Limeade Concentrate
By Andrea GearyPublished on June 1, 2021
Time
20 minutes, plus 1½ hours cooling
Yield
Serves 4 (makes 2 cups limeade concentrate or 4 cups limeade)
Ingredients
Before You Begin
It's a good idea to have seven limes on hand for this recipe, but you may not need all of them.
Instructions
- Select 3 limes with fewest blemishes and scrub well. Rinse and dry thoroughly. Using vegetable peeler, remove zest of washed limes in strips. Transfer zest to bowl and add sugar and salt. Toss to combine. Using potato masher, mash zest, sugar, and salt vigorously until mixture is very fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add hot water and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute. Set aside until cool, about 30 minutes. While mixture cools, juice enough limes to yield ¾ cup juice.
- Stir juice into zest mixture until combined. Strain through fine-mesh strainer set over 2-cup liquid measuring cup; discard zest. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. (If not using concentrate right away, transfer to airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.)TO MAKE LIMEADE: For single serving, pour ½ cup cold water and ½ cup concentrate over ice and stir gently to combine; if necessary, dilute with additional water to taste. For 4 servings, fill pitcher with ice, add 2 cups cold water and all of concentrate, and stir to combine; if necessary, dilute with additional water to taste. For sparkling limeade, substitute plain seltzer for cold water.
Time
20 minutes, plus 1½ hours coolingYield
Serves 4 (makes 2 cups limeade concentrate or 4 cups limeade)Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Simple limeade—just juice, sugar, and water—is refreshing at first, but it can get a bit cloying before your glass is half-empty. For a more complex drink, we muddled the zest with sugar to incorporate some of its floral, spicy, and sweet flavors and steeped the mixture in hot water. A hefty amount of lime juice provided plenty of acidity, and a small amount of salt balanced any excess bitterness, leaving our limeade with just a hint of bitterness to lend the drink a bit of sophistication. Because our recipe makes a concentrate, you can dilute it with either still or sparkling water and make an entire pitcher or just one glass at a time.
Before You Begin
It's a good idea to have seven limes on hand for this recipe, but you may not need all of them.
Instructions
- Select 3 limes with fewest blemishes and scrub well. Rinse and dry thoroughly. Using vegetable peeler, remove zest of washed limes in strips. Transfer zest to bowl and add sugar and salt. Toss to combine. Using potato masher, mash zest, sugar, and salt vigorously until mixture is very fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add hot water and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute. Set aside until cool, about 30 minutes. While mixture cools, juice enough limes to yield ¾ cup juice.
- Stir juice into zest mixture until combined. Strain through fine-mesh strainer set over 2-cup liquid measuring cup; discard zest. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. (If not using concentrate right away, transfer to airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.)TO MAKE LIMEADE: For single serving, pour ½ cup cold water and ½ cup concentrate over ice and stir gently to combine; if necessary, dilute with additional water to taste. For 4 servings, fill pitcher with ice, add 2 cups cold water and all of concentrate, and stir to combine; if necessary, dilute with additional water to taste. For sparkling limeade, substitute plain seltzer for cold water.
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