The Tip For Making Sure All The Sugar Dissolves In Your Lemonade

A perfect glass of lemonade should be a few things — cold, refreshing, and sweet. But if your cup is making your lips pucker a little too much, it may be because your sugar didn't fully dissolve. When you stir together lemon juice, sugar, and water to make a simple classic lemonade recipe, the sugar typically won't fully incorporate. Instead, it may just sink to the bottom of the pitcher, leaving you drinking ultra-sour lemon water. So how can you fix this? 

Instead of mixing in straight sugar, first, make a simple syrup that will dissolve much more easily. All you have to do is heat up sugar and water in a 2:1 ratio (so if you're using two cups of sugar, add one cup of water) in a pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Once all the sugar has dissolved, you've got the perfect simple syrup that will disperse throughout your pitcher of lemonade. This works because sugar dissolves much better in hot water than in cold water. The increased energy in hot water causes the sugar molecules to collide more quickly with the molecules in the solvent (water), which causes the sugar to break down and dissolve.

It is possible to make simple syrup without heating the water, it just will take a lot longer. But if it's simply too hot to fire up the stove this summer, you can stir together the same ratio of sugar and room-temperature water and let it sit for about 45 minutes. Keep in mind that you may get a thicker syrup this way, but heating everything up naturally kills bacteria so that it will keep for longer.

If you made yours on the stove, you'll typically want to wait for it to cool down before adding it to your pitcher. However, you can also just dump it straight in, followed by some ice cubes to cool the whole jug down. If you do this, try to reduce the amount of water you use just a little since the cubes will melt, which could lead to a watery lemonade. An alternative method is to leave the pitcher in the fridge and only add ice to individual glasses.

And if you really want to get creative with your drink? Try making syrup infused with strawberry, cherry, or raspberry. Not only will you get a sweet pop of flavor, but you'll essentially be making pretty pink lemonade.