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Cherry limeade concentrate puts a fresh summer drink on the pantry shelf, ready the moment you have company or just want something cold and cherry-sweet over ice. Cherries pair beautifully with lime, and a single jar turns into a whole pitcher of cherry limeade whenever you want one.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Quick Look at the Recipe
- Cherry Limeade Concentrate Ingredients
- Adjust the Ratio to Your Taste
- Yield Notes
- How to Make Cherry Limeade Concentrate
- Canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate
- Waterbath Canning Altitude Adjustments
- Serving Ideas
- Cherry Limeade FAQs
- Cherry Canning Recipes
- Canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate Recipe
- Drink Canning Recipes
This recipe has been reviewed for safety and accuracy by a Master Food Preserver certified through the University of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
While you can only eat so much jam in a year, I find I crave cool drinks all summer, and a good cherry picking gives me more than enough to work with. Alongside the usual cherry canning recipes like black cherry jam, cherry jelly, and cherry pie filling, this concentrate is a way to put up a drink instead of one more sweet spread.
This homemade cherry limeade concentrate is something different from all of those, and it’s a good way to turn a big haul of cherries into something cold you’ll reach for on a hot afternoon all year long.
This recipe is based on a tested canning method for fruit purees from the NCHFP, and it’s one of more than a dozen lemonade concentrate canning recipes I’ve built on those guidelines, from strawberry lemonade concentrate to plain canning lemonade and canning limeade.
Cherry limeade works like the other puree versions. Instead of straining the fruit down to a clear juice, you puree the pitted cherries, which keeps the process quicker and gives the finished drink more body and cherry flavor than cherry juice alone.
Notes from My Kitchen
Canned lemonade and limeade were a real game changer for me. I can take a jar from the pantry and move it to the refrigerator before I head out to work in the garden, and by the time I come in mid-afternoon, it’s cold and ready to pour.
I make a batch of cherry limeade concentrate every summer when the cherries come in, and I like the lime level right where it is. A single pint makes a half gallon of prepared limeade, so a few jars on the shelf carry us through a lot of hot afternoons.
It’s a lovely lime canning recipe, but you can also make it as a lemon canning recipe by using lemon juice in place of the lime for cherry lemonade concentrate.
Quick Look at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate
- Recipe Type: Fruit Drink Concentrate
- Canning Method: Waterbath Canning
- Prep/Cook Time: About 30 minutes
- Canning Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: About 5 pints
- Jar Sizes: Half Pint, Pint or Quart
- Headspace: 1/4 inch
- Ingredients Overview: Cherries, lime juice and sugar
- Safe Canning Recipe Source: Fruit puree canning times consistent with National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance
- Difficulty: Easy! The cherries are pitted and pureed, everything is heated together, and then it is ladled into jars for processing
- Similar Recipes: The process is similar to other fruit based lemonade concentrates, including Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate and Blueberry Lemonade Concentrate, and you can put up the plain versions with Canning Lemonade and Canning Limeade.
Cherry Limeade Concentrate Ingredients
This recipe uses just a few ingredients, but each one matters. The cherries bring sweetness, color, and body, the lime juice provides both flavor and the acidity needed for a bright limeade base, and the sugar balances the tartness while helping create a stable concentrate.
- Cherries: Provide the main fruit flavor, color, and natural body of the concentrate. Sweet cherries like black cherries make a rounder, sweeter puree, while tart cherries give more pucker, so use whichever you like
- Lime Juice: Adds tart limeade flavor and acidity
- Sugar: Sweetens the concentrate and balances the sharp lime flavor
You can use fresh or bottled lime juice here. Fresh, strained well, gives the fullest flavor, while bottled is convenient and has a steady acidity. If you are juicing fresh, the variety makes a small difference. Persian limes, the kind you usually find at the grocery store, are juicy and tart and often seedless, while Key limes are smaller, more floral, and a little less acidic. Either one works.
Adjust the Ratio to Your Taste
Both the cherries and the lime juice are safe to can on their own, so the exact ratio is up to you. Lean toward more cherry for a fruitier drink or more lime for a sharper one, and raise or lower the sugar however you like, all without affecting whether the concentrate is safe to can.
The sugar is there for flavor and body, not preservation, so cutting it back changes only the taste and yield. The same goes for straining: leave the puree in for more cherry flavor, or strain it down to juice for a smoother, lighter drink.
Yield Notes
A “batch” of limeade concentrate uses:
- 6 cups pitted cherries, pureed down into about 3 to 4 cups
- 4 cups lime juice (fresh or bottled)
- 6 cups sugar
That should make a canner batch of about 5 pints. (See notes on yields)
How to Make Cherry Limeade Concentrate
Once your ingredients are ready, the process is quick.
Juice and Strain the Limes
Start by juicing the limes, then strain the juice well to remove seeds and pulp. The cherry puree belongs in the finished concentrate, but lime pulp can turn it bitter, so strain that out before combining everything.
Prepare the Cherries
Pit the cherries, then puree them until smooth in a food processor or blender. If you would rather skip pitting, you can extract cherry juice the way you would for cherry jelly and use that in place of the puree. The cherry flavor will not be as strong that way, but it still works, and since straining the puree down to juice is a quality choice rather than a safety one, you can leave it in for more body if you prefer.
Heat the Concentrate
Combine the cherry puree, strained lime juice, and sugar in a saucepan. Heat the mixture gently, stirring often, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture reaches a hot, nearly simmering stage, around 190 degrees F. Do not boil it. You want it hot and well mixed, but not cooked hard.
Canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate
Since there’s cherry puree in this recipe, the canning time is a bit longer than when you’re canning plain limeade.
Prepare a water bath canner, jars, lids, and rings before you begin filling jars. Keep the jars hot until needed.
Ladle the hot concentrate into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, adjust the lids, and load the jars into the canner. Process the jars for 15 minutes (half pints, pints, and quarts are all the same), adjusting for altitude.
When the processing time is complete, turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes before removing them. Set them on a towel to cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. After cooling, check seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator. Properly sealed jars can be stored in the pantry, and you should refrigerate after opening.
This recipe follows the canning times for “fruit purees” as set out by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Their times for all three jar sizes are the same. Do not can this in half gallon jars, the largest size jar allowable is quart.
(This exact same recipe could also be frozen in freezer-safe jars with appropriate 1” headspace.)
Waterbath Canning Altitude Adjustments
The altitude adjustments for water bath canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate are as follows:
- For Under 1,000 Feet in Elevation – 15 minutes for half pints, pints, and quarts
- For 1,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation – 20 minutes for half pints, pints, and quarts
- Above 6,000 Feet in Elevation – 25 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
To reconstitute, mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts water. For a 1 pint jar, you’d add 3 pints of water. For simplicity, you can just add a pint to a half-gallon mason jar, which holds 4 pints, and then fill it up the rest of the way with cold water.
That gives you a basic cherry limeade that’s strong but not too strong, and you can adjust to your own tastes. It’s also good reconstituted with lemon-lime soda or tonic water for a fizzy version, poured over plenty of ice on a hot day, or frozen into cherry lime slushies or stir it into cherry limeade sweet tea.
Cherry Limeade FAQs
A pint jar (2 cups) of cherry limeade concentrate makes about 1/2 gallon (8 cups) of prepared limeade. Mix 1 part concentrate with 3 parts water, then adjust to taste. That’s 2 cups concentrate with 6 cups water.
No, this recipe uses cherry puree rather than strained juice, which gives the finished concentrate more cherry flavor and makes the process faster. If you prefer to remove the skins and seeds, it’s perfectly fine to strain the puree down to juice instead, but your finished yield will be lower and it won’t have quite as much cherry flavor.
Both fresh and bottled lime juice work here. Fresh, strained well, gives the fullest flavor. If you choose bottled juice, make sure it is plain lime juice with no added ingredients that would affect flavor.
If you’re looking for other ways to put up a cherry harvest, Canning Cherry Pie Filling is another good option, or try Black Cherry Jam if you’d rather have something to spread.
Cherry Canning Recipes
If you tried this Cherry Limeade Concentrate recipe, or any other recipe on Creative Canning, leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know what you think in the 📝 comments below!
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Canning Cherry Limeade Concentrate
Equipment
- Blender or immersion blender
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
- 6 cups pitted cherries, pureed
- 4 cups lime juice, fresh or bottled
- 6 cups granulated sugar
Instructions
- Prepare a water bath canner, jars, rings and lids before beginning. The canner should be pre-heated to around 180 degrees F (barely simmering) for hot pack.
- Juice the limes and strain to remove any pulp and seeds.
- Pit and puree the cherries. (You can use cherry juice in place of the puree if you’d rather not pit; the cherry flavor will be lighter.)
- Mix the cherry puree, strained lime juice, and sugar in a saucepan.
- Gently heat the mixture on the stove to around 190 degrees F, but do not boil.
- Ladle the concentrate into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal with 2 part canning lids.
- Process the jars in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, adjusting to the altitude (see notes).
- Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the canner for an additional 5 minutes to cool slightly before removing them with a canning jar lifter to cool completely on a towel on the counter.
- Wait 12 to 24 hours, then check seals. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use. Properly canned and sealed jars may be stored in the pantry. 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 cherries? These other drink canning recipes are worth a look.
Drink Canning Recipes
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Can you use whole frozen cherries -thawed?
Yes, frozen cherries will work just fine. Enjoy!
Is this recipe for dark cherries or tart cherries? I have a ton of frozen tart cherries but I’m not sure how much sugar to use if this recipe is for dark cherries. Since the recipe is a concentrate, I don’t think I can tell by taste? Thanks so much.
This recipe can be made with either, and I’ve made it with both. With black cherries, it’s very sweet and I dilute it more when I make it. With tart cherries, the tart cherries balance the sweet. I think it’s good both ways.
Can skip the straining process, I don’t mind the pulp. Straining the pulp seems like too much work.
Yup, that’s perfectly fine.
Straining the fruit is optional in this recipe. This particular lemonade concentrate follows the same canning guidelines as for fruit puree’s. That means that you can simply can straight cherry puree using these guidelines (even without the lime juice). Feel free to lower the lime juice if you’d like it to be a bit less lime-y (though I love it as is), and you can either strain the mixture or leave it chunky. Just make sure you pit the cherries and puree them if you’re not straining the mixture.
Can I make this recipe sugar free ?
Yes. The sugar is in there for flavor, not preservation. You can process just the cherry and lime together without an issue. Without the sugar, your yield will be lower, obviously, but you can preserve it just fine. Enjoy!
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
Can I use frozen pitted cherries?
Yup! That’ll work wonderfully. Enjoy!
Can I use bottled lime juice?
Yup! Bottled lime juice works fine safety-wise, but fresh just tends to taste a bit better in the finished product. Either way, it’s fine for canning.
This recipe looks amazing but can you explain if it is tested by a trusted agency or how do you know it’s safe? I’m newish and have only been using from recommended sites as the local extension advised but something like this looks great