This honey lemonade is truly a 3 ingredients all-natural goodness. It's super refreshing, healthy, and takes just minutes to prepare!
Lemonade is a much-loved drink, especially on a hot day! It's cooling, refreshing, and comes with loads of vitamin C too! And this honey lemonade is an even better option.

It's easier to make than regular lemonade and is much healthier because honey is a natural sweetener.
You only need 3 ingredients to make this honey lemonade - lemon juice, honey, and water. I used freshly squeezed lemon juice, but you can always juice the lemons ahead of time and freeze the juice. That way, all you need to do when you want to make this drink is thaw the juice and use it or simply pop a cube or two of the frozen lemon juice (if you measure the juice before freezing it) into your glass, add water and mix some honey into it for a totally refreshing homemade honey lemonade. And with the honey, there is no need to go through the extra step of making simple sugar syrup or even the extra process of stirring sugar to dissolve it.
How to Make Honey Lemonade
Ingredients
- Lemon juice
- Honey
- Drinking water (Chilled)
- Ice Cubes (optional)
Mixing the drink
- Start by adding half of the water into a drinking glass.
- Juice the lemon. For easy juicing, roll the fruit over your kitchen table or countertop to soften the skin before cutting and juicing them. Strain and measure the juice into the glass.
- Measure the honey and mix it into the lemon water. Stir well to completely dilute the honey.
- Top with the remaining water. Add ice cubes before serving.
Notes
How is this honey lemonade different from regular lemonade?
- The main difference is that this recipe uses honey as the sweetener, while the regular lemonade typically uses white sugar. You can also make lemonade with brown sugar like in my brown sugar lemonade or use other sweeteners you like.
- Do take note that the amount of sweetener you use in your lemonade will vary depending on the type of sweetener you use as well as your taste preference. For example, in making a glass of regular lemonade, I use 2 tablespoons of white sugar. When making brown sugar lemonade, for a glass of 350ml lemonade, I use 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. This is because brown sugar tends to be less sweet than regular white sugar. Similarly, when making this honey lemonade, I use 3 tablespoons of honey for a glass of 350ml lemonade.
Can you replace honey with other sweeteners?
- Yes, you can. I have used regular white sugar and brown sugar and both are good. I have not tried other sweeteners. I have also seen recipes with agave, maple syrup, and stevia but have not tried those.
Best way to measure honey
- When making the full recipe quantity below, you can use a measuring jug (with marked milliliter measurement) to measure the honey. When pouring it into the water, use a spatula to scrape the sides of the measuring cup to ensure you get in all the honey measured. This is because honey is thick in consistency and merely pouring it out of the measuring jug will take a long time to get it all out.
- And, when you measure the honey in tablespoons (i.e. when making smaller, individual-sized servings), after pouring the honey from each spoonful into the water, dip and shake the spoon in the water to remove all the honey on it before pouring in the next spoonful of honey. Otherwise, given the thick consistency of the honey, you will end up with half the honey still remaining in the spoon even after pouring it out into the water, unless you wait for a long time for all the honey to slide off the spoon or you use another smaller spoon to push it out completely.
How long does this honey lemonade last
- You can keep this honey lemonade drink refrigerated for 4 to 5 days.
- It is best stored in a covered jug. If you like your lemonade with ice cubes, add them right before serving. This will avoid the lemonade from getting too diluted as the ice cubes will melt even when kept in the refrigerator.
Is it necessary to heat the honey to melt it
- From my experience in making this lemonade with honey, I have not had any problems with dissolving honey in water without heat. All you need to do is stir the honey in the water well, until it dissolves.
- As mentioned in the recipe, it will be easier to stir and dissolve honey is smaller amount of water than the whole 1.5 liters, hence the steps that require the honey to be mixed with 500ml water before adding the remaining water.
Can you make honey lemonade with lemonade concentrate?
- Lemonade concentrates are often already sugar-added. These will not be suitable for making honey lemonade as it will make the lemonade too sweet.
Can you make honey lemonade with frozen lemon juice or bottled lemon juice ?
- Yes, you certainly can.
- You can squeeze lemon juice ahead of time and freeze it in either individual sizes (in tablespoon measures) or in larger serving sizes (for example in 150ml sizes). This way, you save time on squeezing fresh lemon juice every time you want to make the lemonade. You can either wait for the frozen juice to melt before adding to the water and honey, or simply pop the frozen lemon juice cubes or blocks into your glass or pitcher. Let the juice melt completely before serving.
- As for bottled, store-bought lemon juice, so long as it is not already sweetened and concentrated and no other ingredients added, it should work fine for this recipe.
Honey Lemonade Recipe
Here is the full printable version of my honey lemonade recipe.
Honey Lemonade
Ingredients
- 150 ml lemon juice (juice of approximately 2 lemons, strained)
- 225 ml honey
- 1500 ml drinking water (chilled)
- Ice cubes (optional)
Instructions
- Measure 500ml water (at room temperature) in a measuring jug. Add the honey and stir to dissolve completely.
- Transfer the honey solution into a 2 liter pitcher. Strain the lemon juice in.
- Add the remaining chilled water and stir to mix.
- Keep the honey lemonade chilled until ready to serve. (Refer to notes below if you wish to add ice cubes to your lemonade)
Notes
- This recipe makes 2 liters of homemade honey lemonade made entirely with chilled water and without ice cubes.
- If you wish to add ice cubes, reduce the chilled water in the recipe accordingly. This will avoid the lemonade from becoming too diluted as the ice cubes melt.
- To make the lemonade in a single serving of 350ml glass, use 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of honey and 300ml of chilled water. Stir to dissolve the sugar. If you wish to add ice cubes, reduce the water accordingly and top up with ice cubes.
Nutrition
And that's pretty much how you make homemade honey lemonade drink.
Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- How to Make Frozen Lemonade Concentrate
- Brown Sugar Lemonade
- Classic Homemade Lemonade Recipe
- Pink Blueberry Lemonade
- Lemonade Popsicles
- Lemonade Sorbet
Enjoy!
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