10 Strawberry Lemonade Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

When the temps are soaring, and you're looking for a tasty way to cool down, lemonade is the perfect beverage to drink. Of course, lemonade is at its best when you make it fresh, but you can also find some excellent store-bought lemonade brands on the market. But just because you've decided to buy your lemonade instead of making it yourself doesn't mean you have to settle for boring flavors. In fact, there are a ton of different flavored lemonades out there that can make for a more flavorful sipping experience. One of my absolute favorites has to be strawberry lemonade. Not only does it have the bright, citrus-forward notes you crave on a hot day, but it also has some sweetness (and a bit of extra tartness) from the berries as well.

I've tasted 10 different strawberry lemonade brands and then ranked them, starting with the worst and working my way to the best. Some of these varieties of lemonade aren't great, while others are standout examples of the beverage category. I tended to rank less sweet, more well-balanced lemonades toward the higher end of the list, while super-sweet and less natural-tasting varieties fell to the bottom.

Regardless of what you're looking for in a strawberry lemonade — whether you like it super-sweet or more subtle in flavor — this ranking should give you a better idea of which brands to try next. Strawberry lemonade has never tasted so refreshing.

Who doesn't love a juice box (like these discontinued ones)? Whether you're putting them in your kids' lunchboxes, like these old-school drinks, or you just want a sip of nostalgia, they make for an especially fun way to enjoy a cold beverage. Unfortunately, though, Uncle Matt's No Sugar Added Strawberry Lemonade isn't one of the better juice boxes I've ever had. I love the fact that this stuff is lower in sugar than normal lemonade, since I prefer to keep my drinks on the lighter end of the spectrum, but this beverage is downright bland. It's undeniably watery, with just a hint of lemon flavor to it. Honestly, I didn't really pick up on any strawberry notes at all, to my dismay.

That being said, I don't really mind watery lemonade as long as I'm mostly tasting the tartness of the citrus and not overt sweetness. While this stuff isn't sugary, it does contain stevia, which to me has a very distinctive — and unappealing — flavor. I'd rather the brand keep this beverage quite tart instead of including stevia in the ingredients list, but with so little other flavor to work with, maybe the company realized that it needed to add something extra to the mix.

In my opinion, Trader Joe's tends to carry pretty solid beverages that tend not to be too sweet. In fact, one of my absolute favorites from the popular chain grocer is its jalapeno limeade. It's tart, crisp, and refreshing, with just a hint of spice to keep things interesting. Because I enjoy that beverage so much, I just assumed that I would also be able to appreciate the store's Organic Strawberry Lemonade. But that wasn't the case — this is actually one of my least favorite strawberry lemonades I tried in this lineup.

This seems like the brand that focuses most on making sure you can taste strawberry in every sip you take, with a strong berry-forward note that tastes sort of out of place in a drink that isn't just straight-up juice. On the other hand, though, the actual lemonade portion of the drink isn't very pronounced at all. Because of that, there's a lot of tartness missing from this product, which is part of what makes lemonade taste so refreshing in the first place. This lemonade is also strangely full-bodied, which further detracts from its ability to refresh.

I wouldn't say that this drink is super-sweet, but because it's missing that tartness I look for in a lemonade, it reads as relatively sweet on the palate. Unless you're trying to maximize for strawberry flavor in your strawberry lemonade, Trader Joe's take on this beverage is safe to skip.

As soon as a single drop of Tropicana's Strawberry Lemonade hit my tongue, I felt like I was hit with a wall of sugar. This lemonade is so, so sweet. It's so sweet, in fact, that I think it could be accurately described as "cloying." That's not great when it comes to any beverage, but it's an especially negative trait for a drink that's supposed to be refreshing. Sure, a little sweetness is a good thing in lemonade, but if it crowds out any tart notes at all, it's ultimately more likely to give you a stomachache on a hot day instead of any real relief from the high temps.

