Easy From Scratch Cherry Limeade Recipe

Why You Will Love This Delicious Summer Drink!

Making homemade limeade is so easy and so refreshing in the hot summer months. This jazzed up limeade with fresh cherry syrup added is exactly what I crave in the heat and my guests always love it. It is my better for you version of the frozen from concentrate stuff you buy at the store.

I like to make a big pitcher and serve this at BBQs or poolside. If it is the evening, I serve a bottle of chilled vodka on the side for the adults to spike their drinks if they want.

Definitely one of my favorite summer drinks and it is perfect for making ahead of time. Make two or three pitchers for an amazing Summer weekend.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Limes (fresh squeezed is best). I do prefer using fresh limes for this cherry limeade but you could use bottled lime juice as well.
• Frozen Pitted Cherries: I prefer buying frozen pitted cherries from the store that I thaw so I do not have to go through the hassle of pitting them. I always find bags at Costco and this allows me to make it all year 🙂 You can also use fresh in season cherries from the market and take the pits of the cherry out yourself.
• Water
• Granulated sugar

How To Make Homemade Cherry Limeade

• Make the cherry simple syrup: Add the cherries, sugar and water to a medium saucepan and let it simmer for 15 minutes. For this recipe, I used frozen cherries because they were available. Press out any of the remaining cherry juice through a strainer with the back of a large spoon.
• Cool: Now just let the strained cherry simple syrup which will be very warm, cool down to room temperature. Once it is cooled you can refrigerate it and use it in this cherry limeade recipe or in any other recipe that needs a simple syrup!
• Juice your limes: With a juicer or by hand, juice about 1 small bag of limes.
• Mix together: In a large pitcher, add the lime juice, water, and cherry syrup and mix well.

Recipe Customizations

• Use honey instead of sugar: If you want a more natural limeade, you can use a honey simple syrup in place of sugar.
• Add fresh herbs: Sometimes, I add a little fresh mint or grated ginger to spice things up.
• Make it a frozen cherry limeade! I love doing this when it is REALLY hot outside. I like to freeze the water and lime portion of the recipe in large ice cube trays. When I am ready to make a frozen version, I throw the frozen lime cubes and simple syrup into a blender and blitz it until it is like a slushy! You can drizzle a little more cherry syrup on top too.

Making Ahead And Storage

You want to make this limeade ahead of time so it has time to chill. You can make the cherry syrup ahead of time along with juicing the limes ahead of time too.

This cherry limeade will keep for up to one week in the fridge. I also love freezing cherry syrup in bags so I can make this even quicker. Frozen cherry syrup will last for up to months in the freezer.