Kid-friendly Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade Recipe - Sticky Fingers Cooking
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Recipe: Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

Recipe: Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

by Erin Fletter
Photo by Yulia Furman/Shutterstock.com
prep time
5 minutes
cook time
makes
4-6 servings

Fun Food Story

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Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

Also known as Swiss lemonade, Brazilian lemonade is made with unpeeled limes, not lemons! "Sim" (seem) or "Yes!" It's a sweet, sour, and creamy limeade!

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Chef Erin, Food-Geek-in-Chief

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

  • blend :

    to stir together two or more ingredients until just combined; blending is a gentler process than mixing.

  • measure :

    to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

  • slice :

    to cut into thin pieces using a sawing motion with your knife.

Equipment Checklist

  • Blender (or pitcher + immersion blender)
  • Cutting board
  • Kid-safe knife
  • Citrus squeezer (optional)
  • Can opener
  • Dry measuring cups
  • Measuring spoons
  • Liquid measuring cup
scale
1X
2X
3X
4X
5X
6X
7X

Ingredients

Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

  • 2 limes
  • 1/2 C granulated sugar, honey, or agave syrup (or 10 stevia packets)
  • 3 T sweetened condensed milk **(for DAIRY ALLERGY sub coconut or soy cream)**
  • 3 C water
  • 2 C ice

Food Allergen Substitutions

Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

  • Dairy: Substitute coconut or soy cream for sweetened condensed milk.

Instructions

Brilliant Brazilian Lemonade

1.
intro

Brazilian lemonade, also known as Swiss lemonade, is actually a limeade! It is made with unpeeled lime pieces, sugar, water, and ice cubes. Some versions, including ours, add sweetened condensed milk for a creamy, refreshing drink!

2.
slice + measure + add

Wash 2 limes and cut off the ends. Slice into thin wedges or slices and place limes, peel and all, into your blender (or pitcher for use with an immersion blender). Add 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk, and 3 cups water.

3.
blend + count

Blend until limes have liquefied into the water and sugar while counting to 5 in Portuguese: 1 um (oohm), 2 dois (doyss), 3 três (trehss), 4 quatro (KWAH-troh), 5 cinco (SEEN-coh). Add 2 cups of ice and blend some more, until thick and creamy, like a slushy! "Saúde" (Sow-OOH-deh) or "Cheers" in Portuguese!

Surprise Ingredient: Sweetened Condensed Milk!

back to recipe
Photo by ninikas/Shutterstock.com

Hi! I'm Sweetened Condensed Milk!

"As you can tell from my name: I'm milk; I'm sweet; and I'm condensed! Condensed means that the milk has had around 60 percent of its water removed, so it becomes dense and thick. Then, sugar is added to make it sweet. I come in a can and am able to sit unopened on your pantry shelf for one to two years so you can add me to your dessert recipes whenever you need me!"

  • In his travel books from the late 1200s, the explorer and merchant Marco Polo wrote about the Tatars, or Turkic ethnic groups across Eastern Europe and Asia, who condensed milk into a paste, which would be carried around in 10-pound bags. This was probably a fermented, yogurt-like milk curd, "katyk," to which they would add water to make a drink called "ayran." 
  • Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner and inventor, successfully condensed milk in 1820. In the United States, Gail Borden Jr invented a process in 1853, before refrigeration, to make sweetened condensed milk, allowing milk to be stored for much longer than a few hours.
  • Evaporated milk is a similar shelf-stable canned milk product, except it does not contain sugar and must be homogenized and sterilized by heat. In some countries, they call evaporated milk unsweetened condensed milk. 
  • "Sweetened condensed milk" is often shortened to "condensed milk." It has many uses. Add it to hot coffee and tea instead of milk, or make Thai iced tea or Vietnamese iced coffee with it. You can make fudge and dulce de leche with condensed milk. You will also find it in caramel candy and key lime pie, and it is a main ingredient in a Brazilian confection called "brigadeiro."
  • You might even try adding sweetened condensed milk to the egg mixture for French toast, like our Crème Brûlée Fancy French Toast Sticks!

History of Lemonade!

Photo by JeniFoto/Shutterstock.com
  • Lemonade was probably the first of the fruitades. Egyptians made a drink with lemons and sugar cane called "qatarmizat" in the 11th century. In 1676 a Parisian company was the first to sell lemonade. 
  • Frozen lemonade was first made and sold in the local market in Naples, Italy, in 1840 by Signore DeLucia. His son, Franco, brought it to the United States around 1900. Franco's son, Angelo, produced a machine to create consistent frozen lemonade, and in 1948, Del's Frozen Lemonade was first sold at a stand in Rhode Island.
  • Old-fashioned lemonade, or cloudy lemonade, is made from the juice of freshly squeezed lemons, non-carbonated water, and sugar and is a very popular summer drink in the US and Canada. 
  • Pink lemonade includes other fruit juice, like grape juice, or food coloring to make it pink. Ireland uses brown sugar to sweeten their lemonade and calls it brown lemonade. 
  • Many countries have other varieties, including France, which serves "citron pressé," providing lemon, water, and sweetener to customers who prefer to measure and mix their own lemonade.
  • To get even more flavor from the lemon (or any fruit), you can make a lemon crush by pressing (muddling) pieces of the squeezed, unpeeled lemon (make sure it's been washed!) in the bottom of the glass or pitcher.