If you can overlook that intense sweetness, then this really isn't the worst lemonade in the world. Although it's missing the tartness real lemonade lovers crave, it still has a nice, bright, citrusy flavor, which melds well with the strawberry notes. You can certainly taste those berries, but they're not overpowering the subtle flavors of the lemon. Ultimately, if you're a fan of super-sweet lemonade, then you might find that you actually really like this stuff. However, if you're like me and prefer less sweetness in your drinks, then there are better strawberry lemonade options out there to explore.

When you see a drink bottled in glass instead of the standard plastic, you may assume that it's automatically a higher-end product. And if you look at the ingredients in Santa Cruz Organic Strawberry Lemonade, you'll discover that it does solely contain organic ingredients. Just because a brand is choosing organic (which we appreciate), though, doesn't mean it's going to be the best-tasting product available. I found that this brand of strawberry lemonade had a strange, metallic flavor to it that was a bit off-putting, which is why it ranks where it does on this list.

If you can overlook that metallic flavor, you'll see that this drink is relatively well-balanced, with a nice combo of sweetness and tartness. Of course, since I'm more partial to tart lemonade flavors, this stuff skews in that direction. However, you can still taste a distinct strawberry note as well, which keeps it from tasting like a standard lemonade. Despite the nice level of balance in this drink, though, I won't buy it again — I'm not sure where that metallic flavor is coming from, but it's definitely not for me, since it just can't be masked by the other ingredients in the mix.

Although I didn't really take color into consideration when ranking these strawberry lemonade brands, I have to admit that seeing a strawberry lemonade as dark as O Organics' definitely gave me pause. Sure, there's supposed to be strawberry in the recipe (generally in the form of strawberry puree), but there shouldn't be so much strawberry that it turns the whole beverage this dark of a pink color. Taking a closer look at the ingredients list, I discovered that the brand adds fruit and vegetable extracts for color, which is why it's as dark as it is. I felt relieved that the flavor wasn't likely to be too strawberry-forward, but I don't like the idea of a company adding extra ingredients just for appearances alone.

Once I took a sip, though, I discovered that this is a pretty solid strawberry lemonade. Is it the most delicious I've ever tasted? No. But if you're looking for a good combo of sweetness from strawberries and sugar and tartness from lemon, then it gets the job done. Admittedly, this stuff is a bit sweeter than I would prefer, but not egregiously so. I'm sure those who have more of a sweet tooth than I do will enjoy this drink if they want a strawberry lemonade that walks the tightrope between sweetness and acidity.

Whole Foods' 365 Organic Strawberry Lemonade was another drink that I was wary of at first, thanks to its bold, deep pink color, and like the O Organics variety, it too contains fruit and vegetable extracts to create a darker color. Actually, this brand seems to have a lot in common with the O Organics variety generally — they seem to be mimicking each other (although I'm not sure which came first).

This is a pretty middle-of-the-road strawberry lemonade. I don't think it tastes like anything special, but it has a nice balance to it, with both sweetness and tartness and berry- and citrus-forward flavors coming through in every sip. This variety is ranked higher than its O Organics counterpart mostly because I do think that tartness is slightly more pronounced here, although the difference isn't major, and I probably wouldn't notice if I hadn't tried one right after the other. If anything, I think this drink could be diluted with water to make it a bit more refreshing, simply because of how concentrated it seems to be. I don't think I would go out of my way to a Whole Foods to pick this lemonade up, although it's a solid option if you're already at the store anyway and you're craving strawberry lemonade.

Strawberry lemonade is a pretty sugary drink by nature, so it was nice to try some lower-sugar options in this lineup. Although I'm not a particularly big fan of Uncle Matt's, I really did enjoy Minute Maid's Zero Sugar Strawberry Lemonade. This drink is on the more tart end of the spectrum, with a strong emphasis on the lemon flavor. Considering that this beverage is, at its core, lemonade and not juice, I think that's ideal. There's a hint of strawberry flavor there, but it's not very strong. If I were really looking for a bold strawberry flavor in my strawberry lemonade, I might be a little disappointed by this stuff, but for my palate, that subtle berry note is just perfect.

