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Brazilian lemonade is a 4-ingredient drink that is tangy, creamy, and refreshing! It’s the perfect mix of tart and sweet and will have your family hooked after first sip.
When life gives you lemons… you try out some of my other tasty lemonade recipes! For some classic lemonade, try this Chick-fil-A copycat lemonade! And if you’re wanting something fruity, these watermelon and pineapple lemonade recipes are great choices too!
Homemade Brazilian Lemonade Recipe
Here is something that I don’t understand about this recipe. Although it’s called Brazilian lemonade, it’s made with limes. That makes no sense to me! What I do know is – this drink is one of the most refreshing, delicious things I have ever tried. When I first found this recipe, I loved how it had such simple ingredients. But my favorite ingredient by far is the sweetened condensed milk. It adds the best creaminess to the drink! Remember how I said I could totally drink that stuff? Well I was partially joking, partially not. It is just so good!
Not only are the ingredients simple, but Brazilian lemonade is super easy to make as well! It’s also great for making big batches of. It’s a potluck favorite! Just a few minutes is all it takes to blend the ingredients together and you have a perfect, refreshing, summer lemonade…. or limeade. I hope someday I will find the answer to this!
Ingredients for Brazilian Lemonade
It really doesn’t get any easier than this. These 4 ingredients combine for the most incredible tropical flavor! You’ll love it! Exact measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
- Fresh Limes: Despite the name, Brazilian lemonade is made with limes instead of lemons. Unlike traditional limeade recipes, however, the whole lime gets blended instead of juiced! Since this is the main flavor of the drink, you’ll want your limes to be as fresh as possible.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: This is what makes Brazilian lemonade stand out from the crowd! It adds the most amazing creaminess to the drink.
- Sugar: Sweetens the drink.
- Cold Water and Ice: Helps adjust the consistency of the drink and keep it cool!
How to Make Brazilian Lemonade at Home
This recipe is so simple because you use a blender to do all of the mixing! From there, just strain and serve!
- Add Ingredients to Blender: In a blender add the whole limes, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and water.
- Blend: Blend until smooth.
- Strain: Pour it into a vase using a strainer to remove the chunks of lime.
- Add Ice: Add in ice, and serve immediately.
Substitutes and Variations
The best part about making homemade drinks is you can customize them to your liking! Here are a few easy ways to switch yours up!
- Other Sweeteners: If you’re wanting to avoid refined sugars, try sweetening your Brazilian lemonade with honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar!
- Add Herbs: Adding fresh herbs not only makes your drink look picture-perfect, but it infuses extra flavor! Basil and mint are some of my favorites to add in!
- Make it Dairy-Free: Full-fat coconut milk is a great alternative to condensed milk! It has great flavor, too!
- Make it Boozy: For an adults-only version of this drink, try adding a splash of vodka or coconut rum.
Storing Leftovers
If you have leftovers of your Brazilian lemonade, transfer it to an airtight pitcher and store in the fridge for 3-4 days. The ingredients may separate as your drink sits, so give it a quick stir before you serve it.
More Refreshing Homemade Beverages
A delicious way to keep yourself cool this summer is to make yourself a homemade drink! These are a few more of my favorite recipes. They’re super delicious and easy to make!
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Brazilian Lemonade
Ingredients
- 3 fresh limes, quartered
- 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 cups cold water
- Ice
Instructions
- In a blender add the whole limes, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and water.
- Blend until smooth.
- Pour it into a vase using a strainer to remove the chunks of lime.
- Add in ice, and serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I lived in Brazil for 18 years, and I think that it is called “lemonade” because they only have one word for lemons and limes- limão.
That is awesome you lived there for 18 years! Thanks for letting me know! XOXO
Hi Alyssa.
The reason why it is called lemonade is bacause in portuguese both lime and lemon are under the same name which is limão and you can use both for this kind of drink that we call LIMONADA in Portuguese and when you translate that to English it comes up as lemonade. I personally prefer limes over lemons. I hope this helps☺️.
