, there’s a house of five so I will definitely have to ration this out!! LOL…I need to invest in an automatic juicer!!! This was very labor intensive!!!
Jessica
It definitely doesn’t last long, does it?
Breeze
I make lemonade ALL THE TIME. But use less lemon & sugar. 2 lemons (squeezed really well) and 3/4 cup sugar make a full pitcher of lemonade. Sugar to taste really, I sometimes use less. If Meyer lemons (sweeter) probably 1/2 C.
CJ
I haven’t made lemonade in years, but recently our school librarian made the best concoction with lemonade and orange juice. She combined homemade lemonade, orange juice, an extra cup of sugar and an extra cup of water. It was awesome – not too tart and not too sweet!
Erin
Just made this with the organic lime juice from Costco. So good! My entire family was happy to drink it, even a little diluted, b/c it’s so dang hot out, I knew they need the extra water.
Jessica Fisher
So glad to hear they enjoyed it — and that you found lime juice that didn’t break the bank. That stuff is pricey these days!
Melody
I made this this morning! It was so easy and tasty! I will never make a simple syrup again. Thanks!
Jessica Fisher
Yay! So glad you liked it.
carol scrimshaw
I used honey to sweeten my lemonade. I also grated ginger which added a delicious flavor to my lemonade!