Single Serving Lemonade with Honey

This is a super-simple single serve honey lemonade recipe, with no extra cooling time – instead of only water, it’s specifically developed to mix with ice, so it’s ready in a couple of minutes. I love lemonade but often don’t want a whole pitcher, and this is the perfect solution. Try it out if you too want just one glass of lemonade.

While this might seem too straightforward to share as a standalone recipe, I have distinct memories of trying to make lemonade for myself as a kid and never being able to get the measurements right. Adding a little more lemon or more sugar in endless trials was stressful as an eight year old, so I hope that recipes like this can be helpful to beginners or those who would like to start using more honey in place of sugar.

For some more honey-sweetened lemonade recipes, try my sparkling fresh mint lemonade, or springtime favourites, honey rhubarb lemonade and elderflower lemonade.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Lemons: the colour of lemons doesn’t matter so much (if they’re a bit green, they might still be ripe) but they should give a bit when you squeeze them. Very hard lemons are most likely under-ripe or dried out.
• Honey: choose a light-tasting honey and one that you like the flavour of, as you will notice it here. I usually use a light creamed honey as pictured.
• Add-ins: try mixing in some lightly mashed berries like strawberries, fresh herbs like basil, or whiz it up with a bit of watermelon as you would a watermelon smoothie.

How to Make Honey Lemonade

Step 1: in a heatproof container, mix the honey and lemon juice to combine. Top with the hot water and mix.

Step 2: add the ice and cold water and serve.

Recipe Notes

Make sure you’re using a heat-safe container, like a canning jar, to mix the syrup base in. Boiling water can cause other containers to crack or warp and it’s good to be careful even though it’s a small amount.

There are as many types of honey as there are colours, and different varieties will give you very different tasting lemonades. A dark forest honey, for example, will result in a slightly bitter and grassy tasting drink (I don’t particularly recommend it). Canola honey has what I would consider to be the most neutral flavour, but that may be because I grew up on the prairies, and it’s what’s most available there. Simply choose a type you like.

You can make this with all cold water if you want to whisk for rather a long time or blend it in a small blender. This is a good option if you’re using raw honey.

Expert Tips

• Don’t water it down: this recipe is specifically made with cooling down with ice in mind, so the lemonade base is quite sweet and very nearly a syrup. If you don’t want to use ice, and instead chill in the refrigerator, simply add water to your taste.
• Roll the lemons: for the most juice, give the lemons a roll on a countertop, pressing firmly with your hand while rolling. Using a room temperature lemon helps too.
• Use sparkling water: if you prefer to have a sparkling single-serve lemonade, simply top off with plain sparkling water rather than still water.

More Honey Sweetened Drinks

Elderflower Cordial
Elderberry Syrup
Cranberry Ginger Tea
Lilac Lemonade