This 4-Ingredient Tomato Lemonade Is Golden

• Tomato lemonade combines fresh tomato, lemon, sugar and water for a tangy, refreshing drink.
• The drink is rich in antioxidants and lycopene, offering heart and skin health benefits.
• Variations like lavender syrup or grenadine make it easy to customize your own version.

The end of summer brings some pretty incredible produce, from bumper crops of fresh zucchini to sweet, delicious cobs of corn by the dozen. The close of the summer season is also a good time to try some of our favorite end-of-summer tomato recipes, like burrata with heirloom tomatoes and chicken topped with fresh cherry tomatoes. 

If you’re looking for a new sip for soaking in those last moments of summer, look no further than the latest drink to gain attention on Instagram: tomato lemonade. The four-ingredient drink is perfect for tomato season and can be made super fast. Just ask Instagram foodie Baby Hands Bakes, who recently shared her version of the delicious-looking drink in a reel that makes the drink look pretty tempting.

“This is your reminder that you need to try tomato lemonade,” she says in her Instagram post,  where she walks viewers through her simple method for making the tart-but-tasty sip. To make tomato lemonade, cut one whole lemon into quarters, add a chopped, fresh tomato and pour on some sugar to taste. 

With a muddler (a kitchen or bar tool used for mashing fruit for drinks) mix the ingredients together right in the glass until the tomato is pulpy and the lemon has released lots of its juice. Then, top the whole thing off with water before adding ice and giving it a stir (or shake). The result is a lemony, tomato-y drink that looks so sweet and tangy, we just can’t wait to try it out.

“The tomato just adds this mouth-watering—I don’t know if it’s umami, but tomato has MSG in it naturally,” she says. “So it’s like this savory—but not really savory because it’s sweet—taste.”

Not only does the drink sound refreshing and unique, but tomatoes pack lots of health benefits. For one, due to their lycopene content, tomatoes may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Tomatoes also contain carotenoids, which may help prevent cancer, and antioxidants that can promote healthy skin. Tomatoes may help with gut health and eye health, so they’re a great addition to any recipe—yes, even to lemonade.

There are plenty of variations on tomato lemonade, too. In another Instagram post, Baby Hands Bakes tries lavender tomato lemonade. The process is the same, but with lavender simple syrup used in place of white sugar. “What a versatile drink,” she says after getting the syrup-to-lemonade ratio just right. “I didn’t think this would work, but it kind of does.”

In another video, she makes a “Shirley Temple tomato-ade.” This time, she sticks with the tomatoes-and-lemons formula, but adds grenadine instead of sugar. 

“It’s a little tart,” she says, “but I kind of like it.”

With this recipe as a starting point, you can put your own twists on tomato lemonade, including lowering the sugar content to your preference, adding another fun flavor—like maybe a splash of hot sauce for a Bloody Mary lemonade—or adding a lime for more citrus flavor.

But if tomato lemonade isn’t your thing, there are lots of other ways to use up those end-of-summer tomato hauls. Try our Baked Tomato & Feta Rice or Goat Cheese-Tomato Toast, both of which are great for summer tomatoes fresh from the garden.