In my ongoing quest to make a lemonade out of every fresh fruit I have available to me locally, I got my hands on the first batch of blueberries for the season. Making blueberry lemonade is pretty much the same as any other kind of lemonade, but I have a couple of warnings.
First, make sure to use lemons you like. Meyer lemons are the best if you want a sweet lemonade, but there are more tart lemons that give the lemonade an almost tart cherry-like aftertaste. It’s still delicious, of course, but if you’re expecting something sweeter and get something tart, it might not suit your tastes. You can, as well, add more simple syrup to sweeten things up if you like.
Second, blueberries have a lot of seeds and a lot of skin compared to cherries or strawberries, which meant that this lemonade took a lot more filtering and straining compared to my other lemonades. I don’t mind a little pulp in my lemonade, but it does look a little cloudy and separates a bit when you let it sit in the fridge, so you need to shake it up before you serve.
I used a strainer to get most of the pulp out, but a lot still made it through, and it was slow going. It clogs up the sieve quickly. Again, if you don’t mind a little pulp, it’s fine. Alternatively, you could use some cheesecloth and squeeze the liquid out, but I think you would lose too much liquid that way, so I didn’t try it myself.
Want another kind of lemonade? Try one of these, too:
Stay tuned for future lemonades as well!
Fresh Blueberry Lemonade
Equipment
- Sauce Pan
- Pitcher
- Strainer
- Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- 1 Cup White Sugar
- 4 Cups Water
- 1 Lb Fresh Blueberries
- 1 Cup Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Juice your lemons. You'll need 4-5 large lemons or 6-8 smaller lemons, probably; your mileage may vary.
- Make a simple syrup by combining your cup of sugar and one cup of water in the sauce pan. Bring it to a simmer for 3-4 minutes to dissolve the sugar, then let it cool.
- Add your blueberries to a blender or container and blend them until they're pureed.
- Strain your blueberry mash to remove as much skin, seed, and pulp as possible while retaining as much liquid as you can. This will likely be slow and tedious; if you know a good way to do it, let me know in the comments!
- Mix the simple syrup, lemon juice, and blueberry juice together, then add the remaining water and stir to combine. Add more water if you want a bit more, but thinner, lemonade.
- Chill and serve or serve over ice right away.