Skinny Pink Lemonade

By Christie Vanover | Published December 1, 2012 | Last Updated December 28, 2022

For this Vegas girl, lemonade season is in the winter. Sure I enjoy a refreshing glass when temps top 100 degrees, but my Meyer lemon tree doesn’t produce its beautiful golden fruit until December.

December 1^st to be exact. I woke up this beautiful 75-degree morning to more than 100 lemons ready for the picking.

I planted my citrus trees about eight years ago. In addition to Meyer lemons, I have a lime tree, mandarin orange tree and a variegated pink lemonade tree. I had never seen pink lemons before, but I grew up drinking pink lemonade (made from concentrate).

When I bought this tree, I actually thought fresh pink lemonade must come from pink lemons.

Turns out I was wrong. Pink lemonade is just regular lemonade with a red sweetener added like grenadine, cranberry juice or raspberry juice.

You can use pink lemons, too, but they’re not easy to find and my tree only produces about 10 lemons a year. So I use them as a pretty garnish instead. It always brings about fun conversation because most people have never seen pink lemons.

I don’t like my lemonade super sweet, and I don’t like to drink my calories (unless there is booze involved), so I made this gorgeous pink lemonade skinny by using Truvia. The whole pitcher has less than 150 calories. If you don’t care about the calories, you can replace the Truvia with ½-cup sugar.

It may seem strange to think of lemonade in December, but it’s really a great light, colorful drink to serve over the holidays.

Skinny Pink Lemonade

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Ingredients

• 5 Meyer lemons
• 4 cups water
• ¼ cup Truvia or ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons grenadine syrup

Instructions

• Microwave four lemons for 30 seconds. (this makes them easier to juice.)
• 
• Place a sieve over a pitcher and juice each lemon. The sieve will collect the seeds and pulp.
• 
• Four lemons should yield 1 cup of juice.
• Bring 1 cup water and ¼ cup Truvia (or ½ cup sugar) to a boil in a small pot.
• 
• Combine the lemon juice, Truvia syrup, 3 cups water and grenadine in a pitcher.
• Add lemon slices to the pitcher and garnish each glass with a slice.
• 
• Serve over ice.

The nutrition information is an estimate created using an online nutrition calculator