I love my new Citrus Press

A friend who I play beach volleyball with has a lemon tree in her yard which produces too many lemons for her to use, so one day she came to the beach with three bags of lemons. I took two bags, about two dozen lemons, with the goal on making lemonade. I don't have a citrus reamer at home, but I've juiced lemons by hand before. The trick is to microwave them for 5 to 10 seconds. Then take the heel of your palm and press down on the lemon as you roll it back and forth. Then cut and half and squeeze. I found I needed about a dozen lemons to make 2 cups of lemon juice. It took forever! And afterward I was covered in lemon juice, although I did smell nice for a long time after. Needless to say after I did this two more times, I decided I needed a tool because I wasn't about to stop making tasty lemonade. So I considered many options:

- Citrus reamer: handheld device which you insert into the flesh and press out the juice. Also there is the other type which fits over a glass or measuring cup and you press the citrus down onto it.
- Manual citrus press: you see these at bars. Its like a giant nut cracker, except for citrus.
- Electric citrus press: you press the citrus down and the reamer spins, extracting the goodness.
- Highend manual press: the silver type where you place the citrus in, grab the metal handle and pull down

I decided to go for an electric model. The highend manual presses are just too expensive and I don't have room for one. And while a manual press or reamer has some appeal, for some reason this seemed like the perfect problem for the electric model to solve. After some research I settled on the Krups FSD3. It seems to have the best quality for the money. I almost bought it at Amazon, but I have a gift card from Williams Sonoma, so I bought it there for about the same price (it was on sale, and was cheaper in store than on the website, odd). So far I have really enjoyed it. I was able to get 3 cups of lemon juice and pulp from 10 lemons. And it took a fraction of the time.

Krups Citrus Press @Amazon

Lemonade syrup:
2 1/2 cups - lemon juice
2 cups - sugar
2 cups - boiling water

Boil water (electric kettle, stove kettle, microwave) and measure out 2 cups. In a medium bowl, poor water over sugar and stir until sugar melts. Allow mixture to cool. Add lemon juice and mix. Pour into storage container(s) and store until ready to use.

Lemonade:
Lemonade syrup
Ice
Water

Fill glass with ice. Pour lemonade syrup into cup. Add water and stir. Typically I add about 1/2 cup of the syrup and then top off the glass with water then mix. I use a small crush ice and a largish cup. Basically what I'm trying to say is you'll have to play with how much water to add till you get a good combination.

Alternatives:
- Keep lemon juice and sugar syrup separate. Then you can control how sweet or sour your lemonade is in each glass.
- Use mixtures of sugar. I like to use at least 1/2 cup of raw sugar, it just added a nice taste. I have a friend which uses maple syrup to make her's. You could also use Splenda, honey, or any other sugar alternative.