Perfect for a party, this make their own flavoured lemonade with fresh fruit purees, sparkling water, or soda, and vodka is sure to impress your guests. Adults can add alcohol, and kids can try the different fruit puree add-ins.
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Why We Love This Idea
- We love the nostalgia of an old fashioned lemonade stand.
- Guests can help themselves throughout the party.
- This is perfect for drinkers and non-drinkers to add alcohol or leave it out.
- Everyone can mix their own combination of flavors, and try different options throughout the party.
We had a little get together on the weekend with some friends. I thought it would be fun to have a lemonade stand buffet/bar for everyone. We love lemonade, did you see our lemonade themed party?
The lemonade stand was a great success, and the lemonade was really yummy. We love this idea for any get together. It would be a fun addition to a summer birthday party, barbeque, wedding or baby shower.
One of the things we really love about this lemonade stand bar is that guests can help themselves throughout the party. It's always great to offer guests their first drink and share all the great options. Then welcome to help themselves to replenish their drink. Keep an eye on things and make sure the ingredients or glasses don't need to be replenished throughout the party.
Lemonade Stand Set Up
We set it up in the backyard, where we were all hanging out, against our back fence. I used a card table, and leaned my chalkboard against the fence.
On the chalkboard, I wrote a few simple instructions. Guests were invited to help themselves to some lemonade, add a fruit puree if they liked, and top it off with some bubbles and the option of vodka.
It's such a great idea to have some simple instructions so guests know exactly what to do. The chalkboard is made out of an old picture frame and has lots of character. You could also make a sign on paper and place it in a pretty picture frame for the party. On the top of our chalkboard we added some simple butterfly bunting. This was used as party decor in other places too and looked great.
If you wanted things to look more like a traditional market stand, you could use 4 poles, one at each corner of the table, like bamboo garden stakes, and then drape some fabric and bunting across them to look like a real lemonade business.
The Adult Lemonade Stand
For our lemonade stand we set up these ingredients for our guests:
- lemonade
- fresh fruit purees
- sparkling water
- ginger ale and sprite soda pop
- vodka
Lemonade
I made some really easy frozen lemonade. You could also use a good lemonade from a carton, or use a lemonade recipe to make your own. Pink lemonade would be a fun option too.
We served the lemonade in a large punch bowl, with some large lemons used to add some lemon slices.
We also added ice to our punch bowl, but another option is to have a container of ice cubes at your lemonade stand so guests can help themselves and you don't have to worry about the ice cubes melting and diluting the lemonade over the course of an afternoon or evening.
A drink dispenser would be a great option for serving the lemonade also. Lemonade can sometimes attract bees if set up outside, and drink dispenser can be a helpful way to keep them at bay. You can also try burning a citronella candle to help keep them away.
How To Make Fresh Fruit Purees
The thing that really takes this lemonade stand to the next level is the fresh fruit purees. This is such a great way for guests to customize their lemonade. We found our guests loved trying all the different flavors and mixing them for great personalized flavors.
We made the fruit purees the night before, and served them in pretty glass bottles. I love how they turned out and they were so delicious.
I made some different tags as the labels so everyone knew exactly what we had available.
We made:
- strawberry
- raspberry
- blueberry
Tip: If you were making your fruit purees when the fruit is out of season, you can also use frozen fruit to make your purees.
To make the purees, I added about a pint of berries to the blender, added a cup of water, and a tablespoon or two of powdered sugar. You can adjust the sugar depending on how sweet the berries are.
I pureed everything until the mixture was smooth.
Next, I poured the puree through a fine wire sieve to remove any seeds.
I used a funnel to pour it into the bottles and attached the labels to the bottles. Store these in the refrigerator.
Tip: If you have any purees leftover after your party, you can pour them into ice cube trays and freeze them. Store them in the freezer in a ziplock bag and then add them to your lemonade anytime.
Guests were able to add one of the puree flavours to their lemonade, or combine two or three to create a mixed berry lemonade flavor.
Add Some Fizz
We also offered some ginger ale, or sparkling mineral water to top up the lemonade if anyone wanted to add some bubbles.
Alcoholic Option
To make this a grown-up lemonade stand it is fun to offer vodka for the adults to add to their lemonade as well. Have the vodka available with a shot glass for easy measuring.
One of the great things about this setup is that it's easy for guests to choose an alcohol or non-alcohol option and make this as strong or weak of a cocktail as they like.
Serving Glasses
We served it all up in simple mason jars, with pretty striped straws with some book page butterflies. You could also use regular glasses for serving.
It was great to get guests engaged in making their own drink concoctions as they arrived and the older kids seemed to really enjoy it too. My little girls loved coming up with their own recipes for the perfect drink. I highly recommend this idea for any summer party. It was very successful lemonade stand. By using frozen lemonade, and only making the simple purees from scratch, it kept everything simple to put together the night before as well.
With a fun adult lemonade stand buffet/bar, life really is a party!
More Drink Ideas
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes make your lemonade and fruit purees the night before and store in the refrigerator until serving time.
We made raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry flavors. You could also make peach, pineapple, kiwi, mango, or cherry. Use the same method we used for the berries and experiment with how much sugar you need to add.
Freeze your leftover fruit puree in ice cube trays. Add it to your lemonade anytime to jazz it up.
If you tried this Adult Lemonade Stand or any other idea on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
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