Fizzy lemonade is the perfect pop for a recession: cheap, sweet, inoffensive, and a good mixer too. Yet sales of lemon, lime and other fruit-flavoured carbonates such as Sprite and 7-Up are in decline, and have been for some time.

“Is lemonade dead? No, but consumer tastes towards fizzy pop are changing, and sugar is only half the story”

Adam Leyland, Editor

To some extent they have been hit by own label. These aren’t brands of the distinctiveness of Coca-Cola or Red Bull (their taste profile is fairly easily replicated, isn’t it?), and though advertising for Sprite in particular is up 4,000%, trade investment fell, as Coca-Cola understandably placed its bets on the main chance.

The fact that sales of Sprite have fallen further despite a stevia-inspired reformulation will be seized upon to prove that lots of consumers simply don’t want sweeteners. Meanwhile, sales of the leading sugar-based carbonates increased more than sugar-free ones.

But Sprite’s decline also reflects changing tastes in other senses. Sugar (and sweetness) is only half the story. There’s a notable switch to flavoured waters, energy drinks and other ‘functional’ drinks; there’s an increasing preference for more exotic fruits like guarana, coconut, mango. And the fizzy lemonade fixture itself is more sophisticated, with cloudy, Victorian, Sicilian and organic recipes now among the many branded and own-label products.

My favourite example is San Pellegrino Limonata. Like lush Sicilian lemons on the volcanic soil of Mount Etna, sales are flourishing, despite the recession. And while I doubt there will be many sales in the average supermarket in Hartlepool or Huddersfield, its combination of taste, ingredients, and superb premium cues, including the tin foil on the top (to hide the ugly ringpull?) give the lie to the idea that in this economy price is the only thing the consumer understands.

But the real reason I love San Pellegrino Limonata is not the price, or even the taste (I find it too sweet): it’s the fact it’s used a premium, ‘healthy’ fizzy-water brand to create success with a drink that contains as much sugar as a can of Coke. The orange (Aranciata) version contains even more. Genius.

Read our Focus on Soft Drinks

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