By Chuck Martin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rachael Horde, 14, has been making and selling lemonade in her Anderson Township neighborhood for three summers. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

Nothing to it but lemons, sugar and water. That's the beauty of lemonade: The ultimate summer quencher is simply tart enough to soothe a dry, parched throat and sweet enough to ease down the lemon.

But although few ingredients are required for this thirst-chasing elixir, many who make it have their own formula - a way of combining the lemons, sugar and water - for what they believe is the very best lemonade.

At 14, Rachael Horde of Anderson Township is already a lemonade expert. For the past three summers, she and a few friends have operated a lemonade stand in their neighborhood. (They'll open their stand again in August.)

And almost from the beginning, Rachael has made lemonade from scratch (she doesn't like the taste of "powdered" mixes) by muddling sugar, lemon, juice and a little water in the bottom of a pitcher. She adds more water, then more lemon juice or sugar, to taste.

"You just have to make it sweet and sour enough," Rachael says, matter-of-factly.

Perhaps this explains why she doesn't have a recipe - or maybe why she won't share it.

At the Penn Station restaurant chain, which serves some of the best lemonade in Greater Cincinnati, they do use a secret recipe. But most important, says company president Craig Dunaway, is the freshness of the lemon juice. Penn Station doesn't buy premade lemonade, and turned down an offer a few years ago from a company that wanted to squeeze lemon juice for them.

"We tasted their squeezed juice against our own and we couldn't tell the difference," Dunaway says. "But we still decided to stick with our own."

So all the restaurants squeeze lemons every day, sometimes several times a day, for the Penn Station lemonade, which is sufficiently tart enough to stand up to a cupful of melting ice.

"The key is they can't squeeze the lemons too far ahead," Dunaway says. "Anything that sits there awhile just isn't as good."

The only other thing Dunaway will divulge about the recipe is that his restaurants use sugar - not a concentrated simple syrup (sugar dissolved in boiling water) - to make the lemonade.

The simple syrup-sugar divergence is the biggest chasm in the lemonade camp. Those who favor sugar believe their lemonade is best because it's more simple and pure. The other side points out simple syrup is convenient because the sugar is already dissolved - no pitcher-rattling stirring required. Some recipes call for a pre-blend of simple syrup and lemon juice, which means the lemonade can be quickly made a pitcher or glass at a time.

Farmers Arlene and Ron Dixon, who own Blackjack Lemon Orchard near San Diego, Calif., mix their fresh juice with a simple syrup for fast pitchers of lemonade.

"Unfortunately, most people like their lemonade on the sweet side," says Arlene.

Well, we hate to disagree with a lemon farmer. But some people like their lemonade tart, too.

And that's another beauty of lemonade: It's so simple, you can make it the way you want.

Lemonade recipes After experimenting with several lemonade recipes, I decided I like the convenience of using a simple syrup, but prefer to add fresh lemon juice separately. And because I grew up drinking lemonade that floated plenty of lemon pulp (and sometimes tiny seeds), I prefer pulp in mine as well.

The easiest way to get pulp into lemonade, I've found, is to strain the lemon juice, pick out the seeds, then add the pulp back to the juice. I added lemon zest to the syrup for flavor and color.

Note: Some people like to add color and flavor to their lemonade. To make pink lemonade, add grenadine or cranberry juice until it turns the color you wish. To make raspberry or strawberry lemonade, puree and seed fresh or frozen berries. Add puree to lemonade, to taste.

Recipes

My Favorite Lemonade

Zest of 3 lemons

Juice of 6 lemons (about 1 cup), with pulp, seeds removed

SIMPLE SYRUP

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Refrigerate lemon zest and juice, covered, until needed.

To make simple syrup, bring sugar and 1 cup of water to boil. Stir to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat, add lemon zest and cover for 15 minutes. Strain and discard lemon zest. Allow syrup to cool.

To make lemonade, add 2 quarts cold water to pitcher. Add 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup syrup (or to taste). Stir well and add more lemon juice or syrup, to taste. Refrigerate until serving. (Simple syrup will keep indefinitely, covered and refrigerated.) Makes about 2 quarts lemonade.

'Best Lemonade'

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Zest of 1 orange

Zest of 8 lemons

Juice of 8 lemons or about 2 cups, strained

Bring water and sugar to boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Add lemon juice to water, stir and return to boil. Add lemon and orange zest, stir and remove from heat. Allow to stand 2 minutes before straining out zest.

