Sonic Underwhelms With New Sweet Topped Lemonades

Few drinks embody the sweetness of summer quite like lemonade, which is why Sonic is releasing three new Sweet Topped Lemonades just in time for the start of the season. The newcomers — Classic, Strawberry, and Blueberry Lavender — feature all-natural lemonade topped with sweet cold foam. Warm weather and a cool drink are a nearly perfect combination, but toss in a good book alongside a good cause and you have the makings of a perfect summer day.

Each lemonade sold helps to fund Sonic's Limeades for Learning initiative, which takes proceeds from every drink, slush, and shake the chain sells and puts that money toward classroom support and teacher development in local schools. The drive-in is also partnering with First Book to distribute 100,000 books to students in need. You can learn more about both of these initiatives at foundation.sonicdrivein.com.

I made my way to my local Sonic the day these sweet sips became available exclusively in the Sonic app. Read on to find out if any of these new drinks should be part of your next order and, if so, which one reigns supreme as the next big summer treat.

Sonic is no stranger to lemonade, with three new sweet topped flavors joining the all-natural version on the standard drink menu: Blueberry Lavender, Strawberry, and Classic. The chain is also famous for its line of limeades, which include Cherry and Diet flavors to go along with Strawberry and Cranberry.

For their part, the Sweet Topped Lemonades are a twist on the classic flavors. Sweet cream is a staple in several of Sonic's drinks — like the Twisted Flamingo, a Sprite, cherry vanilla, and sweet cream treat, and the Dirty Dr Pepper — but sweet foam is more unique to these drinks. They're not frozen slushes, which sets them apart from many of Sonic's other seasonal offerings, leaving the Sweet Topped Lemonades in a category of their own.

All three of the Sweet Topped Lemonades are available exclusively through the Sonic app starting May 27. They'll join the regular menu for an undetermined limited time starting on June 2. You can pick up your favorite flavor for $3.69 each, depending on location.

These lemonade drinks are undeniably a sweet treat. The Classic Lemonade flavor contains 69 grams of sugar, 8 grams of saturated fat, and 76 grams of carbohydrates. Compared to the non-foamed topped version, that's an extra 5 grams of sugar, 8 grams of saturated fat, and 8 grams of carbs. 

The Strawberry and Blueberry Lavender flavors are similar nutritionally, coming in just slightly higher in all categories compared to their traditional predecessors, thanks to the addition of the sweet foam. The Strawberry version tips the scales a little more, with 80 grams of sugar, 88 grams of carbs, and 8 grams of saturated fat. Meanwhile, the Blueberry Lavender Sweet Topped Lemonade clocks in with 73 grams of sugar, 8 grams of saturated fat, and 80 grams of carbs.

It's always good to start with the classic to establish a baseline. Like its cousins, the Classic Sweet Topped Lemonade is a regular lemonade — not frozen — topped off with ice and a generous layer of sweet foam. It's a pretty beverage, but the logistics of drinking it are a bit tricky. The thick layer of sweet foam combined with the ice in the glass make the first sip a challenge, as you must navigate the other elements before even getting to the lemonade. Sonic's Lemonade Cream Cooler is one of my all-time favorite fast-food drinks, so I had high expectations for the Classic Sweet Topped Lemonade, but I was mostly disappointed.

The lemonade itself is solid; it's sweet and refreshing, though it could benefit from a bit more tartness. The problem is the combination with the sweet foam just feels unnecessary. If the lemonade were more tart, the sweet foam would provide a nice contrast to balance out the flavors. Instead, it's sweet on sweet for the Classic. 

Floral flavors in foods and drinks throw me for a loop. If I wanted to taste a flower, I'd go lick an appetizing-looking one in my grandma's backyard. Plus, those floral notes tend to be strong, leaving the impression of a soap or perfume rather than the subtle hint of flavor and fragrance they're intended to deliver. Imagine my surprise when I found that Sonic actually made the lavender notes in the Blueberry Lavender Sweet Topped Lemonade work in a positive way.

There's no denying that blueberry is the primary flavor in this beverage, but the lavender plays a crucial role in mellowing the sweetness. I only get the slightly floral hints on the very back end of each sip, and they're pleasant, not overpowering. Unfortunately, the sweet foam is once again out of place. Is it bad? Not at all; in fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of many sweet drinks that wouldn't work with the foam, but it's hardly necessary.

The weight of expectations can be crushing. The good news for Sonic's Strawberry Sweet Topped Lemonade is that by the time I got to it in my taste test, I had already lowered the bar thanks to underwhelming efforts by the Classic and Blueberry Lavender flavors and my memories of Sonic's last strawberry drink release. The bad news, though, was this meant the overall viability of Sonic's latest creation rested on the shoulders of a single flavor.

Thankfully, Strawberry delivered. First and foremost, this drink should come with a straw. There are tons of juicy, crunchy little bits of strawberry and seeds that quickly sink to the bottom if you don't mix them around. They add a nice texture that the Blueberry Lavender lacked entirely, and the Classic was unable to match with a smattering of lemon pulp.

Texture aside, the sweet and fruity flavors of the Strawberry Lemonade mix well with the sweet foam. Think strawberry shortcake in a glass. Perhaps it's because this drink is seemingly the furthest away from traditional lemonade of the trio, but the sweet foam finally found a fitting partner.

Sometimes, it's hard not to sound mean when writing a review. Rarely do I find myself consuming anything that's truly terrible, which leads to extra judgmental breakdowns of food items that are good but not great. This is one of those times.

Sonic's Sweet Topped Lemonades are far from bad. Refreshing and sweet, any of the three would make for a wonderfully sippable treat on a warm summer day. The Strawberry, in particular, is a winner and the one I would recommend above the others. Still, they lack cohesion and are head-scratchers. These drinks feel like the invention of a high schooler with access to a drink machine. The result is a trio of drinks that are not failures but hardly measure up to Sonic's best efforts.

I stopped by my local Sonic on the day the Sweet Topped Lemonades became available through the Sonic app and picked up one of each flavor. After snapping a few pictures in my car, I took the drinks home and finished photographing them before the taste test. I evaluated the beverages based on flavor, texture, appearance, and cohesiveness. Neither I nor Mashed was compensated in any way for this review.