Homemade Sparkling Lemonade – A Couple Cooks

June 30, 2025

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Here’s how to make refreshing sparkling lemonade at home with just three simple ingredients! This bubbly summer drink is perfect for parties and takes only 5 minutes to prepare.

When the temperature starts climbing, I find myself craving something cold, bubbly, and refreshingly tart. That’s when I turn to this sparkling lemonade recipe! Alex and I have been perfecting this simple three-ingredient drink for years, and I can honestly say it’s become a family favorite summer drink.

There’s a little magic in the bright citrus flavor with those delightful bubbles—the perfect balance of sweet and tart! I love that there’s no artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup: just all natural refreshing flavor.

Ingredients for sparkling lemonade

The ingredients for homemade sparkling lemonade are simple: you’ll just need 3 ingredients to mix up a zingy glass! Here’s all you’ll need:

Lemons: You’ll need lemon juice from real lemons: no bottled lemon juice here! For one glass, you’ll need 1 large or 2 small lemons.
Simple syrup: Simple syrup is easy to make at home with sugar and water. Mix up a batch and store it in the fridge to use for lemonade or cocktail recipes.
Soda water: Buy your own sparkling water or club soda, or you can make your own in a Soda Stream (that’s what I prefer!).

Make it by the glass or a pitcher

Once you’ve got your ingredients, all you have to do is mix them together! The main way I like to make it is by the glass, since you get fresh bubbles right in your glass. But if you’re entertaining and want to make it for a crowd, you can go the pitcher route!

By the glass: You can make 10 ounces or 1 ½ cups sparkling lemonade with the recipe below—make it for on demand drinking.
Pitcher: For parties, mix up a pitcher that serves 8 1-cup servings. Keep in mind, leftovers don’t last because of the sparkling water.

My favorite methods for juicing lemons

After making hundreds of glasses of lemonade, I’ve learned the most efficient ways to extract maximum juice:

Best tool: A press juicer is my top choice. It extracts more juice than any other method I’ve tried and keeps seeds contained.

Second choice: A handheld citrus reamer with ridges works well and doesn’t require any special equipment.

If you’re going to hand squeeze, one tip is to cut lemons in half crosswise (not lengthwise) and squeeze over a fine-mesh strainer to catch seeds. This is definitely more labor intensive, so grab a press juicer if you can!

Step it up with clear ice

Want a fancy glass of sparkling lemonade that looks like the one in the photos? Make a batch of clear ice! Clear ice is homemade ice that’s crystal clear, instead of cloudy like normal ice.

You can cut it into large, organic shaped cubes and it looks like ice from a fancy bar or restaurant. We use clear ice for lots of our cocktail recipes: and you can use it for sparkling lemonade too.

Cocktails that use sparkling lemonade

You can use this homemade sparkling lemonade in cocktail recipes and it makes a beautifully bright citrus flavor. In fact, Alex and I originally developed this recipe when making a Summer Shandy.

Summer Shandy: A shandy is a British beer cocktail that mixes beer and sparkling lemonade or ginger ale. Also try a Classic Shandy.
Pimm’s Cup: This British cocktail is refreshing and bubbly, featuring Pimm’s No. 1 and sparkling lemonade. It’s perfect for summer (and often served at Wimbledon, if you’re a tennis fan like I am.)

Other refreshing summer drinks

If you love this sparkling lemonade, try these other refreshing beverages:

You can also add soda water to these drinks to turn them into sparkling lemonade! There’s something so satisfying about making a simple, delicious beverage from scratch that brings people together: let us know what you think in the comments below.

Dietary notes

This sparkling lemonade recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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