Pink Lemonade is an easy homemade lemonade that you can color naturally, without any food coloring, while adding more flavor! We love to use strawberries but you can use raspberries, watermelon, or cranberries to achieve the pink color.
Add water to the pot, chop strawberries in half, and add them to the water.
Bring water to simmer, lower the heat to low, and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes.
Cut the lemons in half and use a juicer (hand or automatic) to juice the lemons.
Strain the strawberries out of the water and give them a little squeeze to get the juice out. Discard the cooked strawberries.
Add sugar to the strawberry water and keep cooking on low until sugar is dissolved. Take the pot off heat and let it cool down.
Combine sweet water and lemon juice. Transfer into a glass container and refrigerate until ready to use.
Storing:
Store homemade lemonade in a glass or plastic container with air-tight lid, in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it will last up to a week.
Notes
You can also use raspberries or cranberries the same way, instead of strawberries.
To use watermelon: you do not need to cook the watermelon! To use fresh watermelon juice, simply puree a little more than 1 cup of watermelon chunks in a food processor and then strain it through the fine mesh strainer. Reduce the water by 1 cup and then add 1 cup of watermelon juice to cooled sugar water.
If you want to make it easy and not need to cook anything, use about 1/2-3/4 cup of cranberry or pomegranate juice. (Note, you will still need to heat up water to dissolve the sugar.)
Choose the best lemons: Make sure to pick out lemons that are tender to the touch but not too soft, or they will be over ripe. Tender lemons that have some give when you squeeze them are the best ones to use for lemonade. Hard lemons are unripe and will not give you much juice at all, so avoid those entirely. Juice lemons that are at room temperature! They will give you more juice than cold lemons.