Don’t simply relegate this homemade lemonade recipe to the kids’ table—it’s tart, sweet, and intensely refreshing on a hot day. For the biggest bang for your lemon buck, you’ll start by infusing simple syrup with lemon zest. To get large pieces with as little pith (the bitter white part) as possible, dry the lemons and your hands well so that your grip is firm, and use a sharp vegetable peeler. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice is a must, so grab a juicer. To keep the ratio of tangy-to-sweet in check, add ice cubes straight to the glasses, not the pitcher, so the drink isn’t diluted.
While this fresh lemonade needs no embellishments, it’s also a versatile base for a host of summer drink recipes: While the syrup steeps, muddle fresh fruit in the pitcher to make raspberry lemonade or strawberry lemonade. Watermelon? Peach? Sure, those work too. (About 2 cups of fruit per batch of lemonade should suffice.) If you prefer a bit of sparkle, swap out half the final pour of cold water for club soda or seltzer. For a full-blown spritz, use only the sparkling water (and maybe a splash of gin). You could also steep spices like sumac and cardamom in the syrup for something more complex or add a sprig of mint to each glass for something more aromatic. And mixing the prepared lemonade by half with brewed black tea quickly turns it into an Arnold Palmer. Prefer limeade? Swap out just half the citrus, lest the drink become too bitter.