Right here’s the way to make pink lemonade…with actual lemons! What’s makes it pink? This recipe has the secrets and techniques to the brilliant coloration and contemporary taste.

What’s it about pink lemonade that’s each nostalgic and irresistible? These cardboard cans of focus conjure up summer time afternoons and flipflops. However is definitely within the stuff? What makes pink lemonade pink? Seems, it’s as pure as could be! Right here’s the way to make Do-it-yourself Pink Lemonade with actual lemons. It tastes such as you turned up the quantity on the focus: it’s intensely candy tart and extremely contemporary.
Reading: How to make pink lemonade with real lemons
What’s pink lemonade?
Pink lemonade is lemonade that’s dyed pink in coloration. The earliest recipe for it’s from a recipe e book from 1892, that referred to as for lemonade to be coloured with “fresh or canned strawberry, red raspberry, currant or cranberry juice.” There are just a few origin tales for the way it took place: each declare it was invented by an American circus employee within the 1850’s. Each shops sound a little bit like city legends, however the secret is: pink lemonade was both created or popularized by the circus.
What makes pink lemonade pink?
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The colour makes it appear to be it has further flavoring, however pink lemonade tastes precisely the identical as the normal stuff. So why make it pink? Optics. It merely seems extra interesting! The brilliant coloration is extra visually fascinating than the sunshine yellow of normal lemonade. However what makes the colour?
The 1892 recipe for pink lemonade used naturally pink fruits or juices for the coloring. Many store-bought manufacturers as we speak use synthetic dyes, however a pure pink lemonade could use:
- Cranberry juice
- Strawberries or strawberry juice
- Raspberries or raspberry juice
- Pomegranate juice
- Grenadine (pomegranate syrup)

How you can make pink lemonade
Let’s get to the recipe! How you can make pink lemonade? For this all pure lemonade, we selected cranberry juice for the brilliant coloration. Right here’s all you might want to do (or leap to the recipe beneath for the precise portions):
- Juice the lemons. Finest juicing ideas are beneath!
- Combine sugar and heat water in a pitcher. This dissolves it; no must warmth it on the stovetop.
- Add chilly water, lemon juice, and cranberry juice. Stir and also you’ve received a fantastically vibrant coloration and refreshing, candy tart taste!
The recipe beneath makes a small pitcher of 4 servings. To make a bigger pitcher for serving a crowd, merely double it!
Finest strategy to juice lemons
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Should you love making selfmade lemonade (and we do), right here’s one of the simplest ways to juice these lemons! Our best choice is our useful press citrus juicers, which is quick and saves your fingers of getting to do all that squeezing!
- Press citrus juicer: best option! This kind is environment friendly and will get out much more juice than different sorts. Right here’s the press juicer we advocate. It’s held up the most effective of any methodology, after making 300+ cocktails.
- Handheld citrus juicer. The subsequent finest juicer? The sort with a ridged prime (much like this).

Use much less cranberry juice for a lighter pink coloration
This pink lemonade recipe makes a fantastically vibrant pink coloration. Should you want a extra pastel pink, you are able to do that too! Simply use half the cranberry juice. Or you possibly can regulate it as wanted! It doesn’t add a lot flavor-wise: it’s merely there for coloration.
Extra lemonade and limeade recipes
Strive all our selfmade lemonade recipes: they’re the right summer time drinks! Decide from the next:
- Go for traditional Contemporary Lemonade
- Add bubbles for Glowing Lemonade
- Strive fruity Raspberry Lemonade, Watermelon Lemonade or Strawberry Lemonade, or floral Lavender Lemonade
- Spike it to make Vodka Lemonade, Spiked Lemonade or Bourbon Lemonade
- Strive Contemporary Limeade or Cherry Limeade
- Add iced tea to make an Arnold Palmer!

This pink lemonade recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.
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