Kick back this summer with a refreshing glass of fresh peach lemonade over ice. Our peach lemonade tastes amazing and is made with simple ingredients and fresh lemons and peaches.
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A couple of years ago, I created an incredibly delicious lemonade recipe and I decided to make a bunch of different flavors to have fun with the base lemonade recipe. Our latest variation is this peach lemonade!
Our different flavors of lemonades would be excellent mixed for great flavor combinations like this peach lemonade mixed with the blackberry flavor or the raspberry one. Or our guava lemonade with the soursop (guanabana)variation for an incredible tropical flavor blend.
Why you’ll love this recipe
If you’re a fan of peach lemonade at your favorite restaurants, our version is even better tasting and made with simple and fresh ingredients without preservatives or colorings!
This recipe is not hard to make, it just takes a little time to juice the lemons especially if you’re making a larger batch. But it’s well worth the effort for an amazing lemonade!
How to make fresh peach lemonade
Our recipe for peach lemonade takes a few steps, but it is delicious and worth the extra effort to cook the lemon juice and sugar together.
Our lemonade recipes infuse natural lemon peel oil into the lemonade by cooking lemon slices with the lemon juice and sugar. This results in a mellower and richer lemon flavor that is pretty amazing.
Here is an overview of the process for making this recipe, the full recipe card is at the end of the post!
- Wash and juice your lemons, straining out excess pulp and seeds.
- Measure out 1 ¼ cup lemon juice into a 2-quart saucepan and add 1 cup of water and 1 ¼ sugar (I use Zulka sugar) along with the lemon slices.
- Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the lemon slices are translucent and the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove from the heat and remove the lemon slices from the lemon juice mixture and set aside (this is lemonade concentrate you’ll mix with water and ice).
- Wash and cut fresh peaches into cubes (don’t worry about peeling them), and add to a small blender with 1 cup of water and blend until pureed.
- Pour the peach puree through a strainer to remove larger pieces and peel.
- Add 1 quart (4 cups) of ice to a 2-quart pitcher and pour the lemon juice mixture over the ice.
- Stir in the strained peach juice/puree and stir.
- Add enough cold water to fill up the pitcher to the 2-quart mark.
- Serve immediately over ice or store in the fridge for later. Make sure to stir before serving since the peach puree will settle in the pitcher.
Tips for making our peach lemonade
You won’t need to worry about peeling the peaches for this recipe unless you don’t want little flecks of peach peel in the lemonade (they are small and there aren’t a lot of them). We loved this recipe with the peel, it adds a little more pinkish color to the lemonade. But you can always peel the peaches before blending them if you want.
This lemonade will be slightly thicker since it has some peach puree in it vs just fruit juice, we like this with the ratio of water to lemon juice and fruit puree that we have written in the recipe, but you can add a little bit of additional water to this if you want it to be less thick.
If you’re making big batches of lemonade or you make lemonade a lot through the summer, I recommend getting a standing citrus press. I bought one from Target that I use when I make batches of lemonade and it saves my arm!
Can I use nectarines in this recipe instead of peaches?
I’ll let you in on a little secret: I actually made this recipe with nectarines since I had a difficult time finding good tasting peaches at the time I made this recipe (you might notice that the photo has a nectarine and not an actual peach).
But since no one really searches for “nectarine lemonade”, I wrote this as peach lemonade since it’s the same method and flavor.
Both nectarines and peaches will work in this recipe as long as you choose ripe, full-flavored fruit that isn’t dry/pithy or bland.
Amazing Homemade Fresh Peach Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 5-7 medium lemons)
- 1 ¼ cup unbleached cane sugar* (regular white sugar is fine, too)
- ½ large lemon, sliced
- 2 cups water, divided
- 1 cup chopped fresh peaches (don't worry about peeling)
- 4 cups ice
- Additional cold water
Instructions
- Juice your lemons and strain out the seeds, measure out 1 ¼ cups fresh lemon juice.
- Add the lemon juice, sugar, 1 cup water, and the lemon slices to a 2-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat until it begins to simmer. Lower the heat slightly to medium-low and simmer for 12-15 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the lemon slices start to turn translucent.
- Don't skip the lemon slices in the lemon/sugar mixture! The lemon rind will not make this lemonade bitter but contributes lemon oil which adds wonderful depth of flavor to this lemonade and mellows the tartness of the lemon juice.
- While the lemon juice and sugar is cooking, cut up a peach and blend/process it with 1 cup of water to make a peach puree.
- Pour the peach puree through a metal strainer and strain. Set aside.
- When the lemon juice and sugar mixture is done cooking, remove from the heat, remove the lemon slices and set aside.
- Add 4 cups (1 quart) of ice to a 2 quart pitcher. Add the lemon mixture over the ice, stir in the peach puree, and add enough cold water to top this off to a full 2 quarts. Stir to melt the ice and mix the lemonade as the ice melts.
- Serve immediately over ice or store in the fridge for later. Make sure to stir this beofre serving since the peach puree tends to settle.
- Store for up to 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
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Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist