Homemade Cherry Limeade

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen over the weekend that we enjoyed homemade cherry limeades one evening! I love, love, love Sonic cherry limeades, but they are a rare treat that I get just a few times a year. IBC makes a bottled cherry limeade, and my husband often gets me a 6-pack for my birthday or Christmas, and while they are good, they are also a little heavy on the cherry side. You just can't bottle the taste of fresh lime!

I've been wanting to try making one myself for years now, and thanks to Pinterest, I found a few recipes for some inspiration (The Cooking Photographer and Your Little Birdie). In the end, I decided to basically wing it and make my own.

I had some limeade concentrate in the freezer and I mixed about a quart of it together. My other ingredients were lemon-lime seltzer water, grenadine, and of course, a fresh lime and maraschino cherries!

In a pint Mason jar I mixed about 1/3 limeade, 2/3 seltzer water, and then grenadine to taste (probably close to 1 Tablespoon). Then I poured in as much crushed ice as would fit in the glass, squeezed a slice of lime and added a cherry. Then I added a second cherry because really, you can never have too many in a cherry limeade!

It was deliciously amazing. Both Martin and I agreed that it was as close to Sonic cherry limeade as we had ever had. And if I hadn't made it myself, I probably would have thought it was from Sonic!

Homemade Cherry Limeade

• limeade
• lemon-lime seltzer water
• grenadine
• lime slices or wedges
• maraschino cherries

Method: Mix 1 part limeade to 2 parts seltzer water. Add grenadine to taste (about 1 Tablespoon per pint of limeade). Add plenty of crushed ice to keep things cool. Garnish with lime and cherries.

You could probably simplify things by just using Sprite or another lemon-lime soda, but the limeade added such an amazing lime flavor, I think I will probably take the extra step to get it perfect.

Enjoy!