Brazilian Limeade Recipe (Brazilian Lemonade)

brazilian lemonade in a glass with a pink straw

4.89 from 17 votes

Brazilian Limeade Recipe (Brazilian Lemonade)

This Brazilian Limeade Recipe (sometimes called Brazilian Lemonade, I’ll tell you why) is incredibly tasty! A refreshing drink made with whole limes blended up with ice water and sweetened condensed milk. It is frothy, tart, and sweet all at once! The perfect drink for a hot day.

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 252kcal

Author: The Food Charlatan

Equipment

blender

Ingredients

5 limes with thin, smooth rinds
2 cups ice water
scant 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk about 10 tablespoons
extra sliced limes to garnish
more ice for serving

Instructions

Choose limes that have a thin skin. They should be smooth and easier to squeeze than limes with a thick rind. You will be that weirdo squeezing all the limes at the grocery store. Embrace it.
Chop all 5 limes into small 1 inch chunks, see photos.
Add 2 cups ice water to a blender. You can leave in a few ice cubes if you want, 5-8 is fine. Not too many, you want to make sure you have enough liquid.
Add the chopped limes to the blender. Blend in pulses for no more than a total of 15 seconds. Do not over blend; your limeade will get bitter from the lime piths!
Set a strainer over a large glass measuring cup, or over a bowl with a spout.* Pour the mixture through the strainer. Use a rubber spatula or your hands to press the blended limes as much as possible to get out as much liquid as you can.
Pour the strained liquid back into the blender. Add a scant 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk to the blender. (This is 10 tablespoons, or you could measure it at 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons.)
Blend again until it is nice and frothy.
Serve immediately over a glass that is FULL of ice. It's very important to serve Brazilian Lemonade cold!
IMPORTANT! You must serve this drink IMMEDIATELY! Even waiting 20-30 minutes will not do. The longer it sits, the more bitter it will become. This is because there is lime pith (the white stuff in between the flesh of the lime and the rind) in the drink, and the bitterness of the pith takes over the sweetness the longer it sits. It's super tasty served right away; not overly bitter at all. See notes for a Make Ahead Brazilian limeade recipe.
This recipe makes about 3 cups. Don't save leftovers. Don't freeze leftovers. Live in the moment! CHUG CHUG CHUG!!!!

Notes

*At this point, you can certainly just strain the limeade right into a pitcher, add the sweetened condensed milk, stir and serve. But you will miss out on the signature frothy texture! I wouldn't skip it!

Make Ahead Brazilian Limeade

This recipe has same flavor, but we are not adding the pith to the blender, so it won't become bitter as it sits. A little more effort, but great for making ahead.

5 limes, zested and juiced
2 cups ice water
scant 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Zest 5 limes using a microplane grater. Juice the limes; I love to use my electric citrus juicer. Depending on how large your limes are, you should have about 2/3 cup juice.

Add the lime zest*, lime juice, water, and sweetened condensed milk to a blender. Blend until frothy. Serve over ice water. You can make this up to 24 hours ahead, just make sure you blend it again right before serving so that it's frothy. Store leftovers in the fridge.

*You don't have to use all of the zest if you don't want to. The more zest you add, the more tart it will be. But also, adding too much zest can make the bottom of your drink unpleasantly grainy. Use your best judgment!

Nutrition