A cold, refreshing strawberry lemonade is exactly the low carb summer cocktail you need in your life.
Fresh strawberry low sugar simple syrup, homemade low carb lemonade, and dark Cuban rum.
Just 3.2g net carbs!
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Seriously do it.
I’ll admit that cocktails are not something that I make or drink often. Ever since I have cut most carbs out of the equation, alcoholic beverages are just not something I reach for. Made me quite a cheap date though.
Although the variety is getting better, there really just aren’t that many appealing low carb alcoholic beverages I want to enjoy. There are few low carb beers available, but that gets old pretty quickly.
I do love me some vodka soda, but how many vodka sodas can one really drink!? (15 apparently) I think one of my biggest gripes is that most alcoholic mixed drinks are not that refreshing. I often find myself feeling more thirsty than when I started.
That is not the vibe in this low carb hard strawberry lemonade at all.
This low carb summer cocktail is fresh, bright, and refreshing. A perfect combination of sweet and tart flavours from the fresh strawberries and lemons. Then a beautiful smooth almost caramel flavour from the dark Cuban rum.
Let me tell you, if you have never had dark Cuban rum, you are missing out. I was introduced to dark rum one of our many trips to the beautiful country of Cuba and I will never go back. To regular rum that is, Cuba I will go back to in a heartbeat. Just look at that sunset
How To Make Low Carb Strawberry Lemonade Cocktail
There are 3 components that go into making this low carb mix drink:
- Low Carb Strawberry Simple Syrup
- Low Carb Homemade Lemonade
- Dark Rum (or your favourite Rum)
What Is Simple Syrup And How Do You Make It?
If you are not familiar with simple syrup, it is a sweet syrup made from a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water, and it is the backbone to many of those sweet and fruity cocktails one might enjoy poolside.
How to make simple syrup
It’s called simple syrup for a reason. It is dead simple to make. All you need to do is combine equal parts sugar and water over heat until the sugar dissolves. You can then transfer it to a glass container and store it in the fridge until you are ready to make some fancy summer cocktails.
How to Make Low Carb Strawberry Simple Syrup
You make a low carb simple syrup in almost the exact same way you would make a traditional simple syrup, just don’t use sugar, and you add strawberries.
For my low carb simple syrup, I used equal parts water and a monk fruit/erythritol sweetener, which is my personal favourite both in taste and how it makes me feel when I consume it.
Start by heating the water on the stove in a saucepan until it boils. Next, add in the sweetener and stir until all the sweetener is dissolved.
Add diced strawberries to your mixture and bring back to a boil for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally. Watch it carefully. You don’t want all your water to boil off because all you will be left with is a strawberry and monk fruit cement burnt to the bottom of your saucepan.
Remove from heat and transfer to a container through a mesh strainer to remove all strawberry chunks. You want a ruby red clear looking syrup.
Because we aren’t using actual sugar here, Some of the sweetener may recrystallize as your simple syrup cools. You can just give it a quick stir before you add it to your cocktails. It will redissolve in your finished cocktail anyways so don’t stress too much about it.
How To Make Homemade Low Carb Lemonade
Every recipe I looked up for homemade lemonade used like 10 full lemons and since I am not a Rockefeller who can just be buying lemons left, right, and center, I decided to come up with a low carb recipe that only uses 2 full lemons, or 1 full lemon and ¼ cup bottled lemon juice.
The trick to getting that strong lemon flavour with so few lemons is to literally use the full lemon.
Zest the lemons completely, with a microplane. If you don’t have a microplane you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the yellow zest, or some cheese graters have a microplane surface you can use.
Whatever you use, be careful to avoid getting too much of the bitter pith in there (the white part between the yellow skin and the juicy lemon meat).
Next, use a paring knife to remove the white pith and any of the white membrane from the lemon leaving only the juicy lemon meat inside. Run a knife over this until it is coarsely chopped.
Add the chopped lemon pieces and the zest to a saucepan with 20 oz of water and add 1/2 cups monk fruit/erythritol sweetener. Use a wooden spoon to mash up the lemon in the pot, breaking it apart while the mixture comes to a boil.
