One of my favourite drinks is still lemonade. You know, freshly squeezed lemon juice with a little (or a lot of) sugar and served over ice? It’s tart but sweet, and so very refreshing. The Lemonade Cooler from Marks and Spencer is good, or the Sicilian Lemonade at Pizza Express. In the USA you can get proper lemonade in pretty much any restaurant.
When I saw Tropicana had brought out a Still Lemonade I definitely wanted to try it. It was difficult to find at first, but then I noticed the small bottles (300ml) in my local Spar and then Tesco had the larger (900ml) ones when I did my most recent “big shop”.
This isn’t strictly speaking “still lemonade” as the label suggests. It is actually a mix of mostly apples with some grapefruit and lemon thrown in. The ingredients list (which specifies this drink is not from concentrate) says apple juice (67%), sweet grapefruit juice (24%) and lemon juice (9%). So that’s 100% juice then… but with only 9% lemon juice. Can they justify calling it “still lemonade”?
The jury is still out on the name for me, but that aside, this drink is really lovely. In fact I am totally addicted – I can’t get enough!! You get the sweetness of the apples and the tart citrus flavour of the grapefruit and lemon all at once. It’s perfect straight from the fridge, and is a great way to bring a little sunshine to an afternoon.
This is an excellent summer drink and one which I can’t wait to drink over ice when the hot weather returns (which it WILL do… it’s currently just a temporary glitch!).
Now if only I could find somewhere selling the Pink Lemonade version to try that too…
ADDED 24th APRIL 2011:
The more I’ve tried this drink (which has been a lot in the last few weeks), the more I’ve realised my comment above re the name is absolutely correct. This is not still lemonade. It’s all about the grapefruit and apple in its taste – I don’t get much lemon at all. Others have said it too – Tropicana has given this a name which simply does not reflect the product that you get. I really (really) like this drink, it’s refreshing and light and tangy and completely perfect for the weather we’re getting at the moment, and the “description” on the label clearly tells you what you’re getting, but it is not lemonade. I wouldn’t want Tropicana to withdraw the product (I would be sorry to see it go), but I do feel it should be renamed.
Comments?
Natalie
Well even though i’ve just given you my opinion on twitter, now that you’ve updated your post I really feel like I have to comment on here too. I totally agree about the name – it’s really misleading. Ok, it has lemon juice in but according to my dictionary lemonade would be made from lemons, water and sugar yet these are “100% pure squeezed fruit”. This drink is exactly what it says on the back “apple, sweet grapefuit and lemon juice” – calling it lemonade on the front is misleading. The main taste is definitely grapefruit juice! I’ve also tried the pink lemonade and found the same issue. The description on the back is a much more accurate name “Apple, raspberry, lemon and elderberry juice.” It tastes exactly of apple and raspberry juice (88% and 9% respectively with only 3% lemon juice). With both products I couldn’t even taste the lemon. To be honest I wasn’t even keen on either drink but maybe that is because I absolutely love still lemonade and although I would drink both grapefruit and apple juice I wouldn’t go out and buy either. At £2 a bottle I was disappointed 🙁
mark coveney
I tried the tropicana still lemonade,but as the main ingreadent is Apple.that is what it taste like.I expect lemonade to have a lemon taste.
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Jade
I saw this in Tesco this morning and just tried some. I remembered that you’d reviewed this so I headed straight over to Splodzblogz to give my verdict!
I bought this because it said it was lemonade. I love lemonade, and could drink it all day long. But this isn’t lemonade at all, I can’t really taste any lemon.
I am so disappointed by it. I was expecting great things from Tropicana (I love their smooth orange juice) but this just isn’t for me 🙁