Summertime is the best, ya know? Unless you’re old and whine about the heat, there’s nothing to dislike about Summer. Beautiful weather, cool outdoors activities, great food and drinks, it’s a right-proper time of year. One of the most cherished, belovedly stereotypical drinks you might be thinking of, now that you’ve got this all on your mind, is good ol’ lemonade. Lemonade is the perfect balance between sour, sweet, cool, and refreshing. It’s simple to make, good for you, and it’s fun to joke around with your friends that it looks like you’re drinking pee.

“Ewww, haha, you’re drinking peeeee.”

Weirdly enough, lemonade is one of those drinks that people have just sorta “forgotten” how to make, over the years. We got fat-and-happy (literally, in some cases), with pre-made mixes that just let you pour a bunch of dusty powder into some water and get something that sorta resembles lemonade.

Real talk, though? Lemonade is really frigging easy to make. I mean, you can whip it together in like a minute or two flat.

How To Make Lemonade

• 1 average sized glass
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 lemon
• Hot water + cold water

1. For starters, pour the sugar into the bottom of a standard glass or cup.

   

2. Next, obtain some hot water. If your tap water gets hot enough (hot as in, so hot you can’t hold your fingers under it anymore), you can just use that. If not, boil about 1/2 cup of water in a kettle.

   

3. Pour your hot water so that it comes just above the sugar, enough to cover it and have a small layer above it. Stir this together until your sugar is completely dissolved.

   

4. Next, cut a lemon in half. Using one half, squeeze it and add all the juice into your cup, stirring once again.

   

5. Finally, add some cold water to fill your cup all the way up, stir it one more time, and you’re all done. If the lemon flavor isn’t enough, repeat with the second half of the lemon. Add ice, and preferably a small umbrella with a straw.*

*small umbrella and straw not required

Honestly, the only thing that could possibly hold you back from this is if you don’t have lemons. And even then, come on, keep some lemons in stock. They’re really cheap. It’s absolutely worth keeping a few in the fridge at least for the Summertime, just so you can make lemonade whenever you want. And considering how easy it is to just throw a cup together, you have no excuse not to. Seriously, this is BARELY anymore effort than opening a canister of the powder mix, choking on the fumes that come out, and then stirring it for 30 seconds straight, only to end up with a just-passable cup of shitty, gritty, sugary lemonade-lite. Make it the old-fashioned way, it’s the right thing to do.

Pro-Tips

• If you’re worried about pits getting into your beverage, you can try to remove them by hand, or use a juicer tool to catch them in a screen or something. Personally, I just scoop them out with the spoon after I finish stirring.
• If you want to be fancy, you can forego a whole lemon, and add in a lime to create lemon-lime-ade. No, it doesn’t taste like Sprite, but it does offer a nice, fresh zing that only fresh citrus can give you. Oh, and it might help you fend off scurvy or something.
• If you need to dress it up all adult-style, add in a splash of rum. Though if you do this, you are ethically obligated to use the mini-umbrellas at that point.