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Canning limeade is a simple way to keep fresh limeade on the pantry shelf, cold and ready whenever you come in from the heat. Keep a jar or two in the refrigerator, and you have a sharp, cooling drink waiting the moment you want one.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Quick Look at the Recipe
- Limeade Ingredients
- Adjust the Ratio to Your Taste
- Yield Notes
- How to Make Limeade for Canning
- Canning Limeade
- Waterbath Canning Altitude Adjustments
- Serving Ideas
- Limeade Canning FAQs
- Lime Canning Recipes
- Canning Limeade (& Limeade Concentrate) Recipe
- Drink Canning Recipes
I love lemonade all summer, but my husband is all about lime, so I put up about as many cases of limeade as I do canning lemonade every year just to keep things fair. It sits with the rest of my lime canning recipes on the shelf, and it disappears just as fast.
Limes are about as acidic as lemons, so fresh lime juice is all you need to make this safe to can, no bottled juice required. Lemon juice runs a pH of roughly 2 to 2.6, and lime juice around 2 to 2.35, with key limes a touch higher, so anywhere you would use lemon juice for acidity in canning, lime juice does the same job.
The lime here is doing double duty, carrying the flavor and providing the acid that lets it go in the jar.
You can put this up two ways: ready-made limeade that pours straight from the jar, or limeade concentrate that you dilute with water when you are ready to drink it. The concentrate is the more compact option, and it belongs to the wider family of lemonade and limeade concentrate canning recipes on the site, including fruit versions like cherry limeade concentrate.
This is the plain, no-fruit version those build on. There is no puree to strain and nothing but lime and sugar going into the jar, so the canning is quick and the process is the same whether you fill your jars with finished limeade or with concentrate. The only difference between the two is when you add the water, before canning or after.
Notes from My Kitchen
I started putting up limeade mostly for my husband, but once I was making it at home with fresh citrus instead of the store-bought stuff, I came around to it myself. Now I put up nearly twice as much as I planned to. When I can find good key limes I will use those, and when I cannot, a bottle of real key lime juice gets me the same flavor without juicing a mountain of tiny limes.
The concentrate is what I reach for when shelf space is tight. A single half-pint jar makes about two pints of fresh limeade once you stir it into cold water, so it stores a lot of drinks in a small jar. Either way, it pours into a glass in seconds, which is the whole point of putting it up.
This is a lime canning recipe, but you can make the same thing with lemons for lemonade. Just swap lemon juice in for the lime, the way you would for any other lemon canning recipe, and follow the steps for canning lemonade.
Quick Look at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Canning Limeade (and Limeade Concentrate)
- Recipe Type: Limeade and Concentrate
- Canning Method: Waterbath Canning
- Prep/Cook Time: About 30 minutes
- Canning Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: Varies with batch size. See Yield Notes
- Jar Sizes: Half Pint, Pint or Quart
- Headspace: 1/4 inch
- Ingredients Overview: Fresh lime juice and sugar (plus water for ready-made limeade)
- Safe Canning Recipe Source: Canning times consistent with National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance for acidified fruit drinks
- Difficulty: Easy! The limes are juiced and strained, the sugar is stirred in and warmed through, and then it is ladled into jars for processing
- Similar Recipes: The process is similar to the fruit-based concentrates, including Cherry Limeade Concentrate and Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate, and you can put up the lemon version with Canning Lemonade.
Limeade Ingredients
This recipe comes down to two ingredients, three if you count the water for ready-made limeade, and each one is doing a job. The lime juice carries the flavor and the acidity, the sugar balances the tartness, and the water (for the ready-made version) brings it to drinking strength.
- Lime Juice: The flavor and the acid. Fresh juice gives the fullest lime flavor, and it is also what makes the recipe safe to can.
- Sugar: Sweetens the limeade and balances the sharp lime. It is there for flavor, not preservation, and lime takes well to a lighter hand with it.
- Water: Only for ready-made limeade. Skip it entirely if you are canning concentrate.
Fresh lime juice is the better choice here, and it is acidic enough that you do not need bottled. Persian limes are the large, juicy ones in most grocery stores and a good pick for the volume of juice you need.
