Five Spicy Additions To Turn Up The Heat In Your Lemonade

Few things are as classically summer as lemonade. It's a refreshing drink that many have come to know and love because of how tasty it is and how easy it is to make. A simple lemonade is quite satisfying, but with the help of a few extra ingredients, it can become so much more. There are plenty of fruity and sweet additions for lemonade, like strawberries and peaches, that celebrate the bounty of summer — but what about additions that celebrate the warm weather? One extra ingredient is all it takes to bring the heat to a perfectly cold drink. 

Surprisingly, there are plenty of unique lemonade spice additions beyond just fruits and syrups. Making lemonade spicy does not require fancy, hard-to-find ingredients. In fact, these ingredients are likely already in your house or sitting in the nearest grocery store. This summer, get adventurous and heat things up by bringing spicy lemonade to the next cookout or pool party. Even Starbucks got in on the fun with its summer 2024 Spicy Lemonade Refreshers!

Instead of adding fruits, try adding peppers to lemonade. To do it, cut jalapeño peppers into slices or just poke holes in a whole pepper, add them to a pitcher of lemonade, and then allow the drink to chill for an hour or longer for more spice. Extra jalapeño slices can be placed into ice cube trays to make jalapeño ice cubes. You can even combine the ice cubes with the lemonade and serve the spicy creation for fancier presentation and extra fun.

Jalapeños can also be added to lemonade with the help of an infused simple syrup. Jalapeño simple syrup can be found in some stores and online from places like Walmart, although it is typically advertised for use in cocktails rather than lemonade. You can also easily make a jalapeño simple syrup yourself at home. Just put a mixture of sugar and water on medium-heat, add the peppers, and steep it off of the heat for a half hour. Then, finish the syrup by straining the mixture.

Most people use hot sauce on chicken wings, hot dogs, and other savory dishes, but it is more versatile than one would think. Unlike jalapeños, hot sauce can be added into lemonade as is, no preparation or syrup making required. Simply add dashes of your preferred hot sauce and stir to make an easy spicy lemonade. Use as much or as little as you would like so the lemonade matches your spice preference. Even better, hot sauce is commonly stocked in stores. 

With so many different grocery store brands, unusual types, and even celebrity-endorsed varieties available, finding the perfect hot sauce should be pretty easy. For those who want to take it a step further, try using yuzu hot sauce. Yuzu, a small, yellow, Japanese citrus fruit, is uniquely tart and would make a wonderful flavor addition to lemonade. The use of citrus in yuzu hot sauce might also help bridge the gap between the sour and spicy flavors. Yuzu hot sauce can be found in some select stores or online, such as at Japan Gold USA.

Almost everyone knows about hot sauce, but hot honey is a lesser known, newer creation. The condiment emerged in 2010 with the release of Mike's Hot Honey. Much like lemonade, hot honey is wonderfully simple; inventor Mike Kurtz combined honey with chili peppers and the rest is history. Since then, several other companies have released their own variations of hot honey, but Mike's Hot Honey still ranks at the very top of them all. 

Since its invention, hot honey has been used in all kinds of ways, including savory and sweet dishes, dipping sauces, and even in drinks. Hot honey is newer than hot sauce but its function in lemonade is pretty much the same. Just add hot honey and stir. For a smaller, personal portion, try adding lemon juice and hot honey to a cup before adding hot water and stirring it to melt it. If the spicy-sweet condiment is not available in stores or online where you live, you can always make hot honey at home.

Cayenne pepper is typically found in dried form, often sold as a bright red powder in stores. This type of spicy chile pepper is long and thin, with an unmistakable red sheen, and is related to other kinds of peppers like bell peppers, poblanos, and serranos. What makes cayenne pepper particularly great for spicy lemonade is how hot it is. Measuring somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 Scoville Heat Units (the unit of measurement for the chile spice-measuring Scoville scale), cayenne pepper is hotter than chili powder and a whopping 12 times spicier than jalapeños.

Cayenne pepper was first introduced to lemonade as part of the Master Cleanse diet in the 1940s. The idea was to combine the spice with lemon juice, maple syrup, and water to create a special lemonade that would supposedly detox the body and cause weight loss. According to Healthline, while the diet could possibly cause short-term weight loss, it had little actual health benefits. Although the idea behind cayenne pepper lemonade stems from a weight loss fad, the drink itself is quite delicious and simple to make. The recipe has not changed since its inception: Combine lemon juice with water, add maple syrup, and then stir in cayenne pepper to taste.

Last but not least, Dijon mustard adds an unexpected spicy twist to lemonade. Adding just a teaspoon of Dijon mustard to a quarter cup of lemonade can give it a real kick. Be sure to use Dijon mustard specifically, as it is spicier than yellow mustard and more effective for adding heat to lemonade. This is due to the fact that Dijon mustard uses black mustard seeds instead of yellow and white mustard seeds. Black mustard seeds are not only hotter than other types of mustard seeds, but they are also known for their strong aroma. 

Since many families already have mustard in the kitchen for sandwiches and hot dogs, it is often one of the easiest options when it comes to finding a spicy add-in for lemonade. On top of being easy to find in stores, mustard is also quite healthy. According to Healthline, mustard contains beneficial antioxidants and several nutrients and minerals, including iron and calcium. It may even help lower blood sugar levels.