Summer Drink Canning Recipes | Creative Canning
Stock the pantry with lemonade, limeade, and bottled sunshine
The first truly hot week of the year always sends me straight to the canning shelf. There is nothing like opening a jar of lemonade concentrate, stirring it into a pitcher of cold water, and having a frosty glass in hand before the kids even finish asking. When the garden is going full tilt, and the kitchen is already warm, the last thing I want is a complicated project. Canned drink concentrates are about as low-effort as canning gets, and they pay you back all summer long.
This is the week I start putting them up in earnest. A few jars of concentrate take up almost no shelf space, they are all water bath canning so there is no pressure canner to haul out, and one batch stretches into pitcher after pitcher. If you have never tried it, start with the big roundup of every flavor I have, then branch out into whatever fruit you have on hand. I am also bottling plain fruit juice and a couple of drink syrups while berries are cheap, because those turn into spritzers and homemade sodas later when fresh fruit is long gone.
That is the real appeal of canning your own drinks. You catch early summer at its ripest, lock it in a jar, and a bit of June planning saves you when the heat of August really sets in. Pull a jar off the shelf, add cold water or a splash of seltzer, and the work is already done.
Lemonade Concentrates
Start here. The roundup below links out to every flavor variation in one place, and the individual recipes follow.
16+ Lemonade Concentrate Canning Recipes – Every flavor I have put up, gathered in one place. Start here if you want to scan the full lineup before deciding what to make first.
Canning Lemonade & Concentrate – The original, tart and bracing with just enough sugar to take the edge off. It is the recipe the rest of these build on, and the one to make if you make only one.
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate – Ripe strawberry rounds off the lemon’s sharp side. This is the flavor my kids ask for first when the weather turns warm.
Watermelon Lemonade Concentrate – Mild and melony, easy to drink by the glassful on a hot afternoon. Gentle enough that nobody at a cookout finds it too sour.
Blueberry Lemonade Concentrate – Jammy blueberry behind the lemon, with plenty of body once it is mixed. Holds its own poured over a tall glass of ice.
Blackberry Lemonade Concentrate – A darker, wilder berry behind the lemon. Fresh on the site this week, and one of the best uses for a heavy blackberry pick.
Rhubarb Lemonade Concentrate – Tart on tart, with rhubarb adding a tangy bite to the lemon. The best way I know to clear out the last of the rhubarb.
Plum Lemonade Concentrate – A softer, almost floral fruitiness from fully ripe plums. Worth keeping in mind for late summer when the plum tree comes in.
Limeade Concentrates
Canning Limeade & Concentrate – Sharper and more bracing than lemonade, with that distinct lime snap. Worth making if you find lemonade a touch too mellow.
Cherry Limeade Concentrate – Lime with sweet cherry folded in, the old drive-in soda flavor in canning form. A reliable hit at a cookout.
Fruit Juices to Bottle
These keep on the shelf and drink straight, or get splashed into seltzer for an easy spritzer.
Canning Berry Juice – A mix of whatever berries you have, pressed and bottled. Drinks fine straight, but it is best stirred into seltzer.
Canning Strawberry Juice – Pure pressed strawberry, sweet enough to sip as is. Add a splash to plain lemonade to make strawberry lemonade on the fly.
Canning Blueberry Juice – Mild and lightly sweet, good over ice or in a morning smoothie. It also makes a quick base for blueberry soda.
Blackberry Juice – Deeper and more tart than blueberry, with that wild blackberry edge. Cut it with seltzer, or use it to color and flavor a pitcher of lemonade.
Rhubarb Juice Concentrate – Concentrated and sharply tart, so you dilute it to taste. A little goes a long way in a glass of cold water.
Drink Syrups for Sodas and Spritzers
A spoonful of syrup turns plain seltzer into homemade soda, and they double over pancakes and ice cream too.
Strawberry Syrup – Thick and sweet, made for stirring into seltzer for strawberry soda. Just as good poured over pancakes or waffles.
Blueberry Syrup – A spoonful turns plain fizzy water into blueberry soda. Keep a jar for breakfast too, since it does double duty over pancakes.
Raspberry Syrup – Tart and intensely fruity, the classic base for an Italian soda. A splash also wakes up a plain glass of lemonade.
Nectarine Syrup – Close to peach but a touch lighter and brighter. A good choice for a spritzer when you want something softer than berry.
Peach Syrup – Mellow and honey-sweet from ripe summer peaches. Stir into seltzer, or pour over pancakes and oatmeal.
Rhubarb Syrup – Tangy and a little sharp, which keeps it from getting cloying. Try it in a spritzer or drizzled over vanilla ice cream.
Blackberry Syrup – Dark and rich, new on the site this week. Mix it into seltzer for blackberry soda, or spoon it over biscuits and ice cream.
Concentrates, juices, and syrups are all high-acid or acidified and safe for water bath canning, so this is a great week to get a few jars on the shelf before the real summer rush hits. Put up a couple of flavors now, and you will be reaching for cold drinks straight from the pantry all season.
What are you canning and drinking this week? If there is a flavor you are hoping to put up but do not see here, leave me a note in the comments, and I will point you in the right direction.
Or if you would rather, send me a note by email. My Substack replies have a way of getting filtered off into spam folders, so I set up a dedicated address where your messages will actually reach me. You can write me anytime at ashley@creativecanning.com.
And a quick word about inboxes (don’t worry, I am not going anywhere). These monthly letters will keep landing in your Substack inbox just as they always have. But Substack is, when it comes right down to it, a social media platform, and platforms are fickle. Terms shift, algorithms change, and some mornings the whole landscape looks different than it did the night before. So I am quietly building a second home for these letters over on my own list, just to be sure my words can always reach you, and your replies can always reach me, no matter what tomorrow looks like here.
The tech side is a little fiddly, but I am putting on my big girl pants and working through it piece by piece. If you want to be on the list as I get it sorted, go here to sign up. Either way, you will have me in your inbox no matter where I am writing from.
Happy Canning!
-Ashley at Creative Canning
Thank you for all the great recipes and different combinations of drinks. I’ve been canning a long time and have only done tomato juice. I guess I never thought I could can my own drink. I’ve done syrups etc I’ll be trying these recipes for sure
Where oh where are you getting the beautiful - and very different - canning jars and bottle?
This is the first year I have even thought to can a drink concentrate. I will definitely be putting strawberries into service!!
Thanks for all the inspirations!