Pink Lemonade

Updated June 26, 2024

Pink Lemonade
Linda Xiao for The New York Times Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Heather Greene.
Total Time
20 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Rating
4(157)
Comments
Read comments

Preparing a syrup naturally dyed pink from your favorite fruits is a glorious starting place for homemade pink lemonade. You can stir the syrup into a pitcher of lemon juice and water to enjoy right away, or keep the syrup in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, pulling from it like a sugar bowl for individual glasses of lemonade, cocktails or other drinks. You also can keep a chilled pitcher of the vibrant pink lemonade in your refrigerator as an act of kindness (and a jolt of vitamin C) for future you throughout the week. This hydrating lemonade is a little lighter in flavor than others, so you can drink lots and lots of it.

Featured in: This Is the Drink of the Summer Every Summer

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Ingredients

Yield:10 servings
  • 1pound fresh or frozen raspberries, halved strawberries, stemmed and pitted cherries or chopped rhubarb
  • cup sugar
  • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1cup fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste (from 5 to 6 lemons)
  • Ice, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

83 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 17 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 62 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large saucepan, combine the fruit, sugar and 1⅔ cups water. Cook over medium-high, stirring occasionally and reducing the heat if bubbles start to rise out of the pan, until the syrup thickens a bit, at least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes for frozen fruit. Stir in the salt.

  2. Step 2

    Carefully strain the hot syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into a large liquid measuring cup, pressing on the fruit to extract juices then discarding the fruit. You should have about 1¾ cups syrup; if you have more, return to the pan and boil longer. (The syrup can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week.)

  3. Step 3

    To make a pitcher of lemonade, stir the syrup into 7 cups of cold filtered water. Add the lemon juice, then stir to combine. Taste, adding more lemon juice as desired. (The lemonade can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week.) Serve over ice.

Ratings

4 out of 5
157 user ratings
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Comments

At what point do you add the Vodka?

It doesn't make sense to me to take some delicious refreshing raspberries or other fruit and cook the vitamins and the life out of them. Why not put the raspberries in a blender with a little water, blend and strain out the seeds? Add this to your lemonade. You can add sugar, or sugar syrup made by heating sugar with a little water. I'm going to make some pink lemonade today by adding the syrup from a bottle of maraschino cherries to my fresh squeezed lemon juice, sugar (or Stevia) and water.

I make a similar lemonade spritzer: freeze lemon juice into large ice cubes. Add one to a medium size glass, add 1 tbsp fruit syrup (or more to taste), and fill glass with sparkling water. Stir to melt the ice cube. A little ginger grated into the fruit syrup gives a bit of a kick, or even a 1/2 tsp of raspberry vinegar.

This was good but cooking the strawberries muted their summery freshness.

I replaced sugar with monk fruit sweetener 1/4 tsp xantham and made the most delicious and guilt free juice I have ever tasted with no fructose, no carbs, no calories, glucose, and no insulin spikes! Why drink orange juice which is literally water and sugar if you can make this amazingly refreshing pink lemonade with a sweetener that has no aftertaste like monk fruit? I am over the moon! I miss fresh juices!

Triple everything to fill a 1.9 gallon party dispenser. Use some of the mixture to freeze quart containers to keep it cold without diluting! Do NOT put the cooked strawberries in the ice molds as they tend to clog the spigot. Just use lemon slices thickly cut.

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