Cool off and refresh yourself with this simple but delicious Raspberry Lemonade. The perfect fresh and fruity drink for a hot summer day!
Is there a better way to cool off on a hot summer day than with a glass of ice-cold lemonade? The answer is yes: Raspberry Lemonade. The cooler, fruitier sister of the traditional lemonade.
No offence to traditional lemonade. Its pretty darn awesome too! We make it frequently around here when the weather gets hot and we’ve got a bag of lemons to put to use! If you haven’t tried my recipe for the most perfect lemonade, be sure to check it out! So much goodness!
But when you add extra fruity goodness in the form of fresh raspberries, you have taken things to a whole new level! Buckle up, peeps! This lemonade is about to blow your socks off!
How to make Raspberry Lemonade
Raspberry lemonade is super easy to do and doesn’t take long at all! It requires very few ingredients and produces a fresh taste that you simply can’t get from a store-bought lemonade!
To make this lemonade, you will need:
- sugar
- water
- raspberries
- lemons
There is one optional ingredient that you can also add to your lemonade for added colour, but it is entirely optional:
- grenadine syrup (optional)
Steps to making the perfect raspberry lemonade:
To start making the perfect lemonade, you need to start with making a simple syrup. To make a raspberry simple syrup, I combine equal parts sugar, water, and raspberries in a saucepan and simmer it until the sugar has dissolved. Then you strain it and let it cool to room temperature before mixing it into your lemonade (or favourite cocktail).
If you are a bit rushed and need to cool your simple syrup faster, I add some ice cubes to the cooling syrup to speed up the process. Just be sure to adjust the amount of water you add to the pitcher to account for all of the extra water produced by the melting ice. You don’t want to over-dilute the lemonade.
Once the simple syrup is done, all of you have to do is add it to your pitcher with the remaining water and lemon juice.
Why make simple syrup?
Why don’t you just add the sugar directly to your pitcher? If you do, the sugar will sink to the bottom of the pitcher and won’t mix well with the lemon juice water. A simply syrup completely dissolves the sugar into the water. This creates a perfectly sweetened lemonade every time!
Since the sourness of lemons varies, I like to start by adding most of the syrup but not all of it. Then I add the lemon juice and 5 cups of water and stir it all together. I taste my final product and make adjustments as needed.
The proportions can vary each time, so I highly recommend tasting and adjusting.
Once your raspberry lemonade is perfected, refridgerate it until you are ready to serve. Just before serving, add the sliced lemons and fresh raspberries. Pour into cups and add ice. Enjoy!
Hope you enjoy this refreshing drink as much as we do! If you are up to it, this also can be turned into a killer cocktail by adding some vodka to the mix!
-Cathy
You may also like:
Lemonade Recipe
Homemade Cherry Lemonade
Raspberry Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cup water + 6 cups for serving
- 1 1/4 cup raspberries
- 1 1/2 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed (about 6-8 lemons)
- 1-2 tablespoon grenadine syrup (optional, for colour)
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 2 lemons sliced
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine sugar, 1 1/4 cups water and raspberries to create a raspberry simple syrup. Heat it over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes, mashing raspberries a bit as it simmers. Remove from heat, strain using a fine mesh sieve and let cool to room temperature.
- Add 3/4 of the raspberry simple syrup to a pitcher with the lemon juice and about 5 cups of water. Stir to combine. For a deeper red colour (and added sweetness), you can stir in some grenadine syrup (optional). Taste and adjust the lemonade by adding more syrup, water, or lemon juice as needed. Refrigerate.
- Before serving, add the fresh raspberries and lemon slices to the pitcher.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
Living in Florida, this is a year-round thirst quenching drink. We always have fresh raspberries and huge lemons, I think these were especially grown for this recipe. From a fellow Greek, yiassis and Oodles of thanks Cathy
Thank you so much Konstantina!