Maybe it should be called Limonade
Found this on Pinterest when looking for Brazilian recipes to make while watching the Olympics. So good! Its even better when you add coconut rum! 🙂
I just found this recipe and am going to have to make it for my friends coming over to watch the Rio Olympics…perfect! I’m excited for the Lime twist, and hopefully it will bring us good luck for gold.
First off, nothing against the author of the recipe. 🙂 I gave this 2 stars b/c I just made it and it is definitely not for my tastebuds! I love limeade so I was excited to make this. For me there was a very bitter taste that I couldn’t get rid off. I doubled the sugar, making it sweet + bitter. Maybe my friends will love it though. Maybe there are limes out there in the word not so bitter as mine?
Try for yourself. Thanks for sharing this recipe. 🙂
the reason for the bitter taste, if you read the paragraphs of the recipe, is overblending. just pulse a few times till the pulp of the limes/lemons are separated from the rind, but not till completely blended. i made this mistake my first try, and it was undrinkable. after i made it correctly, i’ve started to make it almost weekly as a treat.
ro you peel the limes before pulsing them?
Nope. You just put them in whole. 🙂
Hello! My name is Sabdra and I’m from Brazil. I’ll tell you why we call it lemonade. Because key lime here is called lemom, and the lemom is called Persian lime. That’s it. And I have a trick to share. Pell off your limes before pulse, and improve the taste, because the peel pulsed together made the lemonade become acid faster. And this “brazilian lemonade” here we named like “swiss lemonade” hahahaha. Best wishes! San.
Limes are called lemons in some other countries.
Hello. I am from Brazil. You need to try an other dessert with limes and sweetened condensed milk:
Pulse 30 seconds 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk + 1 cup of heavy cream + 1/2 cup of lime juice. 2 hours in refrigerator.
You can serve this mousse with a dark chocolate and soft cream sauce.
To answer your question, the Portuguese words for lemon and lime usually get translated incorrectly. They refer to lemons as limas and limes and limaos. So it should technically be limeade 🙂
I’m Brazilian. Let me explain your doubt: Here our lemons are what you call “limes”. It’s what we use fore lemonades, salad dressings, lemon pie, and YES caipirinhas. Your lemons (the yellow ones) are called sicilan lemons here, and are really hard to find and expensive. We use it only for expensive recipes.
Anyway. Our usual lemonade is just lemon (lime), sugar and water. If you squeeze the lemons it’s called lemonade, if you mix it al in the blender is suiss lemonade. But as much as we love condensed milk and use it in many desserts and some alcoholic drinks (batidinha) we do not use it to make lemonade. =)
This lemonade looks delicious! I use to make lemon pie, almost the same way. I am from Honduras, and let me tell you about limes and lemons. We have two very common species of lemons… the “limón indio” which has a yellow rind (your lemon), and “limón Persa” which has a green rind, (your lime). It took me a while to learn the difference when I was exposed to the American culture, because we called both of them “lemon”, so, it does not matter if it is made with lemons or limes, it will always be a “lemonade” for us. And, we also have a not very common specie, the “lima” which is… sweet!! All of them belong to the Citrus family. Hope this explanation helps to answer your question. Thanks for sharing your recipe!. If you want to make lemon pie, get cookies, like Maria cookies and set a layer of them on an oven dish. Refrigerate. Then, place in a blender, 1 can of evaporated milk, and 1 can of condensed milk. While they are blending, pour slowly 1/4 cup lemon juice just until the moment the liquids get thick. Then stop the blender rapidly. You have to get a delicious smooth and creamy mixture that you pour over the layer of cookies. To decorate use lemon rinds. Refrigerate and then enjoy!
Oops meant sounds delicious! Lol
I went to Tucanos (Brazilian Grill) and I loved their Lemonades. They have a bunch of different flavors and the top two favorites were Strawberry and Mango. Do I just use another fruit instead of the limes? Of do I do a 50/50 between the two? Thanks for your post!
Yum! That was perfect! Just exactly like the lemonade at Fogo De Chao! Thank you!