Lemonade - 275 Reviews

Lemonade and ginger= two things I love. I've never had a bad drink from Columbia Gorge, and this did not break the streak. The lemonade is really sweet and refreshing, but then comes the ginger. The ginger sneaks up on your taste buds like a ninja, quick and strong. It makes for a great combination that is a pleasure to drink.

Ahhhh. I woke up early, took the dogs for a walk, hung out for too long, went to get lunch/dinner, went shopping, painted trim, cleaned up and all of that makes a man tired. It also makes him thirsty.

It's no surprise that being in this line of "work" I have a lot of things in my fridge to drink. When I saw this New Leaf raspberry lemonade, my search was over.

It was wonderful. It had a nice lemonade taste followed by a very nice blackberry taste. This is the best lemonade I've had potentially ever.

Finally, light lemonade that doesn't want to assault my senses like a pack of dogs getting thrown a steak. I prefer my drinks not too sweet and sometimes just plain watered down. This drink is not too sweet, not too sour, not too anything, which makes it just right for me. It kind of tastes like it was pretty sweet when you bought it at the theme park and it was filled with ice and now that the 87 degree weather has done it's damage to those little ice cubes, it has lost some of it's punch and you're left with a nice, calm drink.

Part I:
I don't get it. If you have one sugar, why don't you stick with it? If you are sweetening primarily with cane sugar, why add rebiana, which is a stevia extract? You've clearly already made your decision to sweeten one, way, are you trying to cheapen costs by "watering down" your sugar by adding fake sugar? This is the equivalent of cutting cocaine with baking soda to "break even".

Part II:
3/4 of people that drank this didn't like it. It's very sweet, and had a very harsh lemon "pinch". You know what that is, right? Like when you drink something sour and your cheeks contract? Pinch. Got it? There is lemon in the bottle, this is true and it's not lemon flavor, it's actually made from lemon concentrate. It tastes like kids lemonade. Good when you're hot, but the mix just isn't right. It is very sweet, but there is also a strong lemon kick to it, so I can't pinpoint what's "wrong". Maybe there isn't, but this is not the best lemonade I've had.

Look...I want to like this, I really do. I don't know why? It's just a drink, but sometimes you just get a good feeling. I had high hopes for Hubert's. Good, classic bottles with nice, embossed labels and a cute story about how it was founded way back in 1935. Something changed in the last 75 years that slightly modified the recipe, I can almost guarantee.

Could it be because it is fall and I'm wearing a jacket that this just isn't getting the review it deserves? Could I just not be thirsty enough? If a child poured this into a Dixie cup and sold it to me for a quarter, would it taste better? I don't know. Someone else buy this and let me know what I'm missing if I am, in fact, missing something.

I think someone's mom found this empty bottle and filled it up with lemonade that they made. This really does taste like someone squeezed some lemons into sugar water and gave it a slight berry flavoring. It's good. I mean really good. I wish more brands would actually taste like mom made versions of what they are, instead of the sugar death that a lot of drinks are. Man, this really made me wish it was still summer.

As soon as I smelled this I could tell that it was made from tea powder. It tastes like the iced tea I would make in junior high. I would put twice the recommended amount of tea powder and sugar in. That's not a trip down memory lane I needed to take. It does smell faintly like raspberries, which I assume is the pink aspect of it, but it only tastes like lemon. I didn't even bother finishing the bottle.

I must tip my hat to the person/people who named this drink because it's very fitting. I wish I had tried this drink sooner because it would be perfect on a hot day. It's a very refreshing drink. I'm a big fan of limeade and have drunk some really awful ones in the past. This was not the case at all. Drinking this bottle was so pleasurable that I almost forgot to take notes as I was drinking it. This is one of the best limeades I have ever tasted.

Splenda kills me. I can't deal with the taste of it and I might rather die of dehydration by the ultra-super-sweetness of it.

That aside, I will analyze this drink without that bit as many people are looking for a diet version of this classic beverage.

It's pretty good. It's got a nice, sour bite from the lemonade and the tea smooths it out. I would probably recommend this over an Arizona Arnold Palmer Lite because the aspartame in that is stronger than the Splenda is this so if you're going to be dieting and drinking a half and half, you might want more flavor and less fake sugar.

I am rating this as a diet drink, not as something that I would drink regularly. If you don't like all the sugars because you diet or just don't like sugars because you're 100 years old, I would drink this if I were you.

First off, how awesome is the old time golf guy on the front of this? I'm pretty sure it's their way of incorporating the well-known name of this drink (an Arnold Palmer) without the ability to use the famous golfer's name.