Key limes work too, with a more distinct flavor, but they are small and stingy with juice, so unless you want to juice a lot of them, a bottle of real key lime juice like Floribbean key lime juice gets you the same flavor with less work.
Adjust the Ratio to Your Taste
Limeade is personal, so treat the sugar as yours to move. It is not needed for preservation, so increase it, cut it back (lime fans often like it sharper), or swap in honey or maple syrup to suit your taste.
The lime juice is different. It is the acid that makes this safe to can, so do not reduce it below 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice per pint jar (2 tablespoons per half pint, or 1/2 cup per quart). You can always add more lime for a tarter drink, but that minimum is a safety floor, not a suggestion.
Everything that goes into the jar needs to be strained to a clear liquid before canning. The lime pulp can turn bitter during processing, and seeds and zest have no place in the jar, so dissolve the sugar into the strained juice and run it through a fine mesh sieve so nothing solid goes in.
Yield Notes
This is a ratio recipe, so scale it to however many limes you have, keeping the lime juice and sugar in equal parts. A base batch of concentrate uses:
- 1 cup fresh lime juice (from about 8 limes)
- 1 cup sugar
One cup of each makes about 1 1/2 cups of concentrate. Scale it up in equal parts as your limes allow: 2 cups of each makes about 3 cups of concentrate (enough for a pint jar and a half pint), and 4 cups of each makes about 6 cups, around 3 pints. At 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water, that 1 1/2 cups of concentrate reconstitutes into about 3 pints of limeade.
For ready-made limeade, use the same equal parts of lime juice and sugar, then add 6 cups of water per cup of lime juice. One cup of each plus 6 cups of water fills about 4 pints. That makes a slightly lighter limeade than reconstituting the concentrate at 1 to 3, so mix it to the strength you like.
How to Make Limeade for Canning
Once the limes are juiced, the rest moves quickly. The same steps make both the concentrate and the ready-made limeade, and the only thing that changes between them is whether you stir in water before the jars go into the canner.
Juice and Strain the Limes
Juice the limes, then run the juice through a fine mesh sieve to take out the seeds and pulp. The pulp can make home-canned limeade bitter over time, so strain it well before you measure. Once it is strained, measure the juice so you know how much sugar to add.
Infuse the Sugar with Lime Zest (Optional)
For a deeper lime flavor without extra tartness, zest a few organic limes into the sugar before you start, stir, and let it sit for an hour or two. Lime zest holds a lot of aromatic oil, and the sugar pulls that flavor right in. You do need to strain the zest back out before canning, and the simplest way is to dissolve the infused sugar into the lime juice, then strain the whole mixture so no solids go into the jars.
Heat the Limeade
Strain the sugar and lime juice together into a saucepan (adding the water now if you are making ready-made limeade), and warm it gently, stirring often, until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture reaches around 190 degrees F. Keep it at a bare simmer and do not let it boil. Boiling sets the natural pectin in the lime juice, which can cause cloudy clumping in the jars. It is still safe to drink if that happens, it just looks odd, so hot but not boiling is what you are after.
Canning Limeade
Whether you are canning finished limeade or concentrate, the instructions and the process times are the same. As a reminder before you fill jars, do not use less than 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice per pint, or 1/2 cup per quart, so the mixture stays acidic enough to can safely.
Prepare a water bath canner, jars, lids, and rings before you begin. The canner should be preheated for a hot pack and simmering at around 180 to 190 degrees F when the jars go in. Limeade and concentrate can both be canned in half pints, pints, or quarts.
Ladle the hot (but not boiling) limeade into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, seal with two-part canning lids to fingertip tight, and load the jars into the canner. Process half pints, pints, and quarts for 10 minutes below 1,000 feet in elevation, adjusting for altitude as below.
When the time is up, turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes before lifting them out. Set them on a towel to cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours, then check the seals. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator, keep the sealed jars in the pantry, and refrigerate after opening.
(This same recipe can also be frozen in freezer-safe jars with 1 inch of headspace.)
Waterbath Canning Altitude Adjustments
The altitude adjustments for water bath canning Limeade are as follows:
- For Under 1,000 Feet in Elevation – 10 minutes for half pints, pints, and quarts
- For 1,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation – 15 minutes for half pints, pints, and quarts
- Above 6,000 Feet in Elevation – 20 minutes for half pints, pints, and quarts
Once the jars are sealed and shelf-stable, all that is left is turning the concentrate back into limeade.
