One thing you learn around summertime: there are a lot of fruits that pair up well with lemonade, a fact that’s evident when you see all the different “fruit lemonades” that crop up around the middle of the year. But one that fruit that doesn’t seem to really get much attention, at least in juice form, is watermelon. There are some good reasons for that (the juice isn’t very tasty, for one) but the reasons for that weren’t enough to get me to avoid giving this spin on a classic drink a spin. And hey, at the very least, it’s a part of “Alex’s Lemonade Stand”, in which Aldi donates a portion of the proceeds from branded products, to the childhood cancer facility.
Aaaah shit. One thing I always forget about the “Simply” brand of juice drinks (of which this seems to be a knockoff) is that, for all the effort they make to present their product as a “healthy” “clean” juice, they’re actually juice cocktails: this one only has 13% juice in the entire thing. But you want to know what else it also has? 45g of added sugars, which is 90% of your daily (added) sugar content! Holy shit, that’s a ridiculously high number for a brand that I erroneously equate with “healthy”. (God bless the marketing machine!)
One thing you learn around summertime: there are a lot of fruits that pair up well with lemonade, a fact that’s evident when you see all the different “fruit lemonades” that crop up around the middle of the year. But one that fruit that doesn’t seem to really get much attention, at least in juice form, is watermelon. There are some good reasons for that (the juice isn’t very tasty, for one) but the reasons for that weren’t enough to get me to avoid giving this spin on a classic drink a spin. And hey, at the very least, it’s a part of “Alex’s Lemonade Stand”, in which Aldi donates a portion of the proceeds from branded products, to the childhood cancer facility.
True to form, this is ultra-sweet to a fault…so much so that it’s not really something that needs to exist at all. Remember when I mentioned that watermelon juice isn’t really a big thing? Well let’s keep it that way. Just because it can be juiced doesn’t mean it deserves to be. Trust me, watermelon is easily in my top 3 favorite fruits, so I come from a place of love, but the juice itself is just very underwhelming all by itself; you have to get the pulp/puree from the actual fruit in order to maximize your enjoyment of it.
Honestly, somehow it tastes more like a raspberry lemonade than a watermelon lemonade to me…there’s no way I’d pick that flavor out if the label weren’t presented in front of me. Maybe it’s just my poor tastebuds failing me yet again, but I was completely underwhelmed by a combination I expected to at least be competent. At least the lemon does stand out, by adding its trademark tartness. Of course, something can only be so tart when it’s covered in scoopfuls of sugar,but it’s still noticeable.
Man, it’s all just way too much. The asking price – $1.29 per 15.2 oz. bottle – isn’t bad in and of itself, but the problem is what you get for that price: it’s just not worth it. And this is coming from both a fan of watermelon and sweet drinks.
Overall: 4/10. A semi-promising idea that falls flat on its face in this attempt to blend watermelon juice with lemonade. The end result is a sickeningly sweet concoction (complete with 90% of your daily recommended added sugar content) that tastes more like raspberry lemonade, and is further proof that watermelon juice doesn’t really need to be anywhere else…except inside a goddamned watermelon.
