If Aldi’s fruit punch drink sticks were any indication, I’m in for a pretty tasty treat here, so let’s see what the lemonade has to offer.
Right after shaking it up I took a little sniff to try to get an idea of what to expect: it smells very lemony. Thankfully, not like cleaning product, like some other powdered mixes that I’ve had, but a rather inviting, almost fresh lemon scent. Dare I say, it smells kind of like a lemon shake-up, those tasty beverages that are a staple of fairs and carnivals throughout the nation, featuring fresh lemons shaken up with tons of sugar to create a very sweet, very tart combination.
Shockingly enough, that’s a pretty accurate description of how it tastes, too. For some, it will be too sweet, but for me, it was all-too-easily drinkable. I struggle with drinking water in its natural form (honestly, the thought is enough to make me cringe), and so these powdered mixes, while probably not very healthy for you in the long run, at least get me to drink the stuff. Sure enough, the taste was so good that before I knew it, half the bottle was already gone…unless I’m dying of thirst, that’s a scenario that would never play out with regular water.
Since these are a part of the Fit and Active line, there’s usually some kind of health benefit involved: here, each packet is a mere 60 calories, which I’m sure is just a fraction when compared to an actual lemon shake-up. It’s also sugar-free, and while artificial sweeteners can often taste fake and lead to a disgusting aftertaste (see: almost all diet sodas), it’s barely noticeable here…you could almost swear that you’re drinking the real thing, as opposed to lab-created flavors (it does have “lemon juice solids” in the ingredients…whatever that means).
I have to say that this is one of my favorite powdered drink mixes, though I must acknowledge that the tartness really prevents it from being something I can drink more than once a day. But it’s refreshing, it’s tasty, and for $1.19 per 10-pack at Aldi, it’s an affordable little mix that, assuming your taste buds skewer towards the sweet, you really should enjoy.
Overall: 8/10. I can’t drink this all the time, simply because it’s so tart, but this is one of the most accurately-flavorful drink mixes that I’ve ever had. Fans of subtlety, don’t even bother, because this is an equal blend of sweet and sour that maxes out both on their respective meters. It tastes astonishingly close to a lemon shake-up, which is a pretty solid feat for something that’s made predominantly of chemicals, and the artificial sweeteners taste uncannily realistic, and don’t give off any of the typical “fake” taste that a lot of them give off. It’s a draining experience, but for the low price of $1.19 (per 10 drink sticks), it’s well worth every single penny spent, and then some. Even my wife raves about these things, and she normally dislikes the powdered drink packets.
