Lemon cordial is a refreshing summer drink, and making your own using this recipe is surprisingly simple.

It would be a great recipe to do if you ever find crates of lemons being sold off cheap, as can happen on markets towards the end of the day. It's also a good choice for making early in the year, before the elderflowers are ready for  elderflower cordial.

The basis of this recipe is lemon juice and sugar syrup. Essentially you squeeze the lemons and measure the juice, then add the same volume of sugar syrup, which is made by heating equal amounts, by volume, of sugar and water.

This recipe doesn't use the lemon peel, this could be frozen and used later to make candied peel.

  See here for the lemon cordial recipe in detail.

Recipe Costs

£1.50 5 lemons
£0.00 250ml water (approx)
£0.23 250ml granulated sugar (approx)
£0.01 1/2 tsp citric acid

£1.74 Total

£3.48 per litre of cordial (about 15% more expensive than quality cordial from tesco)

First squeeze the lemons, you can extract much more juice if you microwave each lemon for 1 minute before squeezing.

5 lemons will produce about 250ml of juice, but you will need to measure what you have and adjust the quantities of sugar and water accordingly.

Place the lemon juice in a saucepan and add the same volume of water and sugar. In this case I added 250ml of water and 250ml of sugar, using a measuring cup.

Citric acid is added as a preservative and to enhance the sour taste of the cordial, just half a teaspoon in this case. It's not essential to add it, but does make for a better flavour.

The saucepan is put on a medium heat and brought to a gentle simmer for a minute,  just to ensure that the sugar has dissolved. Then the cordial is strained through a sieve lined with muslin. If having a few bits of lemon in your cordial is not a problem, then leave out this stage.

After the cordial has cooled slightly it can be bottled in sterilised bottles, use plastic ones if you wish to freeze it.

Bottles should be stored in the fridge and will keep well for three weeks, or freeze for use later in the year.
Dilute to taste with still or sparkling water.

Recipe Timings

10 minutes Squeezing Lemons
5 minutes Simmering
5 minutes Bottling

Taste Test

Slightly on the sharper side than commercial lemon cordials.