Now, lemonade is a sweet drink, and although this particular version leans tart, it still has enough sweetness in it to balance out those pronounced citrus notes. It's a zero-sugar drink, though, which means that it has to contain some sort of sugar alternative, and in this case, it's aspartame. Aspartame doesn't exactly taste good (and it has been named "possibly" carcinogenic), but I do think that it's better than stevia, so this brand definitely earns its spot as the more-delicious low-sugar option on the list.

On the hunt for a strawberry lemonade that tastes a bit lighter than others out there? Then Newman's Own Strawberry Lemonade might be one of your best bets. It's a bit lighter than a lot of the other versions I tried, with a thinner consistency and even a lighter color than other strawberry lemonades. Because I'm looking for subtlety in my drink, I really liked that quality about this stuff. Don't get me wrong — it's definitely still quite sweet, as lemonade should be. And you can taste a good combination of both lemon and strawberries for a balanced flavor. At the same time, though, those flavors (nor that sweetness) are overpowering, and I don't feel like I need to dilute this stuff at all, which isn't the case for most of the lemonades I tried for this ranking.

Admittedly, some may not like the fact that this is a lighter strawberry lemonade option, even if they, too, prefer a subtler flavor. After all, why not just water down one of the more concentrated varieties and get more bang for your buck? That's valid. But if we're going by the flavor of the product alone, without any enhancements, then Newman's Own deserves its place in the top three.

I've already mentioned my wariness around strawberry lemonade that appears too dark, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I wasn't too sure that I'd like Florida's Natural Lemonade with Strawberry either. Once I took a sip, though, I realized that this lemonade was one of my favorites of the bunch. The flavor of the lemon in this drink is quite concentrated — so concentrated, in fact, that my nose wrinkled a bit from the tartness as soon as I took my first sip. That bold, acidic flavor is very refreshing, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a lemonade. The strawberry flavor came in on the back end, with a fruitiness that's pleasant but not too pronounced.

Admittedly, this stuff is pretty sweet, but because of its ultra-bold tartness, I didn't really mind that sweetness at all. It actually provided a nice balance for the drink, so you're not bombarded with too much sourness all in one gulp. Although Florida's Natural doesn't quite take the top spot, it's delicious enough that it comes in at a close No. 2.

The Simply line of beverages is known for its minimal ingredients, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Simply Lemonade with Strawberry has a very short list of them. There's lemon juice, of course, along with strawberry puree and sugar, in addition to natural flavors. Besides the water, that's it. Perhaps that's why, in my humble opinion, it's the very best strawberry lemonade in the lineup. I think that this lemonade is a step down in sweetness from Florida's Natural, which is perfect if you like minimal sweetness in your cup. It's also quite acidic, which helps create a nice balance in the beverage. What impressed me most about this drink, though, was the subtle but very distinctive strawberry flavor it boasts.

Does this stuff taste homemade? Not totally — bottled lemonade is just never going to taste as good as the real thing. But if you're going to buy a store-bought strawberry lemonade brand (and you have a similar palate to mine), you might want to give this brand a try. Its subtlety, freshness, and tartness deliver the most refreshing possible sip. Serve it ice cold, preferably with plenty of ice, and you may just have a new favorite drink for the summer.

I visited three local grocery stores in my area and selected all of the strawberry lemonades I could find for inclusion in this article. I ranked these strawberry lemonades according to flavor and balance. The lowest-ranked of the bunch are quite sweet, too watery, or otherwise don't have a good balance between sweetness and tartness, while the higher-ranked of the group lean toward the tarter side of things and are more well-balanced, with no one flavor dominating the others. I also prioritized subtlety over particularly bold, intense flavors.