The Worst Kool-Aid Drink Mix Tastes Like Cleaning Liquid

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Remember when folks were chomping Tide Pods? If you've ever poured lemon floor cleaner concentrate into a mop bucket, started the faucet, and privately wondered what that soapy solution tastes like, then we've found the Kool-Aid flavor for you. If not ... then you can skip it. In Tasting Table's ranking of 18 Kool-Aid drink mixes, the Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid flavor fell to last place. Second-to-last-place was leagues above it. 

Upon hydrating electric neon Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid, it doesn't look like something folks are supposed to ingest. As our taste-tester writes, "[B]efore you even get to the flavor, there's the color [...] It literally looks toxic." But, we never judge a book by its cover. French roquefort cheese and foie gras look pretty ugly to the eye, but totally rock on the palate, after all. Alas, upon venturing to risk a quick tongue-dip, egregious Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid is sorely not foie gras.

Quoth our brave, intrepid reviewer, "The flavor is nothing like lemon or lime, and instead tastes like an unnaturally sweet version of citrus — even without any sugar added. If you do decide to mix in sugar, there's not enough acidity to enjoy it, either." By stark contrast, Strawberry Lemonade (the Kool-Aid flavor that snagged first place in our ranking) gained major points for its balance. Even without adding any sugar, the Strawberry Lemonade Kool-Aid drink mix delivered impressive acidity and realistic strawberry fruit flavors. In other words, we recommend sticking to the strawbs, and leaving its ectoplasmic counterpart out of your grocery cart.

We aren't the only ones who aren't drinking Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid, either. In a Reddit thread asking "What is the worst Kool Aid flavor?" the top comment reads, "Orange Kool-Aid is the worst. That or Lemon Lime." Other foodies agree, echoing our criticism that "Lemon lime always tasted like soap to me." Elsewhere online, other Reddit threads dog the grape and orange Kool-Aid flavors for their infamous likeness to cough syrup. But, reflecting on their least favorite flavors of Kool-Aid from childhood, others write, "Lime was always the worst to me" and "Lime. Easily."

Per the official Kool-Aid Kraft Heinz website, the product's proper title is "Unsweetened Lemon Lime Artificially Flavored Powdered Soft Drink Mix," which frankly sounds more like a chemical cleaning product than a food beverage item. The product description goes on to call Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid a "green lemon lime drink" and a "citrus artificially flavored powdered drink mix," with an ingredients list of citric acid, calcium phosphate, Yellow 5, Blue 1, and BHA (a preservative). So ... that's all really encouraging. Reading this, it's almost hard to believe that Kool-AId began as an actual drink, not a powder mix. Still, ultimately, Kool-Aid isn't known or widely-enjoyed for its culinary prowess. It's portable, each envelope costs just a few cents, and it basically never expires. We would be remiss not to give credit where credit is due. But, opt for literally any other flavor.