Every gathering has that one person who shows up with something everyone immediately gravitates toward — not the most elaborate dish, not the most expensive contribution, but the one thing that empties faster than anything else on the table. In our family, that person is Aunt Susan, and her contribution is always the same: a large glass pitcher filled with a sparkling, pale golden refresher made from exactly two ingredients. She has brought it to every garden party, every backyard barbecue, and every summer gathering for as long as anyone can remember. The pitcher is always gone within the first twenty minutes. Someone always asks for the recipe. And the recipe, it turns out, is almost insultingly simple.
The drink is lemonade and ginger ale. That is it. No sugar syrup to prepare, no fruit to muddle, no complicated ratios to calculate. Equal parts freshly made lemonade — or high-quality bottled lemonade — and cold ginger ale, poured together over ice in a glass pitcher, served immediately so the carbonation stays vibrant. What you get is a drink that is brighter than plain lemonade, more interesting than plain ginger ale, with a light effervescence and a gentle warmth from the ginger that makes it taste considerably more considered than its two-ingredient origin would suggest. It works because the tartness of the lemonade and the warm, slightly spicy sweetness of the ginger ale are a genuinely complementary pairing — each one improves the other in a way that feels obvious once you have tasted it but somehow never occurred to you before.
What You Need
- 4 cups (about 1 liter) cold lemonade — freshly squeezed lemonade makes the best version of this drink by a considerable margin, but high-quality bottled lemonade works beautifully and keeps the recipe as simple as advertised. Look for a lemonade that is genuinely tart rather than cloyingly sweet — the ginger ale will add sweetness, and a lemonade that starts too sweet produces a finished drink that tips out of balance. If using bottled lemonade, brands made with real lemon juice rather than concentrate produce a noticeably brighter flavor
- 4 cups (about 1 liter) cold ginger ale — use a good-quality ginger ale with real ginger flavor rather than a generic brand that tastes primarily of sweet syrup. Brands like Canada Dry, Fever-Tree, or Reed's produce a ginger ale with enough actual ginger character to contribute meaningfully to the drink. The ginger ale must be cold before mixing — warm ginger ale loses its carbonation almost immediately when poured over ice
- Ice — for serving; add to individual glasses rather than to the pitcher to prevent dilution
- Garnish: fresh lemon slices and fresh mint sprigs — optional but highly recommended for presentation
