Homemade Blackberry Lemonade is the perfect drink for spring or summer! Our family loves this easy lemonade recipe with a fun berry twist!

If you are looking for refreshing summer drinks, be sure to also check out our Easy Brazilian Lemonade (Limeade), Horchata Mexican Drink Recipe, Strawberry Lemonade, and Homemade Hawaiian Punch Recipe!

An image of a pitcher of homemade blackberry lemonade.

One of our favorite restaurants is Prospect in San Francisco. Paul gets to eat there often because he works downtown and goes out with clients all the time to fancy places. So when he came home from a lunch at Prospect raving about their blackberry lemonade, I knew it was something I needed to make for our family.

I love making homemade lemonade. It’s one of our favorite summer traditions and something we serve often when we have company over.

It’s so easy to adjust the amount of sweetness and tartness by adjusting the sugar a bit or adding more or less water if you prefer your lemonade weaker or stronger. And it’s a great recipe to play around with and add flavors to.

We’ve made peach lemonade, strawberry rhubarb lemonade, and raspberry lemonade. But this blackberry lemonade may just be our favorite. It goes great with all our favorite cookout foods from bbq chicken to burgers!

An image of a glass of fresh squeezed blackberry lemonade garnished with a blackberry and a lemon slice.

How to juice a lemon

Knowing how to juice a lemon seems pretty logical, but there are a couple of tricks for getting the most lemon juice out of your lemons.

Don’t juice cold lemons. Room temperature lemons are juicier than lemons straight from the fridge. But warm lemons release even more juice than room temperature lemons. You can warm the lemons in a bowl of hot water for a minute or two or microwave them whole for 10-20 seconds to warm them up.
Apply pressure to the lemons by rolling them on the counter. Just use the palm of your hand to press and roll each lemon on the counter a few times to break up the membranes inside the lemon before slicing it open. It really does make a difference!
Slice lemons lengthwise instead of crosswise. This exposes more of the lemon pulp and lets the lemon release more of its juice.
Use a lemon juicer. I use this inexpensive handheld juicer (<– affiliate link) all the time for any kind of citrus and it makes it super easy to extract the juice from the lemons without getting a whole bunch of seeds as well. But you can just use a fork or a wooden reamer over of a bowl to catch the juice, then fish out the seeds.

Even if you don’t have a juicer, just the first three steps will help a ton if you are squeezing lemons by hand.

The yield from lemons can vary depending on the size and juiciness of the lemons, but typically I would say that it takes about 5-6 lemons to get 1 cup of fresh lemon juice. I always make a large batch of lemonade that uses 2 cups of lemon juice as you will see in the recipe below, so I always need 10-12 lemons for a batch of lemonade.

I’m lucky to live in an area where lots of friends and neighbors have lemon trees and they are always offering bags of fresh lemons, but when I don’t have those on hand, I typically just buy a big bag of lemons from Costco which always has enough for a batch of lemonade, plus a few extra lemons to slice and add to the pitcher for a pretty garnish.

How to make homemade blackberry lemonade

Make a simple syrup. Sounds fancy, but a simple syrup is just sugar and water boiled together until the sugar is completely dissolved. It needs to cool down before adding it to the rest of the lemonade ingredients though.
Make blackberry puree. The easiest way to do this is by processing the blackberries in a blender with a little sugar. Then pour it through a fine mesh sieve and press the puree against the sides to release as much juice as possible.
Squeeze the lemons. This is pretty straightforward, but I’ll give you all my best lemon squeezing tips in a second to get the most juice possible out of your lemons.
Stir it all together! I like to garnish my blackberry lemonade with plenty of ice, blackberries, and lemon slices just to make it look pretty.

An image of a glass pitcher full of homemade blackberry lemonade with ice, blackberries, and lemon slices.

How long is homemade lemonade good for?

Homemade lemonade will theoretically last in the fridge for about a week. But at our house, it never lasts longer than 1 day.

How can I make my homemade lemonade fizzy?

One fun idea is to make your homemade lemonade sparkling or fizzy by replacing part of the water (or even all of it) with club soda. I would start with 6 cups of club soda, then taste and add more club soda or regular water until you reach the level of fizziness you enjoy.

One thing to remember is that the club soda will go flat just like any other soda, so the lemonade won’t last as long. But if you are serving this homemade blackberry lemonade for a party, and combining the ingredients right before everyone arrives, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Just keep the simple syrup and lemon juice chilled in the fridge until you are ready to serve, then mix everything up in a large pitcher or dispenser.

Can I freeze homemade lemonade?

When I was a kid, I used to make lemonade granita all the time. The process is just the same as I described in my orange basil granita post. You can also pour the blackberry lemonade into a popsicle mold or even just paper cups and adding sticks to make lemonade popsicles. Or pour it into ice cube trays, freeze, then blend to make a lemonade slushie.

An image of a glass pitcher filled with fresh squeezed blackberry lemonade.

More Family Friendly Warm Weather Drinks You’ll Enjoy

Virgin Pina Coladas
Horchata
Orange Julius
Brazilian Lemonade (Limeade)
Raspberry Peach Italian Cream Sodas
Fresh Squeezed Homemade Lemonade
and check all my thirst-quenching drinks recipes here!

Did you make this recipe?

Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.

Ingredients

▢ 1 3/4 cups sugar + 2 tablespoons
▢ 2 cups blackberries
▢ 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice from about 10-12 lemons
▢ 8-10 cups water
▢ Ice
▢ Lemon slices and blackberries for garnish

Instructions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 ¾ cups sugar and 1 cup of water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool completely.
In a blender, combine blackberries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Blend until pureed. Press blackberry puree through a fine mesh sieve to get as much liquid through as possible, then discard solids.
Combine the blackberry puree with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and water in a large pitcher. Stir well. Serve with ice, sliced lemons, and blackberries for garnish.