Why is there no widely available brand of lemon soda in the U.S., preferably one with some actual lemon juice in it so that it actually tastes like lemon?
I loved Schweppes Lemon (or limon, depending on location) in Spain and England; you could find it pretty much anywhere. Lemon is a normal enough flavor, so you’d think we’d have something similar here, but alas, I’ve never found anything but the occasional imports. Fake lemon-lime soda, like Sprite, just sucks; it’s not even close to the same thing, and bears no relationship to any naturally originating flavor.
If I need a fix, I have to cross my fingers that the local Middle Eastern grocery has a few bottles of the Turkish stuff in stock.
Anyone care to remedy this travesty? Or is there some wonderful product I haven’t heard about?
I haven’t had it for a few months, but wal-mart does (hopefully still does) sell a lemon soda. It was really good- lightly carbonated, tasted like lemonade- so I wonder why I haven’t looked for it lately. Peach is supposed to be good as well, if you like peach flavored drinks.
I’d guess it’s not widely available because most Americans seem to like everything sickly sweet – or at least soft drink manufacturers think they do. (Compare the European and American versions of orange soda, for instance.) A decent lemon soda has a nice, tart, crisp edge to it, a quality not often found in any American soft drink. Alas.
I’ve found that one part commercial lemonade from concentrate to one part seltzer water is a passable do-it-yourself substitute.
I don’t drink pop. Pop is gross. (I use the term pop rather than soda because soda is different to me.)
When I get the craving for a carbonated drink that has no alohol, I go to the local grocery and pick up Canada Dry Seltzer water.
They have several varieties and there’s no sweeter in them at all. The lemon-lime tastes like a 7-UP but no sugars. The raspberry is just my style and the cherry is very good. They have a mandarine orange flavor but I have never tried it.
I don’t think they use “natural” flavors but I don’t have a can in the house at the moment to confirm or deny that.
About six or seven years ago, when I was in Arizona, I found a Sunkist lemonade soda. I haven’t seen it in any other parts of the country where I’ve lived, but maybe it’s available in your area. It was sweeter than the European lemon sodas, but still pretty good, as I recall.
(But oh, how I miss Limonata in the black can with the lemon pulp at the bottom.)
When I was about 35 years younger there was a carbonated lemon soda called “Lemmy” availble here. Their ad slogan was, “Lemmy have a Lemmy”.
My memory has kicked in to full nostalgia now and tells me it tasted really good, though the absence of this product for the last 35 years would seem to indicate it didn’t have a very big following.
Coke puts out a Minute Maid lemon soda made with real lemons, sold in two litre bottles, I only know one store that has it locally at this time, Albertsons. No bubbles in it though.
