Sprite’s latest variation is to add lemonade to its already lemon-lime self, thus creating Lymonade. It at first glance doesn’t seem like a very strange chimeric concoction, especially since at the top left above the logo it boasts “Lemon-Lime & Lemonade Flavored Soda With Real Juice & Other Natural Flavors”! But then bottom right below the logo it admits “Made With 1% Real Juice.” Rarely do you see a product label boast about a feature and yet admitting that feature is pretty much meaningless on the same side of the label.
But that’s the thing: if you’re drinking something that has “Yellow 5” on the ingredient list, chances are you couldn’t get care less how much fruit juice is in it. (And sidebar: didn’t it used to be Yellow No. 5? Now it just sounds like the fifth in the Yellow franchise.) I had quite the affinity for faux citrus drinks in my youth, so I was curious to see how this new beast would strike me.
And so here’s the thing: Sprite has basically created a drink that would get bullied by Sun Drop on the playground, all the while wishing it could grow up to be Surge. I suppose if you feel that either of those drinks is “too intense” for you, then Lymonade would be directly in your wheelhouse. It even lacks the gumption to hit you like a solid tangy or even tart lemonade would. It sort of eases up onto your tastebuds and hopes you like it. Personally, if I’m going to inflict self-harm on myself in the guise of one of these drinks, I at least want it to show up with some modicum of attitude. And Lymonade has none of it.