Cool syrup by setting pan over ice or in cold water. Cover and refrigerate syrup until needed. Makes about 3 cups.

To make lemonade, add 1 part syrup to 3 or 4 parts water, or to taste.

Outdoor Entertaining: Picnics, Parties and Portable Feasts (Out-of-print)

Lemonade Syrup

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Zest of 2 lemons

1/8 teaspoon salt

Juice of 6 lemons

Bring sugar, water, lemon zest and salt to boil. Stir and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Strain zest from syrup and cool. Add lemon juice to syrup, stir, cover and refrigerate until needed.

To make a glass of lemonade, add 2 tablespoons lemon syrup to 8 ounces cold water. Or, add 1/2 cup syrup to 1 quart water.

Joy of Cooking (1975 edition; out-of-print)

Not Yo' Mamma's Lemonade

1 12-ounce can thawed lemonade concentrate

1 750 ml bottle vodka

2 cups spiced rum

2 cups water

3/4 cup limoncello or other lemon-flavored liqueur

Garnish: lemon slices and mint sprigs

Combine all ingredients except garnish in pitcher that holds at least 85 ounces and stir well. Serve with ice and garnish with lemon slices and mint. Makes about 12 6-ounce servings.

Note: To make "Kentucky Lemonade," substitute bourbon for spiced rum.

The Ultimate Guide to Pitcher Drinks (Villard; $12.95)

Lemon pickin' tips

Unfortunately, lemons are at their peak in the middle of winter when most of us aren't drinking lemonade.

Otherwise, Ben Pipkin, owner of Pipkin's Fruit & Vegetable Market in Montgomery suggests buying lemons heavy for their size.

Smaller lemons usually have more juice than larger lemons, Pipkin says.

And fruit that is slightly soft will also yield more juice.

Three ways to squeeze

From left, lemon reamer, lemon press and citrus press

There are at least three tools with which to squeeze lemons: wooden lemon reamer (about $8.50 at Williams-Sonoma and other stores), old-fashioned glass lemon press (usually found at yard sales and flea markets) and metal citrus press (about $16 at Williams-Sonoma). The citrus press strains out the seeds and most of the pulp when you squeeze; the other tools require a strainer.

Here's a way to juice a lemon without a special tool: Cut lemon in half and insert fork into cut side. Twist fork in lemon to squeeze juice over strainer in bowl.

Lemon-squeezing tip: Allow lemons to warm to room temperature before squeezing.

Taste-testing mixes

Alexandra Martin, right, reacts to a lemonade sample while Rachael Horde scores. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

To find the best-tasting lemonade mix, we asked eight kids, ages 5 to 14, to blindly sample five brands. We also included two made-from-scratch lemonades in the taste test.

The panel rated Country Time "Sugar-Free" Lemonade as the best-tasting mix, describing it as "perfect" and "very best." Kroger "Light" and Crystal Light mixes finished second and third respectively. The two homemade lemonades rated near the bottom of the samples. Surprisingly, Kool-Aid Lemonade, made with sugar, finished last.

Our lemonade Taste Team: Joseph Horde, 11; Rachael Horde, 14; Alexandra Martin, 10; Nichole Martin, 12; Kimberly Nicholas, 12; Michelle Nicholas, 8; Luke Riehemann, 10; and Seth Riehemann, 5.

Thanks to grown-up Taste Team member, Jennifer Combs-Henson, for hosting the tasting at her home in Milford.

Spike your own

Mike's Hard Lemonade

"Hard" lemonade drinks, spiked with malt liquor, are especially popular with young consumers as an alternative to beer or wine. We tasted three popular brands - Mike's Hard Lemonade, Jack Daniel's "Lynchburg Lemonade" and Doc's Hard Lemonade. All contain 5 percent or more alcohol.

Maybe our palate just isn't young enough, but we found all of the hard lemonades to be overly artificial-tasting - worse than most soft drinks. The least offensive is Mike's Hard Lemonade, which had foxy undertones of homemade wine. Considering this trendy drink isn't inexpensive (Mike's is $6.99 per 11-ounce 6-pack), a better "hard" alternative might be homemade lemonade spiked with vodka or other liquor.

E-mail cmartin@enquirer.com