Lemonade Concentrate

Ingredients

13-15 Lemons (depending on size)

6-8 Cups Sugar

5 Tablespoons Citric Acid

3 Litres of Water

Method

This recipe depends a lot on personal preference as far as sweetness and acidity levels, so play around with it until you get something you like. Don’t forget you can add any other citrus or fruits to spice this recipe up too, I had a sad looking orange laying around so I threw that in too.

Peel all the rind off of the lemons then slice them in half and juice them. Add all of the rind and juice to a pot along with the sugar, water, and citric acid, bring to a boil then reduce to a gentle simmer for 20-30 minutes. At this stage leave the lid on to reduce evaporation. Remove from heat and let cool, at this stage you can use it right away or you can preserve it. If you want to use it right away store it in an air tight container in the fridge and it should be good for a few weeks.

If not you can preserve it and it will last around a year in a cool storage area. To preserve it you will want to decant it into glass canning jars (size is up to preference) and then submerge them in rapidly boiling water. The water will stop boiling until the jars come up to temperature, once the water is boiling again put the timer on for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes remove the jars from the water and set on the counter to cool at room temperature. The lids on the jars should pop and this is how you will know they have been canned properly.

This lemonade concentrate is amazing and can used with soda water, normal water, added to cocktails, poured over ice cream, or blended with ice to make a slushy.