After 5 minutes of boiling, set aside to cool completely and then strain the lemonade through a mesh strainer to get rid of any large chunks of lemon.
You should now have a wonderfully tart yet slightly sweet low carb lemonade.
If you would like your low carb lemonade to be sweeter, simply increase the amount of low carb sweetener you add. Remember the rest of this drink is already sweet, so having a slightly tart lemonade is actually quite pleasant and refreshing.
How To Make Low Carb Strawberry Lemonade Summer Cocktail
Add 4-5 tablespoons of low carb strawberry simple syrup to a 10 ounce cocktail glass, along with an ounce or so of dark Cuban rum, fill the rest of the glass with the homemade lemonade and ice.
Garnish with fresh lemons or fresh cut strawberries.
You are now ready to enjoy this low carb cocktail poolside, beach front, lake side, wherever, just do it somewhat responsibly.
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Keto Strawberry Lemonade Summer Cocktail
IMPORTANT – There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Equipment
- Sauce Pan
- microplane/zester/box grater
- paring knife
- mesh strainer
- 10 oz cocktail glass
Ingredients
Low Carb Strawberry Simple Syrup
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup monk fruit/erythritol sweetener
- 1 cup strawberries diced
Low Carb Lemonade
- 2 full lemons zest, juice, and pulp
- 20 oz water
- ½ cup monkfruit/erythritol sweetener
Keto Strawberry Lemonade Cocktail
- 4 tablespoons strawberry simple syrup
- ½ cup lemonade
- 1 ½ oz dark rum
- ¼ cup fresh strawberries for garnish
Instructions
Low Carb Lemonade
- Zest the lemons completely, with a microplane (If you don’t have a microplane you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the yellow zest, or some cheese graters have a microplane surface you can use). Be careful to avoid getting too much of the bitter pith (the white part between the yellow skin and the juicy lemon meat) in the zest
- Next, use a paring knife to remove the white pith and any of the white membrane from the lemon leaving only the juicy lemon meat inside. Run a knife over this until it is coarsely chopped
- Add chopped lemon pieces and the zest to a saucepan with 20 oz of water and add sweetener. Use a wooden spoon to mash up the lemon in the pot, breaking it apart while you bring the mixture to a boil
- Boil for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Transfer to a glass container and set aside in the fridge until cooled. Once cooled strain mixture to remove large chucks of lemon. The more you strain the less pulp there will be
Low Carb Strawberry Simple Syrup
- Add water to a sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Add an equal amount of low carb sweetener and mix until dissolved
- Add diced strawberries to your mixture and bring back to a boil for 2-3 minutes watching to make sure you don't boil off all your water and burn the mixture
- Transfer to a glass jar through a mesh strainer to remove all the strawberry chucks leaving a beautiful ruby red syrup. Set aside in the fridge to cool until ready
Assemble Low Carb Strawberry Lemonade Summer Cocktail
- Add 4 tablespoons of low carb simple syrup, and a jigger (1-1 ½ oz) of your favourite rum to a with ice. Top off your summer cocktail with the homemade low carb lemonade (about ½ cup), and garnish with fresh cut strawberries
- Serve and enjoy your low carb summer beverage!
Notes
- The key to the strong lemon flavour with so few lemons is to use all the lemon except the bitter white pith and the seeds
- You could also use 1/2 cup of bottled lemon juice for this recipe
- This lemonade is closer to tart than sweet, so if you want a sweeter lemonade add more sweetener. Remember the rest of the drink is sweet too so the tart is nice!
- Because we aren’t using actual sugar here, Some of the sweetener may recrystallize as your simple syrup cools. You can just give it a quick stir before you add it to your cocktails. It will redissolve in your finished cocktail
- You can experiment with other low carb sweeteners but Monk fruit/Erythritol or Xylitol work best in my experience
- You can use any spirit you prefer for this cocktail but I highly recommend using dark Cuban rum like Havana Club
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated using the recipe calculator and verified database available from Cronometer. Although every reasonable effort is made to provide accurate information this estimate is provided as courteously and convenience only. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
Try the free recipe calculator at Cronometer
Enjoy!
Did you give this a try?
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