Serving Ideas
If you canned ready-made limeade, just chill a jar and pour it over ice. For concentrate, mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts cold water. The simplest way is to pour a pint of concentrate into a half gallon mason jar, which holds 4 pints, and fill it the rest of the way with cold water, then serve over ice. A half-pint jar makes about 2 pints, and you can mix it stronger or weaker to taste.
From there it is a base to play with. Top it with ginger ale or seltzer for a sparkling version, blend it into slushies for the kids, or stir it into cocktails and frozen mojitos for the grown-ups. A spoonful also brightens up a key lime pie, and a jar of concentrate makes a nice small gift from the pantry.
Limeade Canning FAQs
A half pint (1 cup) jar of concentrate makes about 2 pints of finished limeade, and a full pint jar makes a half gallon. Mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts cold water, then adjust to taste. The simplest way is to pour a pint into a half gallon mason jar and top it off with cold water.
Yes. The process and the canning times are exactly the same. For ready-made limeade you add about 6 cups of water per cup of lime juice before canning, so it pours straight from the jar. It uses more jars and shelf space than concentrate, but it is ready to drink with no mixing.
You can, but fresh is better here. This recipe is written so the mixture is acidic enough to can with fresh lime juice, and fresh tastes far cleaner. One good exception is key limes, which are small and hard to juice in quantity, so a quality bottled key lime juice is worth using for that flavor. Either way, use plain lime juice with nothing else added.
This plain recipe is the starting point for a shelf of fruit limeades. Many canning recipes add fruit juice, like cherry limeade concentrate, and any high-acid juice that is safe to can on its own can go in the same way, while low-acid juices like watermelon cannot. If you have limes to spare beyond limeade, lime marmalade is another good way to put them up, and there are more in the full set of lime canning recipes.
Lime Canning Recipes
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Canning Limeade (& Limeade Concentrate)
Equipment
- Fine Grater or Microplane
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
For Limeade Concentrate
- 1 cup lime juice
- 1 cup granulated sugar
For Ready-Made Limeade
- 1 cup lime juice
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Prepare a water bath canner, jars, and lids before beginning.
- Optional: zest the limes into the sugar, stir, and let sit about an hour for deeper lime flavor. The zest must be strained back out before canning, so dissolve the infused sugar into the lime juice and strain the mixture before filling jars. Use organic limes if using the zest.
- Juice the limes. Strain the juice through a fine mesh sieve to remove all pulp and seeds, then measure.
- Combine the strained lime juice and sugar in equal parts. For ready-made limeade, add the water now as well.
- Warm the mixture gently on the stove, stirring until the sugar dissolves, until it reaches about 190 degrees F. Do not boil.
- Strain again if needed so the mixture is a clear liquid with no solids, then ladle the hot (but not boiling) limeade into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal with two-part lids to fingertip tight.
- Process half pints, pints, and quarts for 10 minutes below 1,000 feet in elevation, adjusting for altitude (see notes).
- Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the canner 5 minutes, then remove and cool on a towel for 12 to 24 hours.
- Check seals. Refrigerate any unsealed jars for immediate use. Store sealed jars in the pantry and refrigerate after opening.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looking to put up more than just limeade? These other drink canning recipes are worth a look.
Drink Canning Recipes
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This is the first thing I water bath canned. Thank you for the thorough instructions. I have tons of limes from our tree and I was looking for more ideas other than freezing all of the lime juice. The limeade concentrate I made doesn’t freeze completely solid, so I will stick with canning it now.
Lovely, so glad you enjoyed it!
Perfect recipe!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Having a hard time finding a recipe for canning just lime juice, Is it safe to water bath can alone?
Yes, it’s perfectly fine to water bath can alone. Use the same instructions.
Used the concentrate with homemade blueberry syrup. Good will be making more.
Wonderful! Glad you enjoyed it.
Can I make the concentrate if I leave out all sugar or sugar substitute?
Yes. The concentrate without sugar would be just canned lime juice, and that’s totally fine.