Lemonade or Lemon Cordial

We are blessed with two lemon trees that produce a lot of lemons. We are totally spoiled by drinking fresh lemonade almost year-round.

Lemonade

I think that what we call lemonade is called lemon cordial in Australia. Whatever you call it, it’s a great summer drink. And the trick to making it is to make a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water first.  That way the sugar gets dissolved. (This is also useful for making iced tea and other sweetened drinks. )

So basically 1 cup sugar syrup, 1 cup lemon juice and 4 cups water will make a quart and a half of lemonade.  I usually make sugar syrup up in batches of 3 cups water and 3 cups sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring, and the sugar will totally dissolve into the water.  Take off the heat and let cool.

You can store the sugar syrup in the refrigerator for weeks. When the girls were little, I would make a pitcher of lemonade at a time.  Now that they’re bigger, I just mix 2 cups sugar syrup and 2 cups lemon juice and store in a quart Mason jar in the fridge. They can add a bit to a glass then top it with water and ice to taste. It takes much less room to store in the fridge this way! (It’s also good added to iced tea for an Arnold Palmer mix.)

 I’m also taking the lemon zest off the lemons before I juice them. I dry or freeze them for use in cooking or potpourris.

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