A Lemon Juice Hack That Will Change Your Life

It was 2 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, and I was scrolling through TikTok hours after I promised myself I would go to bed. Somewhere between videos of fluffy puppies and people who had their wisdom teeth removed, I stumbled upon what may or may not be the coolest lemon hack of all time.

Best Podcasts 2020: Food and Cooking Shows

The TikTok video I found was from @johannawestbrook, who stabbed a chopstick through one end of a lemon. The "butt," if you will. Then, she took it in her hands and squeezed. Juice came out at full speed like water from a fire hose, or maybe like those fake lemon bottles you buy at the grocery store — only this was a real lemon.

The coolest part? Only juice came out. Do you know what this means? No scooping seeds from your water, salad, pasta or whatever you want to squeeze fresh lemon juice into.

Naturally, I had to try this to see if it was legit. I also wanted to see if it worked with a lime because that would make for the easiest margaritas ever.

However, here's the thing: Limes are typically drier than lemons. This was evident in my experiment. I had to squeeze the living daylights out of that poor citrus. It mostly splattered and sprayed with just a small fraction of juice actually making it into the cup.

Another issue with this hack is that you have to make sure you use a sharp chopstick or wooden skewer. I had originally tried using a heavy-duty metal one, and it just slipped through my hands and did not penetrate the lime at all. A sharper wooden chopstick from my local sushi place, on the other hand, worked much better.

After the lime fail, I attempted it with a lemon, following the same steps. Thankfully this had way better results. Juice shot from the lemon and into my glass. I felt like a king with a chalice of sweet nectar — all with no knife, no cutting board and no pickup. I did get some juice on my kitchen table, but I just used a Lysol wipe to clean that up.

Now when life gives you lemons, you can quickly and easily make so many lemony drinks and dishes. From an old-fashioned icebox cake to lemon-infused cocktails and a savory lemon cream sauce,  here are are 14 ways to make more than lemonade when you have lemons.