What exactly do Americans consider to be lemonade?

@butterfly1013 So it's lemon water with sugar in it. Follow-up question: do Americans tend to put sugar in everything?

@SW-User Dan, you wanna try drinking lemon juice and water mixed together? It's so sour it'll make your eyes pop out, and this is coming from someone who loves sour things.

@BlueMetalChick That's why you do a small lemon to like a litre of water.

@SW-User It's not supposed to taste like lemon water though, that's what they do at fancy restaurants. Lemonade is supposed to taste strongly like lemons, sour, but not ridiculously sour. Which is why sugar is added to prevent it from being overpowering.

@BlueMetalChick That's so confusing.

@SW-User It might help if I provide some images?

@BlueMetalChick Yes, good idea.

@SW-User Imagine other fruit juices, like orange juice or pineapple juice. Lemonade is the lemon equivalent of those.

I'm gonna call up some images from Google right now.

@SW-User This is lemon water. It's ice water with some slices of lemon soaking in it, to give it a slight hint of a lemony flavor while still mostly just tasting like water.


This is a lemonade. It has a MUCH higher concentration of lemon juice as opposed to water, meaning it tastes very strong like lemons. The reason sugar is added is because having this much lemon juice in the water would make it a little too bitter, so a small portion of sugar is added to eliminate that. It tastes strongly tart, like a combination of sour with some sweet.


And this is a Sprite, which is carbonated water that has had lemon and lime flavored syrups mixed into it. It is clear, and has bubbles.