What makes this easy is the lemonade concentrate.  Add water, pureed strawberries, and maybe some strawberry flavor and you’re done.  If you want it carbonated, add dry ice.

Carbonating your beverages is easy.  Just add one to two pounds dry ice for every gallon of beverages.  We’ll give the details (and important cautions) below.

Ingredients

One 12-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate to make 64 ounces
water per producer’s directions
about 2 cups trimmed strawberries to make about 1 cup puree
1/2 teaspoon strawberry flavor (optional)
dry ice (see cautions below and directions below for amounts)

Directions

  1. Mix the lemonade according to directions.
  2. Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Add the pureed strawberries to the lemonade.
  3. Serve cold.

To carbonate your lemonade

Important Precautions

Dry ice produces carbon dioxide that will carbonate your beverage.  It is very simple to do but some cautions are important:

  • Dry ice is extremely cold and will cause burns if it comes in contact with your skin.  Always wear gloves or oven mitts when handling dry ice.
  • Never allow children to be unattended around dry ice.
  • Never put dry ice in a tightly enclosed container.  Dry ice goes directly from a solid to gas.  In so doing it expands, will create pressure in a closed container, and may explode.  The container must be vented or fitted with a loose lid that will pop up under pressure.
  • Never use dry ice in a closed room with no ventilation.  The carbon dioxide can displace oxygen in the room.  If you experience shortness of breath, leave the room.

To carbonate your beverage, place one to two pounds dry ice for every one gallon of beverage directly into the liquid.  It is better if the dry ice is broken into several pieces.  (We use a meat hammer.)

Lightly cover your container with a lid or cover that can be easily pushed off be any pressure building in your vessel.  (We use an Igloo brand 5-gallon beverage container with a push on/off lid and push the lid only part way down.)

Allow the dry ice to dissolve to carbonate your beverage.

Tips

  • You may need to stir your beverage two or three times during carbonation.  Blocks of dry ice may freeze to the bottom of the container.
  • The beverage may freeze around a single block of dry ice and greatly slow carbonation.  It is better to have several smaller pieces of dry ice in the beverage.
  • Once carbonation is nearly complete and the dry ice dissolved, tightly close your container to retain carbonation.  If your container is nearly full and with a tight lid, your beverage will remain carbonated overnight.
  • You can add more dry ice to increase carbonation.
  • Carbonation may make your strawberry lemonade taste more lemony.  We have diluted the strawberry lemonade to reach the desired taste.
  • Lemon is a much stronger flavor than strawberry.  The added strawberry flavor helps balance the flavors.
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