honey sweetened lemonade

Lemonade is my all time favorite summer drink to enjoy when I'm craving something sweet and tart. I'm not talking the lemonade that comes out of the fountain at restaurants and fast food chains, I'm talking fresh squeezed lemonade.

This recipe is unique because it uses honey as a sweetener as opposed to sugar used in most other lemonade recipes. This idea came to me the other day when I squeezed a bit too much lemon into my lemon water. My mom suggested that I add a bit of honey to sweeten it up a bit, then I thought...how yummy would honey-sweetened lemonade be?

I seriously love making lemonade because the citrus makes the house (and my hands!) smell so fresh. Check out the recipe below...

Ingredients

-3/4 cup honey

-12 medium sized lemons

- 3-4 cups water

How to make it

- pour 3/4 cup of honey and 1.5 cups of water into a saucepan

- cook on medium low until honey is completely dissolved in water (takes about 5 minutes), this creates a honey-sweetened simple syrup

- remove from heat once dissolved

- zest 3 lemons into simple syrup mixture

- juice 12 lemons and pour into simple syrup mixture

- add 3-4 cups of water, 1 cup at a time

- taste lemonade after adding the 3rd cup of water, and check if it is your desired taste

- if it is too tart, add the fourth cup of water and taste

- if you are thirsty, enjoy immediately on ice, or place in fridge to chill for about 2 hours

Finished product

For next time...

Yum!! This lemonade is delicious. When I make it again, I will be sure to use a honey that isn't as strong, so the honey doesn't overpower the lemon flavor. I recommend using clover honey or orange honey. I might even add in less honey... maybe about 5/8 cup of honey.

Variations

Although I did an original recipe for lemonade, this lemonade would be fun to dress up with different fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries), mint, or cucumber. Also, for a fun twist, you could use both lemons and limes in this recipe and juice your desired ratio of the two.

All in all

This recipe was so easy to make, and so delicious to enjoy. With just three ingredients and a few steps, its the perfect summer drink to mix up. The most time-consuming part of this recipe was the juicing of the lemons, but I love the smell so much that I find it quite enjoyable. Try out this recipe and let me know what you think. Happy Wednesday friends! Enjoy :)