This hard raspberry lemonade and limoncello cocktail is going to become your new favorite summer cocktail! It’s refreshing, fruity and so so good!
In this post we give you a recipe for making this as a single raspberry limoncello cocktail or as a pitcher of hard raspberry lemonade.
What is Limoncello?
Limoncello is an Italian lemon liqueur. It’s got a beautiful sweet and tart lemon flavor and is so good in lemon cocktails or even just sipped on its own.
It’s made with the rind of the lemon, rather than the juice, and then mixed with vodka and sugar. It’s actually pretty easy to make and we have a post showing you how to make limoncello at home. We show you two ways to do it!
It was my birthday a little while ago and Kevin’s mom, Gail, gave me a bottle of Limoncello that she had brought back from Italy! So nice of her to give me one! Debbie and I both love Limoncello! So we came up with this cocktail for all you lemon lovers out there…
How to Make Homemade Raspberry Lemonade
Making your own lemonade is so easy and its absolutely delicious. Especially raspberry lemonade! If you haven’t had or made fresh lemonade before, you are in for a treat!
The ingredients you need for this homemade lemonade are:
- raspberries – you can use frozen or fresh. Both will work just as good.
- lemons – we LOVE meyer lemons because they are just slightly sweeter than regular lemons, but any old lemon will work too.
- sugar (or you can try honey if you like too)
- water
Tips for Making the Lemonade
The steps to make the homemade lemonade are detailed below, but here are some tips:
- use real lemons! The flavor will be WAY better than if you use lemon juice from a jar. See below for our favorite juicers…
- make sure to strain the raspberries with a sieve after cooking them into a juice. You wont like having the raspberry seeds in your cocktail.
Best Tools for Juicing Lemons
Juicing lemons or any citrus fruit for cocktails makes cocktails taste so much more fresh and juicy than using a jar of juice. That said, without the proper tools, juicing lemons can be annoying. Here are our two favorite tools to use:
- lemon and lime squeezer – this makes short work out of juicing lemons and limes! It even strains the seeds in one step.
- citrus juicer with strainer – this one works great too and can be used for all kinds of citrus. Even large ones.
I have to say, this lemonade is crazy good on its own! It would be great to serve to kids (sans alcohol of course) or pregnant friends. You could make popsicles with it…!
How to Make a Pitcher of Hard Raspberry Lemonade
If you are serving this to guests, you are going to want to make a bunch of these at once! Making a pitcher, or even two at a time, is the way to go!
Here is a recipe to use if you want to make a pitcher. It will make 10 cocktails:
- 5 cups of raspberry lemonade
- 1 1/4 cup limoncello
- 1 1/4 cup vodka
That’s it. Easy peasy.
Other Raspberry and/or Limoncello Cocktails
- raspberry & limoncello vodka sour
- raspberry mojito with prosecco
- gin fizz with raspberry shrub
- homemade limoncello
Don’t these drinks look amazing?! Go out and get your limoncello on your way home from work tonight!
If you’ve tried this raspberry lemonade with limoncello cocktail recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out in the comments below. We love hearing from you!
We love to see your creations! Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM
Hard Raspberry Lemonade and Limoncello Cocktail
Ingredients
FOR THE RASPBERRIES
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 1/8 cup sugar you could also use honey
FOR THE RASPBERRY LEMONADE
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (we used meyer lemons) this is about 3 lemons
- 1/2 cup raspberry mixture after its been cooled and strained
- 5 cups water
FOR THE COCKTAIL
- 1 oz limoncello
- 1 oz vodka
- 4 oz raspberry lemonade
- 1 slice lemon and a couple fresh raspberries for garnish
Instructions
FOR THE RASPBERRIES
- Add the raspberries to a small pot and sprinkle the sugar on top. Cook over low heat until the raspberries get broken down, the juices are released, and all the sugar (or honey) is mixed in. Set aside to cool.
- Strain the raspberries through a sieve and discard the seeds.
FOR THE LEMONADE
- Add the lemon juice, raspberry puree, sugar and the water to a pitcher. Mix well.
- Taste it to see if it is sweet enough for you. Adjust if necessary. You don't want it too sweet because the limonchello is sweet as well.
FOR THE COCKTAIL
- If you like, rim your glass with cocktail rimmer or sugar then fill your glass with ice.
- Add the limoncello and vodka and then add the raspberry lemonade. Give it a good stir. Garnish with a lemon slice and a couple raspberries if you like. Serve!
