Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade
Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade is 25ml of elderflower cordial and 25ml of fresh lemon juice over ice in a highball, topped with 150ml of sparkling water, stirred gently and finished with a lemon wheel. It contains no alcohol: cordial is a sugar syrup flavoured with the flowers, so there are no units to count. With three ingredients, each one shows. The cordial brings the flower and the sweetness, the lemon keeps it sharp, and the sparkling water gives it length. Elderflower blooms in British hedgerows in early summer, usually from late May into June, and cordial is how the flavour lasts the rest of the year. The cordial and lemon can be mixed ahead; the water goes in at the last moment.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Lemon wheel on the rim or dropped into the glass, Mint sprig slapped once and planted in the ice (optional) and In season, a few fresh elderflowers stand in for the mint
Ingredients
25ml
A cordial made from real elderflowers, with no artificial flavourings; against fresh lemon a chemical note stands out. Cordials differ in strength and sugar, so taste one glass and adjust before making more.
25ml
Squeezed the same day. Bottled juice turns dull quickly, and in a drink with no spirit nothing hides it.
150ml
Cold, from a freshly opened bottle, and added last. It gives the drink its length and lift; poured early, the bubbles are gone before anyone drinks it.
Instructions
Squeeze the lemon juice the same day, ideally just before you build.
Fill a highball glass with ice.
Add the elderflower cordial and lemon juice.
Top with sparkling water and stir gently.
Garnish with a lemon wheel, and a slapped mint sprig if you have one.
Expert Tip
Juice the lemon on the day, as close to serving as you can. There is no spirit here to cover for bottled juice, and the cordial’s sweetness needs a sharp, fresh acid against it. Pack the glass with ice. With only a few cubes, the drink warms faster and the ice melts sooner, so the drink thins out; a full glass stays cold and holds its balance to the last mouthful. For a table, mix the cordial and lemon in equal parts ahead and keep the jug in the fridge. Add the sparkling water to each glass as you serve it, never to the jug, and taste the first glass: cordials differ in strength, and the lemon may need nudging up or down.
Behind the Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade
Flavour Profile
The Season in a Bottle
Elderflower blooms in British hedgerows for a few weeks in early summer, usually from late May into June. Cordial is how that season is kept: the flower heads steeped with sugar and lemon, strained and bottled for the months after.
Commercial cordials made the flavour available all year. Cordial is a syrup, not a liqueur, so it carries the elderflower without alcohol.
Three Ingredients, Three Jobs
The cordial brings the flower and all of the sugar. The lemon keeps it from tasting like squash. The sparkling water brings length and bubbles, and dilutes the base to drinking strength.
Equal measures of cordial and lemon is the balance: sweet and sharp level, with the elderflower on top. A sweeter cordial needs a little more lemon; a sharper one, a little less.
Scaling Up
The base keeps for a couple of days in the fridge; the fizz does not keep at all. Mix cordial and lemon in a jug, and top each glass with sparkling water as it is served.
Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade for a table
One
- Elderflower cordial
- 25ml
- Fresh lemon juice
- 25ml
- Sparkling water
- 150ml
Six
- Elderflower cordial
- 150ml
- Fresh lemon juice
- 150ml
- Sparkling water
- 900ml
Twelve
- Elderflower cordial
- 300ml
- Fresh lemon juice
- 300ml
- Sparkling water
- 1.8 litres
| Glasses | Elderflower cordial | Fresh lemon juice | Sparkling water |
|---|---|---|---|
| One | 25ml | 25ml | 150ml |
| Six | 150ml | 150ml | 900ml |
| Twelve | 300ml | 300ml | 1.8 litres |
How to Serve It
Tall glass, full of ice, a lemon wheel, and a sprig of mint, slapped, if you have one. In elderflower season a small head of fresh blossom, rinsed, can stand in for the mint.
Serve it in the same glassware as the cocktails, so nobody’s glass marks them out as not drinking.
With gin and elderflower liqueur in place of the cordial, the same pairing becomes the Elderflower Collins.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade contain alcohol?
Which elderflower cordial should I use?
Can I batch it for a party?
Is elderflower syrup the same as cordial?
Does the ice need to fill the glass?
When can I use fresh elderflowers?
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An Elderflower Collins is 45ml of gin, 20ml of elderflower liqueur and 25ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds, strained over fresh ice in a collins glass and topped with 90ml of soda, with a lemon wheel and a mint sprig. About 2.2 UK units. It is a Tom Collins with the sugar syrup replaced by elderflower liqueur, which sweetens and perfumes at once. No one is recorded as creating it. It spread after St-Germain launched in 2007 and put elderflower liqueur on back bars, and the Collins was an obvious frame to try it in. Measure the liqueur. At 20ml the drink is floral and still tastes of gin; at 30ml the elderflower takes over and no extra lemon brings it back.
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026