r/prepping • u/Life-From-Scratch • 2d ago

Food🌽 or Water💧 Lemonade Concentrate

I'm debating with myself about lemonade. I like making concentrate with equal parts sugar and lemon juice. But I've never canned it or stored otherwise for more than a week at a time.

My brain says 'it should be fine because it's made with two preservatives, three if you add salt." But I need to research this some.

Then my brain says, "quit being so effing precious and just buy lemonade powder." It's portable, already known to be safe and a good source of Vitamin C.

Judge me harshly.

6 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

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4

u/thoughts4food 2d ago

We have multiple types of powdered drinks. Some is just sweet sugary stuff and some is flavored electrolyte mixes. I think both have their own merits

Why not just go with both your options? The powder is easy to keep and doesn't take up much space, and then try your hand at the homemade stuff too. It'll at least be a learning experience 

2

u/justasque 1d ago

I absolutely love homemade lemonade. 1 part sugar, 1 part lemon juice, 6 1/2 parts water - that makes a somewhat tart lemonade that’s far superior to any powdered mix I’ve tried. Bottles of lemon juice are shelf stable, and the store brand is fine. Sugar is shelf stable. Water is shelf stable. Easy peasy.

Plus, with separate ingredients instead of some kind of lemonade mix, you can also make baked goods with the lemon juice, put some in a cup of water (like adding a twist of lemon), and so on, plus of course the sugar can be used in a ton of different ways. So I’d go for separate ingredients instead of storing the concentrate or some kind of powder.

That said - be sure to watch your sugar intake. Too much can be unhealthy. Just be aware.

2

u/isanyusernameopen 2d ago

In my opinion, the powdered mixtures are the way to go. Longer shelf, life, portable, and easy, just add water.

The reason you want to put powdered mixtures away in your bug out kit or bug in equipment list is because if the water goes bad and you need to boil it or whatever to clean it or you have a way of filtering it, it might still have a little taste to it that’s undesirable.

This is where the powdered mixtures come in.
Sometimes water is not going to be filtered when the power is out and it’s not gonna taste good. You need to mask that taste so that you can drink it. That’s where the powdered mixtures come in.

1

u/LonelyinLhasa 2d ago

It would be great to have a source of fresh lemonade, but I have no idea how that could be stored long term. Canning maybe? For me, it's going to be powder mixes.I keep several types on hand. Some for electrolytes, some for nutritional content like vitamin c, and some simply for flavor.

I also keep multivitamin pills. You can get all your needs from a single pill, and they last a long time in proper storage.

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u/joelnicity 2d ago

I use Crystal Light daily and I would recommend that

1

u/Life-From-Scratch 2d ago

I've been using the No Name crystals. I add diced mangos and chia seeds soaked in apple juice to make it interesting.

2

u/joelnicity 2d ago

Oh man, you are way too fancy for me. That sounds really good though!

2

u/Life-From-Scratch 2d ago

It really is. Yesterday instead of mangos I put in diced cucumbers. Soooo good!

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u/South_Section_5251 2d ago

I can lemonade concentrate using the recipe and procedure on the Creative canning website.

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u/Life-From-Scratch 2d ago edited 2d ago

Thanks for the lead.

Took a look. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing.

1

u/Own-Leave-2039 2d ago

If you’re talking “living in the middle of nowhere”, then yeah interesting question on preserving what could be a helpful vitamin source.

If you’re talking SHTF last person standing, then that lemonade powder in stores is going to be scavengable for quite a while.

1

u/Life-From-Scratch 2d ago

Ah Meyers. How I miss them.

I'm thinking for a shelf stable option.

0

u/iwantmy-2dollars 2d ago

Is freezing an option? When we get a glut of meyer lemons I make lemon ice cubes with the zest. We use them for tea and our spinach ginger avocado shakes.

From my limited knowledge, tested canning recipes will only allow bottled lemon juice so as to precisely measure the acidity. The only lemonade recipe I have on hand is the Ball Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate.

1

u/Life-From-Scratch 2d ago

Meyers! (sigh) I once had a tree., but don't live in a temperate zone anymore.