Lemonade stand sign

Lemonade is a sweetened lemonade stand sign-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using lemon juice, water, and a sweetener such as cane sugar, simple syrup or honey.

The suffix “-ade” may also be applied to other similar drinks made with different fruits, such as limeade, orangeade, or cherryade. A drink made with lemons, dates, and honey was consumed in 13th and 14th century Egypt, including a lemon juice drink with sugar, known as qatarmizat. While carbonated water was invented by Joseph Priestley in 1767, the first reference found to carbonated lemonade was in 1833 when the drink was sold in British refreshment stalls. Traditionally, children in US and Canadian neighborhoods start lemonade stands to make money during the summer months.

The concept has become iconic of youthful summertime Americana to the degree that parodies and variations on the concept exist across media. A popular variation of traditional lemonade, pink lemonade, is created by adding additional fruit juices, flavors, or food coloring to the recipe. Most store-bought pink lemonade is simply colored with concentrated grape juice or dyes. A 1912 obituary credited the invention of pink lemonade to circus worker Henry E. Sanchez” Allott, saying he had dropped in red cinnamon candies by mistake. Another origin story credits another circus worker, Pete Conklin, in 1857. His brother George Conklin tells the story in his 1921 memoir.

According to the story, Conklin’s lemonade was a mixture of water, sugar and tartaric acid, with the tub garnished with a single lemon that he repeatedly used for the season. One day, he ran out of water. The predominant form of lemonade in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa and Australia is a clear, lemon-flavoured carbonated beverage. C are common brands, and shops usually carry a store-branded lemonade as well.

There are various drinks called brown lemonade. In Northern Ireland, brown lemonade is flavoured with brown sugar. A variant from Venezuela has cane sugar and lime. Limonana, a type of lemonade made from freshly squeezed lemon juice and mint leaves, is a common summer drink in the Middle East. Caicos that can also be made with limes instead of lemons.