Our cherry limeade is made with fresh sweet cherries and freshly squeezed lime juice for a perfectly balanced sweet-tart flavor. When the weather starts to heat up, this is the drink that I start to crave!
If you're looking for another homemade soda flavor to try, check out our homemade recipes for Orange Soda, Sprite, Grape Soda, and Strawberry Vanilla Soda.
It's Easy to Make Your Own Soda at Home
Cherry limeade is Sonic's signature drink, and it's a pretty beloved beverage in many parts of the American Southwest, most notably Oklahoma. Down there, it's usually made with a lemon lime soda like sprite, a cherry syrup, and a touch of freshly squeezed lime.
Ours is a little bit different - we zest the limes, massage them with sugar to release their oils, then cook the zest and sugar mixture with fresh cherries until the cherries release their flavor and you're left with a delicious cherry-lime syrup. Once the cherry syrup cools, we squeeze in some fresh lime juice.
The syrup can then be stored in the fridge for a few weeks, and whenever you're ready for some soda, you can pump it out into an ice-filled glass, top with sparkling water, and enjoy.
We love it because it's got a super fresh flavor, is really easy to make, and doesn't require any special equipment.
If you're not looking to make soda, but want to experiment with some homemade flavored syrups, try a sweet one (like our blackberry syrup) or a spicy one (like our jalapeño syrup).
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Key Ingredients Needed for Cherry Limeade
- Cherries: fresh or frozen work great in this recipe. We used fresh sweet cherries in this recipe, but using frozen pitted ones will save you some time.
How to Make Cherry Lime Soda
- To a small bowl, add the sugar and lime zest. Using your fingers, massage the sugar and zest together until fragrant and evenly incorporated.
- To a small saucepan over medium low heat, add the cherries, sugar and zest mixture, and water. Cook over medium low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the cherries have softened and begin to break down. You'll want to mash them a bit throughout the cooking process using a wooden spoon or similar utensil.
- Strain the cooked syrup to remove the solids, using a spatula or spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Move the to refrigerator to cool. Once cooled, squeeze in the fresh juice from your zested limes.
- To make your soda, add about ¼ to ⅓ cup (depending on how sweet you like your soda) of the syrup to an ice-filled glass, and top with sparkling water. Enjoy!
Top Tips from the CK Test Kitchen!
- Rubbing the sugar with zest: by massaging the sugar and lime zest together with your hands, more of the lime oils are extracted which helps really enhance the flavor.
- Storage: Once the syrup is fully cooled, keep it stored in an airtight jar like a mason jar. We like to use this pump top bottle for easy dispensing. It should keep for about 1 month in the refrigerator. If you use a sugar substitute, it will not last this long.
- Ratio of syrup to sparkling water: You can vary this up according to how intense you want your flavor to be, but a ratio of about ¼ cup of syrup to 1 cup of sparkling water should work well. For less sweet soda, try just 2 tablespoons.
- Save the leftover cherries from the syrup! They taste fantastic. Try them over ice cream (or even mixed into homemade ice cream) or atop Chocolate Cherry Baked Oats or yogurt.
More Homemade Soda Recipes You'll Love
We can't wait for you to make this soda in your own home! If you do, be sure to let us know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo and tag @crowded_kitchen on Instagram. We can't wait to see what you're cooking!
Recipe
Cherry Limeade
Ingredients
Method
- To a small bowl, add the sugar and lime zest. Using your fingers, massage the sugar and zest together until fragrant and evenly incorporated.
- To a small saucepan over medium low heat, add the cherries, sugar and zest mixture, and water. Cook over medium low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the cherries have softened and begin to break down. You'll want to mash them a bit throughout the cooking process using a wooden spoon or similar utensil.
- Strain the cooked syrup to remove the solids, using a spatula or spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Move the to refrigerator to cool. Once cooled, squeeze in the fresh juice from your zested limes.
- To make your soda, add about ¼ to ⅓ cup (depending on how sweet you like your soda) of the syrup to an ice-filled glass, and top with sparkling water. Enjoy!
Lee says
Can you freeze this mix once it has cooled down?
Heather says
This sounds lovely! Can it be canned for longer storage? I think it would make a fun gift
Laura says
This was absolutely delicious! We threw the Mixture into our Slushie maker at a summer party and it was a massive hit. The zesting of the limes requires some extra time but it makes all the difference.
Angie says
So would frozen cherries work especially since they get cooked down anyways?
Lexi says
yes!