Homemade Sprite

You only need 4 ingredients to make your own homemade Sprite (lemon lime soda) that's packed with fresh citrus flavor! It's super refreshing, bubbly, delicious and easy to make. When it's this easy to make your own soda with fresh ingredients, that trip to the store seems unnecessary!

If you think making your own soda is a daunting task involving a carbonation machine, special ingredients, or a ton of time, then think again.

Our homemade sodas, like our fan favorite Homemade Orange Soda, are just a concentrated fruit syrup that's made with citrus zest massaged into sugar. Where most syrups would just use water, we instead use freshly-squeezed juice, resulting in a syrup that's super fresh, tart, and lemon-lime forward.

When you want to enjoy a glass, all you need to do is pour out a bit of syrup into an ice-filled glass, and top with sparkling water. No soda machine needed.

The fun part about homemade soda is that you can change it up every season. Last spring, we made this strawberry rhubarb soda and it was absolutely delicious! Our blackberry simple syrup would be perfect for summer, and our orange or pomegranate syrup is a fun one for fall. It's so easy to experiment with your favorite fruits to make your own soda!

This recipe is part of our Better Than Store-Bought series, where we share homemade versions of our favorite store-bought snacks and meals. If you want a snack to pair with your orange soda, try our strawberry pop tarts or homemade Ritz peanut butter crackers!

Jump to:

• What You'll Need to Make this Recipe
• How to Make this Recipe
• Storage
• Lexi and Beth's Best Tips and Tricks
• More flavored syrups to try
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

What You'll Need to Make this Recipe

• Lemons and limes: Fresh citrus is mandatory for this recipe, as the syrup gets its flavor from fresh zest and freshly-squeezed juice.
• Granulated sugar: This is the main ingredient for the simple syrup. The lemon lime syrup itself is quite sweet, but to make the soda, you only use a small amount. If it's still too sweet, feel free to decrease the amount of sugar, or use a sugar substitute like monk fruit. If you don't use regular sugar, just keep in mind that the syrup probably won't last quite as long in the refrigerator.
• Sparkling water: Any brand will work! Topo Chico is super carbonated, so it's our top choice for homemade soda.

How to Make this Recipe

Using a microplane, zest roughly 4 limes and 3 lemons, then juice them. Set the juice aside.

To a medium-sized bowl, add the granulated sugar and lemon and lime zest zest. Use your fingers to massage the sugar into the zest, until there are no white streaks remaining in the sugar. (Quick note: the recipe photos here are for a double batch, so don't feel bad if your quantities look skimpier than what's pictured.)

To a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the zest and sugar mixture and the juice. Heat to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally until all of the sugar has dissolved, then turn off the heat and let the zest steep in the syrup for at least 20 minutes, ideally until fully cooled.

Once cooled, strain the syrup through a fine mesh sieve to remove the zest. Transfer the syrup to a mason jar or other storage container (we use this pump top bottle).

To make your Sprite, add anywhere from 2-4 tablespoons of syrup to an ice-filled glass and then top off with sparkling water. Stir gently and enjoy!

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.

Lexi and Beth's Best Tips and Tricks

• Massage the zest and sugar together thoroughly. This will help extract the oils that are inside of the zest, thus adding a lot of flavor to your syrup.
• If you have the time, let the syrup cool completely with the zest in it before straining. This is essentially like brewing a tea, and over time the liquid will become infused with the flavor of the zest. If you don't have the time, strain it right away and add an ice cube or two to cool down the syrup.
• 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.

More flavored syrups to try

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📖 Recipe