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What is Hard Lemonade?
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Hard lemonade is a form of alcopop, a flavored malt beverage with about the same alcoholic content as bottles of beer. Early forms of alcopop included wine coolers, which used wine instead of malt. In the late 1980s, though, brands like Zima® became popular. This led to the concept of creating lemonade that also had an alcoholic content. The first company to do so, and probably still the most recognizable by brand was Mike’s Hard Lemonade®, first produced in 1999.
Due to the slightly acidic taste of lemonade, adding malt flavor, and often some carbonation, doesn’t really affect the taste of the lemonade much. The drink tends to be favored by younger drinkers who don’t particularly like a strong alcohol taste. It has slightly more bite, and is slightly more sour than traditional lemonade, and of course, it does contain alcohol. There are some related alcopop versions that aren’t called hard lemonade, like Smirnoff Ice®.
There are certainly other fruit juices that have lent themselves to becoming alcoholic in nature. Apple cider for instance is in some cases always hard cider, though in the US it’s more common to find the soft cider version, which contains no alcohol. Lemonade could be added to a variety of mixed drinks, but wasn’t normally used to ferment alcohol, and create hard lemonade. Yet, with the popularity of commercial hard lemonade, there are now numerous online recipes devoted to the making of the drink, usually mixing lemonade concentrate, sugar and yeast, and fermenting the mixed ingredients from about five days to about three weeks, depending upon how strong you want the results.
As mentioned, most commercial forms of the lemonade are about equivalent to the same amount of beer, though a few obscure varieties may be higher in alcohol content. Since you are basically drinking one beer per one hard lemonade, you need to be certain you’re not overdrinking and that you’ve got designated drivers if you’re away from home. It’s also kind of easy to overdo it on sweet drinks that don’t taste particularly alcoholic. They can be easy to drink quickly, without giving much consideration as to how much alcohol you’ve consumed. In any situation where you’re consuming alcohol, sip slowly and vary drinking alcoholic beverages with plenty of nonalcoholic ones.
Tricia Christensen
Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent DelightedCooking contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.
Learn more...
Tricia Christensen
Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent DelightedCooking contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.
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![Hard lemonade has about the same alcoholic content as a bottle of beer.]()
By: PhotobankHard lemonade has about the same alcoholic content as a bottle of beer. -
![Hard lemonade is often bottled and contains alcohol.]()
By: KzenonHard lemonade is often bottled and contains alcohol. -
![Some younger drinkers prefer hard lemonade because its acidic flavor covers up much of the alcohol taste.]()
By: Andres RodriguezSome younger drinkers prefer hard lemonade because its acidic flavor covers up much of the alcohol taste. -
![Hard lemonade may be fermented for five days to three weeks, depending on the manufacturer.]()
By: Pavel LosevskyHard lemonade may be fermented for five days to three weeks, depending on the manufacturer. -
![Excessive consumption of alcohol, such as hard lemonade, may lead to high blood pressure.]()
By: DangubicExcessive consumption of alcohol, such as hard lemonade, may lead to high blood pressure.
Discussion Comments
@Grivusangel -- I'm not crazy about the hard stuff, either. Mike's hard lemonade is really good, but I liked the cranberry lemonade, too.
I'm glad other kinds of "adult beverages" are available. I don't like beer, am not really crazy about wine, and I'm not a huge fan of hard liquor, either. I like my drinks to taste like Kool-Aid with a kick, so this is good for me. Another drink I like is the Angry Orchard hard cider. My favorite cocktail is Malibu coconut rum and pineapple juice. It's very smooth and doesn't have that harsh alcohol undertone.
I don't drink a lot, either. I get terrible wine flush and it's kind of uncomfortable.
I'm not much of a drinker, and hard lemonade is one of the few alcoholic beverages I enjoy. I tend to like the drinks that have less of the alcohol "burn." I'm sensitive to it, which means a lot of alcoholic beverages taste a lot more like rubbing alcohol to me than they do to other people.
The Lynchburg Lemonade mixed drink was also a good version of hard lemonade. I think it combined Jack Daniel's, triple sec, sweet and sour and 7-Up. Again, it doesn't "burn" as much and I enjoyed that particular drink.
Seems like Jack Daniel's came out with their own line of malt beverages and had Lynchburg Lemonade as one of the flavors, but I haven't seen those in a long time.
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