This is the first lemonade/tea mix that I've found that is organic so I was very happy about that. While I have not had many, I must say this is my favorite I've ever tasted. Arizona's half and half is good, but the HFCS and aspartame just don't go well with how delicious this drink is. For that reason, I was so happy to see this was made with organic cane sugar. A glass of this goes down really smooth, and it's the perfect mixture of tea and lemonade. My only complaint is that it isn't available in smaller bottles. I would love to stock up my fridge with 20oz bottles of this. But for now, I'll still enjoy this out of the 64oz containers it's sold in.

Arizona iced tea has a taste. You could pick it out in a lineup with your eyes closed and mouth open. I think that prior to the "lite" version, I've only had the "zero" which is made with aspartame/poison. This one has HFCS, which is less tastefully disturbing. It's definitely got a distinct taste to it after not really drinking it for a long time, but it's better than I remember. Think of an Arizona iced tea with lemon and then pour some lemonade in it. Simple.

I have never had any other company's half and half, but would be interested in trying them. I've heard that Sweet Leaf has one that's very good, but hard to come by.

Imagine, if you will, you are walking down the street. It's hot. You wipe your brow. It's so hot. Why didn't you take your car? Oh, yeah, the alternator is broken. Man...so warm. Why are you wearing those sweatpants? Oh, because you just left your girlfriend's apartment and no one who goes to college wears actual pants. Wait...what? Did someone just say...YES! They did. You put your hand to your face so the glaring sun doesn't get in your eyes and you see two girls. These girls, ages 5 and 7 respectively, are asking if anyone wants lemonade. You clearly do, as you've soaked right through your older brother's old Phish tie dye crew neck sweater. You throw down a moist $1 bill and get a large glass of lemonade and chug it just like you did the night before when you slayed those freshman at flip cup.

Swiss Premium Naturally Flavored Lemonade tastes like kids street lemonade. A lot of sugar, a little bit of lemon, and perfect on a hot summers day.

Hmm. Tart. Super tart. It's as if they accidentally labeled it pomegranate and it was really grapefruit. That's what the bite was like. Like sinking your teeth into a grapefruit. I honestly got no pomegranate flavor.

Kudos to the local Mayer Bros. for using real cane sugar, but the taste is simply off. See you in the fall for cider, though.

Mike and I both got bottles of Prometheus Springs on a dare. With flavors like "Lychee Wasabi" and "Pomegranate and Black Pepper" they just had such a high expectation for failure. I wussed out and went for what I thought to be the safer choice, "Lemon Ginger." I will admit it was the most intense beverage I have ever tried, but it also wasn't all that bad. Not only did it have an intense ginger burn, but also the capsaicin added made it even more insane. I drank about a third of the bottle, and had to put it away for a while. No one else who tried it got passed one sip. When I decided it was too much on its own I mixed it with some juice, and the results were pretty great. It dulled the burn a bit, but it still made for a nice kick. If you really love ginger or spicy foods, this may be the drink for you.

***********************UPDATE******************************

Yesterday was one of my best friend's bachelor party. Mike and I put together a basket (box) of strange drinks for the raffle. I picked up a bottle of this to put is said basket. At the last minute I pulled this bottle from the basket, because I figured that anyone who won it would take one sip and probably throw it out. I also really wanted to give it another chance. After about six months of doing this site and drinking more out of the ordinary beverages I had a very different outlook on it this time. Maybe it was because I knew what I was getting into, but I really enjoyed it. It's not something you can pop open and drink with dinner, but it's something nice to take a pull off of every so often during a long hang out. The burn that turned me off in the past was something that I now looked forward to. I really loved this drink this time around. I think I have officially become a drink snob.

I have always thought of Swiss as being the bargain iced tea that you would find at convenience stores for $1 a gallon. I had no idea they had launched a "Premium" line until a few days ago. This line is pretty much the same recipe as the regular tea, except they have replaced the high fructose corn syrup with regular sugar. It's still extremely sweet. It reminds me of the "ghetto tea" we used to drink during breaks while skateboarding when I was a kid. I think it's that nostalgia that lets me still enjoy this so much. Also, this is supposed to be an "Arnold Palmer," but it really just tasted like lemon iced tea. The lemon flavor is not as prevalent as I have come to expect in iced tea - lemonade combos.

Warning: do not take a big sip of this the first time you try it. You will be in for a big surprise as the strong taste of lemon juice stings your tongue and singes your insides all the way down until it settles into your stomach. If you have ever drunk pure lemon juice, you know the feeling I'm talking about.
That being said, Columbia Gorge knows how to make good lemonade. If you like yours extra tart, then this one is for you. It's sweetened with agave syrup, which I've never seen before but I welcome the change. It really lets the lemon in the lemonade shine through when it's not loaded with sugar.