I Tried 10 Store-Bought Lemonades & the Best Was Bright and Easy to Drink

Nothing soothes on a hot summer day quite like a cool, refreshing pitcher of lemonade. The citrusy drink has provided refreshment to heat-suffering humans for centuries.

According to Smithsonian, the longstanding American tradition of setting up summertime lemonade stands dates all the way back to the mid-1800s, but lemon-based beverages have been around even longer. Mental Floss notes that ancient Egyptians were drinking a sweetened lemon juice called qatarzimat as far back as the 11th century.

Despite its early origins, lemonade remains a popular commodity, especially in warmer climates. When the mood strikes, you can dust off the citrus juicer and get to work, or you can hit the nearest grocery store and bypass the manual labor altogether.

You'll find many brands of lemonade at the grocery store, but which one offers the most refreshing flavor without being too sweet or too sour? I recently tried 10 name-brand varieties to put them all to the test.

Here's how they fared, ranked in descending order from my least favorite to the best-tasting store-bought lemonade around.

Santa Cruz

I had never heard of Santa Cruz Organic lemonade before, but its cute bottle made me swipe it off the shelf. The label proclaims that it's made with high-quality ingredients and devoid of artificial colors and flavors. It's also USDA-certified organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO Project Verified. A 32-ounce bottle cost me $3.89.

The look: This is one of the darkest of the lemonades that I tried. In fact, the color is a bit offputting for a lemonade. However, it looked quite a bit lighter once it was poured into a glass and looked much more normal. It was very translucent compared to some of the cloudier lemonades.

The taste: This one didn't really smell or taste like lemonade to me. It almost smelled slightly fermented, like a wine starting to go bad, so I was a bit hesitant to try it. Once I did try a taste, it kind of had an odd flavor – almost like a wannabe lemonade mixed with apple juice. The ingredients list filtered water, organic sugar, organic lemon juice concentrate, and organic natural flavor so I am now quite curious as to what that natural flavor may be. I wouldn't purchase this one again.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

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Nature's Promise

Nature's Promise lemonade is a USDA Organic product, made with real sugar, filtered water, organic lemon juice concentrate, and organic lemon flavor. A 64-ounce bottle cost me $3.29.

The look: This is a very pale yellow, with almost a hint of green. It looks even lighter when poured into a glass.

The taste: Whoa boy! I should have known when I saw on the label that this lemonade is sweetened with real sugar that this one would be sweet, but this is next-level sweet. While it's great that the company lists that it doesn't use any prohibited synthetic ingredients or chemical pesticides, the double dose of sweetness from the organic sugar and citric acid in this batch makes for one saccharine sip. I would not repurchase this one.

Minute Maid

Unfortunately, my local grocery store didn't have the classic Minute Maid lemonade stocked on its shelves, so I opted for the zero-sugar variety. A 52-ounce bottle set me back $4.69. The ingredient list here is a bit overwhelming, with the usual culprits like filtered water and lemon juice from concentrate. However, natural flavors, citric acid and vitamin C also make the list. So do hard-to-pronounce items like acesulfame potassium and aspartame. In total, the beverage contains only 5% juice.

The look: This is a very pale, very cloudy-looking lemonade. It looks almost like lime juice with its greenish tinge.

The taste: In general, I'm not a huge fan of zero-sugar products. I'd prefer natural sugar to alternatives like stevia, so I wasn't really expecting much from this one. While this certainly wasn't my favorite of all the lemonades, it did surprise me with its flavor. Although slightly artificial tasting, it wasn't very sweet and had a refreshing quality. If mixed with something like soda water or iced tea, I likely wouldn't be able to notice any difference from the sugar-filled stuff.

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Florida's Natural

With "natural" in its name, you'd expect this drink to contain only wholesome, non-synthetic ingredients—and thankfully, it does! The only ingredients in this lemonade are water, sugar, lemon juice, concentrated lemon juice, and natural flavors. Even so, the whole concoction contains only 12% juice. For a 59-ounce jug, I paid $3.99.

The look: This was a very pale lime color and more subtly green than yellow. Once I poured it into a glass, it appeared even more translucent than in the bottle.

The taste: There was something just a little bit off on this one for me. It tasted fine, but it had a slightly artificial smell and although not too sweet at the outset, there was a tiny bit of bitterness in the aftertaste. In short: it wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as some of the others.

