Easy homemade lemon cordial recipe (2024)

If you’re looking for an easy, delicious and quick homemade lemon cordial recipe then you can stop looking because this is all you need to know if you’re looking for how to make lemon cordial.

Homemade lemon cordial recipe

Sitting in my little office in our old house I used to get glimpses of our lemon tree.

Fresh lemons right at our door!

It was one of the first things I saw when we inspected the house and I fell in love.

I probably had visions of all the delicious lemon recipes I was going to make from that very first meeting.

Lemon curd, lemon cupcakes and of course homemade lemon cordial.

It seems we only used to get an awesome crop every second year.

While I was sad to see we had barely enough lemons last year to make anything, the year before we left the house we had two crops!

Our tree had the juiciest lemons I’ve ever seen. Seriously, so much juice came out of just one lemon!

What to do when you have an abundance of fresh lemons?

Well summer drinks are the first thing that come to mind for me.

Is there much better than sipping a sweet, ice cold drink on a hot summer’s day?

I love a good lime and soda but my favourite lime cordial can only be purchased from the Noosa Farmers Markets (now my local).

You might also like ginger lime fiz with homemade ginger syrup.

As I was down to dregs of cordial I thought I’d try my hand at making my own homemade lemon cordial.

It seemed pretty simple just lime juice, sugar and water but after a bit of searching I saw a lot of lemon cordial recipes added citric acid (or tartaric acid).

I wasn’t too sure what it was for but I added it anyway and later discovered it’s a natural preservative that is really commonly used.

What is lemon cordial?

Ok so you probably already know this but it’s a concentrated form of drink that you can add to soda or mineral water to add flavour.

It’s not something you drink straight.

That would induce quite the sugar high and I’m going to say not taste too good.

Why make your own cordial?

My number one reason for making things from scratch is always that you can ensure there are no added nasties like preservatives or artificial flavours.

A quick little assessment for me – was it made in a factory and were A LOT of them made at once?

Then it probably has some things added to it that aren’t so good for us.

It also, most of the time saves money and saves on waste because you’re not constantly buying and then throwing out bottles.

Homemade lemon cordial makes a great gift too.

What you’ll need to make cordial

• Sugar – for a sweeter cordial, use white sugar, if you like a richer sort of taste then go for a less-refined sugar like rapadura (this is my preference for the health benefits too). You can even skip the sugar and use honey. If you don’t want it quite as sweet you can alter the amount of sugar – just a little less sugar can make a big difference.
• Water – filtered water is always my choice
• Lemon juice – juice from fresh lemons is preferable but you could use bottled lemon juice
• Grated lemon zest (or lemon peels) (make sure you zest the lemon before you juice them)
• Citric acid– this helps it last longer
• Soda water – to serve (also called carbonated water)

The result reminds me a lot of the fresh homemade lemonade I enjoyed all over New York (some were better than others).

Questions about making lemon cordial

Can I add other flavours?

Absolutely. Fresh ginger is really delicious and I’ve also had people add fresh mint leaves or even chili.

Do you really need that much sugar?

Yep it might seem like a lot of sugar but you only need a lit bit of the cordial to make up a drink so it’s not a lot per serve.

Can you use other citrus fruits to make cordial?

Absolutely! This recipe would work well for any sort of citrus you might just need to adjust the sugar.

If you’re using a sweeter citrus like orange juice then you won’t need as much.

For something like grapefruit though, you might require a little extra.

Can you freeze lemons?

You sure can. Just pop them, whole, into a ziplock bag or container.

When you’re ready to use them, defrost them on the bench (or in the microwave if you’re short on time) and you’ll get even more juice than usual.

Can you store the cordial in the pantry?

Unopened, as long as you put it in a properly sterilised bottle, the cordial will keep, unopened for a few months.

Once it is opened, keep it in the fridge.

What do you store homemade lemon cordial in?

You will need to make sure you have a sterilised bottle or jar. You can re-use old jars or bottle as long as they’re nice and clean.

I have a quick and easy tip for removing the labels so you can reuse your old jars.

How many part cordial and how many parts water should I use to serve?

This one depends how strong you want your cordial. I like to use about 2 tablespoons of lemon cordial concentrate to 1 cup of water.

If you’re using ice cubes, a little tip – put them in the bottom of a glass first then cordial, then cold water (or soda).

I think next time I’ll do a combo of lemon and lime but for now I’m pretty happy with this homemade refreshing lemon cordial recipe.

Extra tip: before you juice your lemons, use a peeler to remove the zest and pop it in a jar or ziplock bag in the freezer so you’ve always got fresh zest on hand.

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If you like this lemon cordial recipe then you’ll love my mock mojito recipe.

Lemon cordial

Yield: 750ml

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups filtered water
• 2 cups fresh lemon juice, strained
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 3 tsp citric acid
• Soda water to serve

Instructions

1. Place the sugar, water, lemon juice and zest in a medium saucepan and heat, stirring, over high heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Bring it to the boil then reduce to a simmer and leave it to bubble away for 20 minutes or until it thickens slightly.
3. Stir through the citric acid.
4. Strain the cordial then pour it into a sterilised bottle.
5. Serve with soda water (about 1 part cordial to 4 parts water).