This homemade cherry limeade recipe is all natural--no day-glow maraschino cherries, no soda. Just fresh limes, cherries, sugar, and water. If you've never had real cherry limeade, you're in for a summertime treat!

Glass of pink Cherry Limeade in a tall glass, with a green and white striped paper straw, garnished with a slice of lime. The glass of limeade stands in front a pitcher of more cherry limeade, and fresh cherries and limes are scattered around the glass and pitcher. Text overlay on the image reads "All Natural Cherry Limeade."

My family loves my fresh-squeezed lemonade, and I make my limeade with the same recipe. But even though cherry limeade is a very popular flavor combination, I've never tried making it myself. I googled for recipes, and found a lot of things combining maraschino cherry juice and lemon-lime soda, but that really didn't appeal to me. I love homemade limeade, and the flavor of fresh cherries, so I set out to create my own recipe for all-natural cherry limeade.

Large pile of fresh cherries for sale at a farmer's market.

Cherries are in season and amazing where I live! I bought these delicious cherries from my twice-weekly local market. We live about a 5 minute walk away from this incredible resource.

How to Make Cherry Limeade

Freshly washed sweet cherries and limes piled on a white wooden surface.

Homemade Cherry Limeade Ingredients

1 part lime juice
1 part cherry simple syrup (details below)
2 parts water

I make my lemonade and limeade by ratio, rather than strict measurements, so you can make as small or as large a batch as you please. To fill my pitcher, for example, I used 1.5 cups of lime juice, 1.4 cups of cherry simple syrup, and two cups of water.

Halved and pitted cherries in a saucepan with water and sugar on the stovetop to make cherry simple syrup for cherry limeade.

How to Make Cherry Simple Syrup

The first step in making cherry limeade is to make a bright, flavorful, cherry simple syrup. I used sweet cherries for this recipe, but you could definitely use sour cherries, too.

Simply combine:

1 part sugar
1 part water
1 part pitted cherry halves

Pit and slice the cherries, then place in a saucepan with the sugar and water. bring the mixture to a simmer, and cook for five minutes. Use a potato masher or a spoon to gently mash the softened cherries a few times to help release the juices and flavor.

Pyrex measuring cup full of cherry simple syrup, with cherries in a fine mesh strainer resting behind the measuring cup.

Let the cherry simple syrup cool to room temperature, then strain the fruit from the deep red cherry syrup. Save those cherries, though! I'm going to teach you how to use them to make amazing Brandied Cherries Ice Cream Topping with them.

Limes being juiced with a Kitchenaid juicer attachment.

Juicing the Limes

You can use any kind of citrus juicer to make your limeade, but when I'm making limeade, I pull out my Kitchenaid Juicer attachment. It's brilliant for juicing a lot of citrus quickly. It took 12 limes for me to accumulate 1.5 cups of lime juice for the batch I made.

A pyrex measuring cup full of freshly squeezed lime juice, surrounded by whole limes and lime halves that have already been juiced, on a white wooden surface.

Strain the lime juice with a fine mesh strainer to catch any seeds or pulp.

Pitcher of from scratch Cherry Limeade surrounded by fresh limes and cherries, on a white wooden surface.

Combine the lime juice, cherry simple syrup, and water in a pitcher, and stir to combine. It really is that easy to make this absolutely AMAZING summer drink.

Tall crystal glass full of all-natural cherry limeade, garnished with a round slice of lime and a green and white striped paper straw. Fresh cherries and limes surround the glass of Cherry Limeade on a white wooden surface.

I'm not going to knock Sonic Cherry Limeade--it's iconic. But this homemade cherry limeade takes the flavor combination to the next level.

Printable Homemade Cherry Limeade Recipe

Want a one page, printable version of this all natural cherry limeade recipe? Click on the image below to print the PDF directly or save it to your device.

Other Farmer's Market Recipes from the Taste Creations Blog Hop:

Collage of Farmer's Market recipes, with text overlay reading "4 Fresh and Fantastic Farmer's Market Recipes."

Be sure to check out the other amazing farmer's market recipes from my blogger friends in the Taste Creations Blog Hop! Take advantage of all that amazing summer produce. Between us, we have salad, main course, a drink, and dessert!

Mom Home Guide: Farmer's Market Summer Salad

Our Good Life: Stuffed Zucchini