Recipe Background
Florida is the Sunshine State and there isn't a sunnier drink around than Florida Lemonade! Combining the tart-sweetness of lemon with the almost candied citrus flavor of orange to fully capture Florida's natural bounty, Florida Lemonade is truly refreshing. It's like drinking a sunbeam, but one that cools you down when the summer starts blazing. You really can soak up the sun with this beverage!
Florida is the Sunshine State and there isn't a sunnier drink around than Florida Lemonade! Combining the tart-sweetness of lemon with the almost candied citrus flavor of orange to fully capture Florida's natural bounty, Florida Lemonade is truly refreshing. It's like drinking a sunbeam, but one that cools you down when the summer starts blazing. You really can soak up the sun with this beverage!
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 8 1/2 cups water divided
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons orange zest
- 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice from about 10 lemons
- 1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice from about 5 oranges
- ice to taste
- fresh lemon slices optional, to taste, for garnish
Directions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, add the sugar and 2 1/2 cups of the water and cook, while stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved.
- Transfer the saucepan from the heat and let the simple syrup cool slightly.
- Add the lemon zest, the orange zest, the lemon juice, and the orange juice to the simple syrup and let it stand, covered, until the flavors have melded together into a lemonade concentrate, about 1 hour.
- Strain the lemonade concentrate through a fine-mesh sieve into a vessel with a cover. Discard the citrus zest in the sieve.
- Cover the vessel with the lemonade concentrate and chill it in the refrigerator until cold, about 30 minutes.
- In a pitcher, add equal amounts of the remaining water and the lemonade concentrate and stir to combine. Reserve the remaining water and the remaining lemonade concentrate for refills.
- Add the ice to the pitcher and stir to combine.
- Serve garnished with the lemon slices.
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