Better Homemade Lemonade Is Only One Ingredient Away

Lemonade is one of the best treats of the summer, often synonymous with the onset of warm weather. There are countless ways to make it with different fruits, sweeteners, or other additives that enhance it. Using honey to sweeten and flavor it will enhance your typical lemonade, which often uses sugar as a sweetener instead.

While you can use simple syrup as a sugar substitute for sweet and simple lemonade, it doesn't significantly alter the flavors, given that it's just a combination of sugar and water. Honey brings more complexity than merely sweetening the drink. Not only can it be sweet and earthy, but it often brings a floral element, depending on the variety you use.

You can experiment with various types of honey, including clove, sage, or wildflower. Different varieties are a great way to bring unique flavors to your lemonade without adding extra ingredients. Just be sure to use less honey than you would sugar; It may be sweeter if used in the same quantity.

While using honey can make an excellent lemonade, it's not quite as simple as using regular sugar. Honey doesn't mix into cold drinks the same as in a hot beverage like tea because the water molecules contain more energy when heated. In a cold drink, it may clump and sink to the bottom, not entirely sweetening it. Try using a blender to add the honey at room temperature, allowing it to dissolve fully.

You can alter some of the other ingredients to see how unique you can get your resulting lemonade. Alton Brown's trick for using preserved lemons can help to add further complexity to the drink. The honey could become a bit too sweet, so the saltiness of the preserved lemons may balance that and draw out some of the underlying flavors.

The trick of adding honey is so simple to incorporate that you can use it in some of the best lemonade recipes of all time. It would even be great in a frozen whipped lemonade, especially given it's already blended. Mixing the ingredients before adding the ice ensures you don't wind up with clumps of honey stuck in your straw.