Real Lemonade

Pour fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and soda water into an ice-filled glass and stir gently, then garnish with a lemon slice. This build skips shaking so the soda water keeps its fizz, and a pre-chilled glass keeps the ice from diluting it too fast.

Combine fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and soda water over ice and stir; that is the full build for this recipe. Using freshly squeezed lemon juice rather than a bottled substitute is what gives it a clean, bright flavor instead of a flat one.

This recipe is built on a ratio of two parts lemon juice to one part sugar syrup, lengthened with soda water. The lemon and syrup set the balance of tart and sweet, while the soda water adds the fizz and stretches it into a long drink.

Vodka, gin, and light rum pair well, since their neutral or dry character doesn't fight the lemon and sugar balance. This recipe itself is built with no alcohol, so a spirit would be an addition to the base build, not part of it.

The most common mistake is using bottled lemon juice, which lacks the fresh oils and brightness of a squeezed lemon and tastes flat. Over-diluting with too much ice, adding syrup without tasting first, and shaking instead of stirring (which flattens the soda water) are the other frequent errors.