Crystal Light

This DIY powdered lemonade was a staple of my childhood, so I had to see how it compared to the premade stuff. With only 10 calories and zero sugar, this just-add-water option makes for an enticing alternative to the bottled versions. However, its ingredients are a bit more exhaustive. In addition to artificial color and natural flavoring, you'll find citric acid, potassium citrate, sodium citrate, aspartame, magnesium oxide, maltodextrin, acesulfame potassium, and soy lecithin on the list.

The look: This looks indistinguishable from many of the other lemonades I tried out, with a light yellow hue and a very opaque gradient.

The taste: Even though I stuck to the directions on the box, I'd be intrigued to try this with a bit more dilution because it is very sweet. However, the flavor is spot on, with both a noticeable tartness and sweetness. Mixing as directed makes this too cloyingly sweet for me, but with some more water added to the mix, I think this would make for a refreshing summer sipper.

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Wegmans

The beloved East Coast supermarket's own brand of lemonade retails for $3.29 for a 52-ounce bottle. It's made with filtered water, organic sugar, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic lemon flavor, and citric acid.

The look: This lemonade has a pleasant, light yellow color that brings to mind pastel Easter colors. It's not as pale as some of the other lemonades, so I had a feeling it might be a bit sweeter than some of the others.

The taste: This is definitely on the sweeter side when compared to some of the other lemonade brands in this line-up. It gives you that nostalgic lemonade-stand pucker you're used to when a kid accidentally puts too much sugar in the batch. But that doesn't mean this isn't a good lemonade. It tastes good, but if sweet isn't your thing, you might want to err on the side of caution when selecting this one.

Whole Foods

Composed of purified water, organic lemon juice, and organic cane sugar, this grocery-store brand lemonade doesn't run cheap at $8.99 for 32 ounces. With a price like that, I half expect this lemonade to be hand-squeezed by monks in Italy, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

The look: This is a very light yellowish-greenish color and looks even lighter when poured into a glass. It is opaque and you can see little specks of pulp floating in both the container and the glass.

The taste: This one is okay. It doesn't give me that nostalgic lemonade flavor that I'm accustomed to. While it's certainly sweet, it's missing that bit of tartness that lemonade is known for and lacks a bit of brightness to its overall flavor. Overall, it tastes like good, fresh quality lemonade, but doesn't quite reach the top-tier flavor profile of some of the others on this list.

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Newman's Own

Whether you enjoy its popcorn or its lemonade, Newman's Own is a popular name in many a household. The company boasts that its lemonade is devoid of artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, and its blend is made with pure filtered water, cane sugar, lemon juice concentrate, lemon pulp, and lemon oil. I paid $4.09 for a 59 fl oz container.

The look: This was a pale yellow color that looked a lot like what you would expect fresh lemon or lime juice to look like. It made me think it was freshly squeezed, especially since it also had visible skin pieces in it.

The taste: This lemonade was very pleasant tasting and not overpoweringly sweet. It had a bit of a tang to it, but it was very subtle. It definitely made my brain conjure up warm summer days and a wraparound porch.

Trader Joe's

Cult favorite grocery chain Trader Joe's has its own brand of delicious products lining its shelves. Among them is its fresh squeezed lemonade, which is simply made with water, lemon juice, and sugar. For $3.99, you get 52 ounces of the sweet stuff.

The look: This lemonade is a nice, light yellow color. It's not translucent like some of the other options here, but I also wouldn't describe it as cloudy. You can also see the little tiny pieces of lemon pulp floating around in the jug.

The taste: This is sweet and tart. You get that signature pucker from the tart flavor of the lemons right away and then there's an aftertaste of sweetness. It does taste very fresh and I'd argue it tastes the freshest and most natural of the bunch. Although you can see the tiny pieces of pulp in the glass, you don't notice them at all in your mouth.

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Turkey Hill

Perhaps best known for its ice cream, Turkey Hill also makes other products, like this caffeine-free lemonade with all-natural flavor that contains 10% fruit juice. In addition to those concentrated fruit juices, the lemonade also contains high fructose corn syrup and both citric and ascorbic acid. I paid $4.69 for a hefty gallon jug.

The look: This was so vibrantly yellow that it almost took me aback when compared to all of the other lemonades. It is a darker, more saturated yellow and looks a bit artificial.

The taste: Based on the color, I thought this would be a nauseatingly sweet lemonade but I couldn't have been more wrong. This was light and refreshing and didn't cause any of that typical lemon puckering you can sometimes get with a sweet lemonade. While the Trader Joe's lemonade tasted more fresh and natural, this one was a bit less sweet, making it a lot easier to drink.