Pros and Cons of Making Homemade Lemonade

Homemade lemonade is a timeless, refreshing beverage, and is particularly refreshing in warmer months. Calling for only a few ingredients—lemons, sugar, and water—homemade lemonade can be made to suit your tastes or preferences.

Making it from scratch does have some drawbacks when compared to commercial lemonade. This article will weigh the pros and cons of homemade lemonade, so you can decide if it is worth the trouble.

Pros of Homemade Lemonade

1. Fresh Taste
You cannot surpass the clean, natural taste homemade lemonade has. Freshly squeezed lemons provide a brightness and tartness from the fruit that bottled lemonades often miss.

2. Control of Ingredients
When you make lemonade at home, you have control over the amount of sugar, can adjust the tartness based on your preferences, and can limit or eliminate preservatives or artificial flavors that are found in many commercial beverages.

3. Ability to Customize Flavors
You have the ability to add different flavors to your lemonade easily. You could add herbs, such as mint or basil, put in fruits, like strawberries or raspberries, or spices, such as ginger. You have limitless possibilities.

4. Long-run Cost Savings
Even though purchasing lemons may seem expensive at first, you could actually save money by making your lemonade in a batch instead of buying bottled lemonade made for a single-serving.

5. Fun Activity
Making lemonade can be a fun, hands-on activity to do in the kitchen, especially with kids. It is a simple recipe and can be a great intro to cooking and measuring for children.

6. Healthier Option
Making homemade lemonade means being able to minimize or eliminate sugar and use natural sweeteners like honey or stevia as well as being able to make sure there are no artificial colors or flavors.

7. Eco-Friendly
Making homemade lemonade adds neither bottles nor aluminum cans to the landfill, helping to reduce your environmental impact.

8. Made in Bulk
Homemade lemonade can be made in bulk so it can be useful for parties, BBQs, and family gathering. You can make large batches and store them in pitchers to serve easily.

Cons of Making Homemade Lemonade

1. Time Consuming
There is the time that goes into squeezing lemons, measuring, and mixing, which takes a good bit longer than grabbing a bottle from the fridge.

2. Requires Fresh Ingredients
You have to have fresh lemons, which we do not always have access to, nor are they always affordable, especially in the winter months. It interferes with efficiency and spontaneity.

3. Messy Process
Juicing lemons and mixing ingredients can be messy; you’ll likely end up with a sticky countertop, pulp, and seeds, and that’s a mess to clean up!

4. Inconsistent
Because there is no standard recipe, the quality of your homemade lemonade, or lack thereof, could vary depending on the quality of the lemons, the correct amount of sugar, or the quality of the water you use.

5. Short Shelf Time
Homemade lemonade does not have any preservatives, so you need to consume it within a handful or so of days, requires refrigeration, and can spoil rather quickly.

6. Equipment Required
You do not need complicated equipment to make homemade lemonade, but then again you don’t need complicated equipment to make lemonade either. You will probably need some tools to help make it easier, such as a citrus juicer, strainer, pitcher, etc. Not everyone has these available.

7. Sugar Control Requires Some Practice
While your lemonade will be sweetened to your own sweetness level, be warned that it may take a couple times for you to get it right. Either under- or over-sweetening your lemonade can have a negative effect on the enjoyment of drinking it.

8. Not Always A Cost-Saving Alternative
If you are just making it a single glass, or small batch, the amount of fresh lemons and natural sweetener used might add up to be more than a purchased alternative.

Conclusion

Homemade lemonade can be a delicious and customizable drink option which can promote more healthy choices. It will always take just a little more effort than grabbing a store bought version of lemonade, however, the final product is hard to beat in terms of freshness, control of ingredients, and creative opportunities.

If you enjoy simple projects in the kitchen and prefer natural flavors, then a batch of homemade lemonade may well lead you to a refreshing and enjoyable experience.