Slarky

There are certainly a wide variety of instant and prepared lemonades available to consumers. But on a long, hot summer day, sometimes only the real thing will do. Lemonade is an extremely simple beverage to make, yet you may be wary–despite its short ingredient list, you have probably ended up with a batch of lemonade that was too cloyingly sweet, or far too sour, to enjoy.

Less than perfect lemonade usually results from one of two easily avoidable mistakes. The first is counting lemons, rather than measuring the juice they provide. Juice your lemons, and then use the resulting liquid to determine the amount of sugar and water to use. Don’t rely on estimates for this part, like using a certain number of lemons to equal a theoretical cup.

The second most common mistake is not heating the water and sugar together to form a simple syrup before adding the lemon juice. This often results in much of the sugar sinking to the bottom of the pitcher, leaving the first few glasses too tart, and the last few too sweet to be refreshing. Heating the water and sugar together allows the sugar to be completely, consistently dispersed throughout the lemonade.