We gulp down lemonade in this house. There’s nothing quite like the sparkly jolt of citrus, especially on a midwinter afternoon. Add a little sweetness and lemonade is truly liquid joy.

The thing is—I love it a lot. And the kids love it, a lot. What we don’t love is the stack of plastic containers we leave behind by drinking it.

So we started making our own. It’s fast, easy, fun, and so much more sustainable. And bonus! You can control the amount and type of sugar that goes in.

Here’s what you’ll need

This recipe makes one gallon of lightly tart and sweet lemonade. You can play around with the amounts to get your own favorite formula.

5 large lemons
1 2/3 cup of sugar
1 2/3 cup of water to make simple syrup
Filtered or distilled water to make a gallon
1 gallon pitcher

To make your lemonade

Make the simple syrup. Add the sugar to saucepan along with 1 2/3 cup of water. Heat on medium until the sugar fully dissolves and the liquid is slightly thick. This is your simple syrup. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool while you juice the lemons. (Pro tip: Double the amount of simple syrup you make and use it every time you want pre-dissolved sugar!)
Juice the lemons. We use a hand held metal juicer, but you can use any juicing method you have available, including using your hands to squeeze those lemons. Just make sure you remove all the seeds from the juice.
Put it all together. Once the syrup has cooled a bit, add it to your pitcher with the lemon juice and stir to combine. Then fill your container with filtered water and give it a few more stirs to combine.
Chill and serve. You could totally drink this right away with some ice cubes. Or chill in the fridge for a few.

DIY Lemonade—All the citrus without all the plastic

Here’s what you’ll need

To make your lemonade

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