  • Limeade is another popular citrus fruit-flavored drink made with lime juice, water, and sugar. Brazilian or Swiss Lemonade is actually a limeade (limonada) made with pieces of unpeeled lime, sugar, water, sweetened condensed milk, and ice cubes.

Let's Learn About Brazil!

Photo by IrenaV/Shutterstock.com (Rio de Janeiro with Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain)
  • The Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in South America. It is in the central-eastern part of the continent on the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil consists of 26 states and a federal district. 
  • Brazil shares borders with every other South American country except Chile and Ecuador. To its north are Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It borders Colombia in the northwest. Uruguay is south of Brazil, and Argentina and Paraguay are southwest. Bolivia and Peru are on its western border.
  • Portugal colonized this part of South America in 1500. Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822, becoming official in 1825. Sept 7
  • The government is a federal presidential constitutional republic with a president, vice president, legislature, and supreme court. The country's currency is the Brazilian "real" (pronounced HAY-al). 
  • Brazil's total area is 3,287,956 square miles and spans four time zones. Worldwide, it is the fifth largest country. Brazil's population is seventh in the world, with over 200 million people. The capital of Brazil is Brasília, and the largest city is São Paulo.
  • The official and national language is Portuguese. More people speak Portuguese in Brazil than in any other country. Numerous other languages exist in Brazil, including over 200 indigenous languages.
  • Because of its size, Brazil's geography is very diverse. It has plains, highlands, hills, mountains, plateaus, lakes, rivers, and rainforests. About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil, along with almost two-thirds of the Amazon River. The country has 4,655 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. 
  • The Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland covering between 54,000 and 81,000 square miles. Iguaçu Falls, on the border of Argentina, is taller than Niagara Falls in the United States and wider than Victoria Falls in Southern Africa.
  • The country is rich in natural resources, and its economy is fueled by agriculture, mining (metal ore and gems), and automotive, food, and other industries. It is the world's largest producer of coffee, oranges, soy, and sugarcane. 
  • Brazil is the most biodiverse country in the world, with over 70 percent of all listed plants and animal species. The jaguar is the national animal. The piranha is a well-known fish found in the Amazon River.
  • Brazilian culture has been influenced by the cultures and traditions of its indigenous people, its Portuguese colonists, other European immigrants, Africans, and more recent Japanese, Arab, and Jewish immigrants.  
  • Brazilian music styles from Rio de Janeiro, like the samba and the bossa nova, are recognized in many other parts of the world. Different forms of the samba are heard during Brazilian Carnival, the most popular holiday in Brazil, celebrated on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and Lent. 
  • "Feijoada" (black bean and pork stew) is considered the national dish. Coffee is the national beverage.

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Brazil?

  • Because Brazil is below the equator, kids get out of school for summer vacation in early December and return in early February. 
  • The sports kids may participate in are soccer, volleyball, Brazilian martial arts, and swimming. Other games include "queimada," (a dodgeball game) and "bola de gude" (marbles).
  • There are several parks and beaches in Brazil for families to enjoy together. Other fun activities include riding the little red train up Corcovado Mountain to the 125-foot Christ the Redeemer statue or taking a cable car up to iconic Sugarloaf Mountain, a cone-shaped mountain, rounded at the top, like a refined loaf of sugar. Kids can visit sea turtles at a beach or over 500 bird species at the Parque das Aves near Iguaçu Falls. 
  • Kids may have a sandwich or French bread and butter for breakfast with chocolate milk or "pingado," a drink of steamed milk with a splash of coffee. They may eat rice with beans and meat and a salad for lunch. 
  • Favorite snacks in Brazil include "pão-de-queijo" (cheese bread or bun) and "coxinha" (deep-fried dough with shredded chicken filling).
  • Popular sweets and desserts are "brigadeiros" (chocolate fudge balls), "paçoca" (peanut candy), and "bolo de rolo" (roll cake with guava jam).

THYME for a Laugh

What type of milk do you get from a precious miniature cow?

Sweetened condensed milk!

THYME for a Laugh

Why did the lemon stop halfway across the road? 

He ran out of juice!

Lettuce Joke Around

Why did the sweetened condensed milk go to therapy?

Because it was feeling too sweet and needed to work on its sugar issues!

THYME for a Laugh

What did the lemon say to the cake? 

"Sour you doing?"

That's Berry Funny

Why did the lemon have no friends? 

Because she was a sour-puss!

Lettuce Joke Around

What do you give an injured lemon?

Lemon-aid!

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