Best Ever Lemonade – a.k.a. “Bob’s” Freshly Squeezed Lemonade is made with just a few simple ingredients. This recipe is so easy. Pucker up friends, my son Madden has made the best lemonade that can’t be beat.
I personally love making fun, delicious drinks – I tend to go into more combination drinks like Cherry & Berry Spritzer or Tropical Italian Cream Sodas. My kids are simple they love my Copycat Hawaiian Fruit Punch. My husband loves fresh limeade or lemonade, as well does our son Madden.
Madden and his buds decided to set out to make the best ever lemonade and they did just that. It is not routinely requested, especially on these hot summer nights and for Christmas my husband asked for a professional juice press, he got it. He only wanted it to Madden could make lemonade daily if needed, lol.
This kid has had my heart since the day he was born.
His dimples. His sarcastic, yet funny sense of humor. His hugs. His love for stuffed animals. And well, he’s a mama’s boy and my protector to the end, and I adore it. {Obviously}
When we moved into our new home, my husband and I prayed that Madden would have a friend on the street. In our last neighborhood, there weren’t any boys his age. When we finally moved we were blessed beyond measure. That was because Madden not only found one best friend but TWO! And these boys have been inseparable this summer. His new bestie, Daniel, lives two doors down. This past week was hard because Daniel was in summer camp. And that left Benni, Madden’s other bestie (4 houses the other direction), and Madden alone without Daniel. It was adorable though because exactly at 4 PM Madden and Benni would go and sit on Daniel’s front porch waiting for his arrival.
A month or so ago, these three – Madden, Daniel, and Benni – made a portable lemonade stand. Benni hooked up his mini-electric motorcycle and tied a rope to a red wagon while Madden and Daniel sat in it. With the wagon in tow and Benni on the motorcycle, the boys drove around the neighborhood yelling, “Bob’s Lemonade”. They even took a cardboard box turned airplane/advertising creation and wrote on the front “BOB’S LEMONADE”. {Video of this cuteness below} They didn’t sell too many drinks at first because they were whizzing by too fast, and well, almost everyone works during the day. But as soon as they started offering Lemon Poppyseed Sugar Cookies, their sales went up.
You may be asking yourself, where did the name Bob come from? We have no idea. But since Madden was little, everything he has named (besides his turtle) has been Bob. He even told my husband last week that he wanted to change his name to Bob. That ain’t happening because he has the best name ever: Madden Jett. {And no, Madden does not come from Steve Madden, the shoe designer, but rather John Madden, football giant}
Now my husband also loves lemonade, but only those really expensive fresh-squeezed ones from ballparks. When Madden made this recipe, Jake drank the entire cup saying this was the second-best lemonade he had ever had. Madden’s large-dimple smile appeared, and every day since – no joke – Madden has made lemonade, always changing the recipe a little bit, secretly hoping he will be in first place and be the Best Ever Lemonade that Dad has ever had. I think Jake hasn’t told him it’s the best yet because he likes that Madden is always making it for him. And according to everyone else, it is the Best Ever Lemonade.
This is the kind of recipe that will stay in our family forever, and I will always cherish the memories that brought this recipe to life – Madden, his two best friends and Bob’s portable BEST EVER LEMONADE stand. XOXO San
Looking for some other summer drink ideas? Check out some of my favorites: Copycat Hawaiian Punch, Strawberry Limeade and Berry Rhubarb Punch.
Don’t forget to pin this recipe for BEST EVER LEMONADE to your favorite Pinterest board for later!
Best Ever Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 cup freshly squeezed juice about 6-8 lemons
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 4 1/2 water
- 2 cups ice cubes
Instructions
- In a 48-60 ounce pitcher add lemon juice, sugar, water, and ice - whisk together and serve immediately.
Nutrition
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Sandra, this recipe was awesome! My kids and I made it together and served it to the workers at our home today. It was a HIT! It was so fresh and not too sweet. Thank you!
This is a great.I added some strawberries.
I just noticed there was no measurement on the water. The rest of the recipe was measured in cups so I’m assuming that’s the measurement for the water as well. (I’m a stickler for recipes so I don’t like to assume =P) I take one extra step that some call unnecessary but that I feel, as do most of the people who’ve tried it, makes all the difference. Instead of 4.5 cups water and 2 cups ice, use 8 cups of water (2 quarts). Then, take the 3/4 C of sugar as called for in recipe and add to 3/4 C water in a small saucepan. Heat to boiling, stirring to help melt sugar, then lower temp slightly and keep at a slow roll boil for 5 mins. The result is a smooth simple syrup that will have no grit. Mix together the 1 cup of lemon juice, simple syrup and 8 cups of water. Refrigerate to chill/serve over ice or, if you’d like to have the lemonade as soon as possible, chill the simple syrup in an ice bath before mixing with other ingredients. To make a “pink” version, process 1 cup of preferred berries, then strain through mesh strainer to remove seeds. (Some people don’t mind keeping the seeds but I find with certain berries, raspberries specifically come to mind, there tends to be a lot.) Mix the berry puree with other ingredients when mixing.
I know some people are afraid of allowing their children to use the stove but it’s a rather simple process and as long as you’re watching carefully the “hardest” part is stirring the syrup while bringing to a boil. For children who are discovering their love of cooking, this gives the recipe an extra “professional” feel without involving anything too overly complicated. I often make this with my nieces and by far their favorite part is stirring the sugar into the syrup. I’ve been making this recipe for 10+ years and I’ve been told on more than one occasion that this recipe needs to be bottled and sold on every street corner!
I’m definitely trying your son’s recipe now as well though because this seems like it’d be a delicious, quick version! He has the sugar/lemon juice/water ratios down perfectly!
I also forgot to mention that I use Sugar in the Raw brand turbinado cane sugar. Normally I would use a 1:1 ratio of 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. It’s not as sweet as it sounds, though sugar is sugar, but the cane sugar adds a slightly different layer of sweetness since it retains some molasses, hence it’s slightly brown color. I feel it compliments the lemon juice perfectly.