Lilt is billed as a fizzy fruit crush with the taste of the tropics. It's one of my favourite summer drinks. Coca Cola is just too fattening and Diet Coke tastes like chemical waste. Oasis are OK but there's no fizz in them, so they're just a bit….boring. That leaves Dr Pepper (wierd) or ... Read review
Advantages: Refreshingly fizzy fruit drink Disadvantages: Artificial sweeteners
Lilt is billed as a fizzy fruit crush with the taste of the tropics. It's one of my favourite summer drinks. Coca Cola is just too fattening and Diet Coke tastes like chemical waste. Oasis are OK but there's no fizz in them, so they're just a bit….boring. That leaves Dr Pepper (wierd) or Fanta (too sweet)….so it has to be Lilt. It's a really refreshing drink if it's hot and I'm thirsty whilst out and about.
~ LIMBERING UP ~
... ...in the UK sales. Lilt was introduced to us in the late 1970's by that huge conglomerate Coca Cola. The Coca Cola Company expanded its range in the UK in 1999 by purchasing all the soft drinks brands in Schweppes Cadbury stable, and then added them to their existing range of beverages. Nowadays, the Coca Cola Schweppes range is massive and includes most of the most popular brand soft drinks for sale in the UK such as Coca Cola, Oasis, Fanta, Dr Pepper, ... more
Lilt is billed as a fizzy fruit crush with the taste of the tropics. It's one of my favourite summer drinks. Coca Cola is just too fattening and Diet Coke tastes like chemical waste. Oasis are OK but there's no fizz in them, so they're just a bit….boring. That leaves Dr Pepper (wierd) or Fanta (too sweet)….so it has to be Lilt. It's a really refreshing drink if it's hot and I'm thirsty whilst out and about.
~ LIMBERING UP ~ Lilt is the second biggest selling fizzy fruit drink in the UK (Fanta being No.1), and generates a massive £46 million in the UK sales. Lilt was introduced to us in the late 1970's by that huge conglomerate Coca Cola. The Coca Cola Company expanded its range in the UK in 1999 by purchasing all the soft drinks brands in Schweppes Cadbury stable, and then added them to their existing range of beverages. Nowadays, the Coca Cola Schweppes range is massive and includes most of the most popular brand soft drinks for sale in the UK such as Coca Cola, Oasis, Fanta, Dr Pepper, Five Alive, Sprite, Powerade, Kia-Ora, Malvern Water and the 2004 disaster that was Dasani (the £7m launch of "pure" bottled water that was found to contain traces of bromate).
~ COST & AVAILABILITY ~ It's a popular brand and you'll find it for sale in most high street shops and supermarkets:- ~ 2 litre bottle = £1.35 ~ 500ml bottle = 0.85p to 0.95p ~ 330ml can = From 0.38p (for a six pack) to 0.45p/0.50p for individual can ~ 100ml can = 0.25p
~ LOOKING MIGHTY FINE ~ Cans are white and the bottles are green, both with labeling in sunshine themed colours. Lots of yellows, orange and greens to convey the fruity tones of the product within. There's also a hint of palm leaves and a yellow sun to indicate the tropical nature of the drink.
~ THE ALL IMPORTANT TASTE TEST ~ Lilt is described as a pineapple and grapefruit fruit crush. It's a fizzy drink that is best served chilled or with ice cubes. Let's crack one open and give it a try. It makes a satisfactory hissing noise as I undo the cap. Always reassuring to know that your fizzy drink has some life in it and isn't flat and lifeless.
Pouring it into a glass and Lilt is a very pale straw coloured liquid with tiny white bubbles around the edges. It's nothing remarkable to look at, in fact it appears somewhat cloudy.
Putting your nose into the glass and it does smell very fruity. The predominant aroma is that of pineapple but there is a sourish undertone to it, which will be the grapefruit making a fleeting appearance.
The first sip and the overwhelming taste is of pineapple. It's quite sweet and cloying at first but it's tempered by the sour tones of the grapefruit kicking in. Without the grapefruit in this drink it would be far too sweet and sickly; the grapefruit tones it down from being an over sweet beverage and adds an interesting undertone to it. The pineapple makes it taste slightly tropical and the grapefruit element offers a nice tang to the drink.
~ THE CRUSHING BLOW ~ What I don't like about Lilt is the judicious use of artificial sweeteners, colourings and E numbers in the drink. The ingredients are mainly carbonated water and fruit juices but with an added list of three different E number flavourings plus colourings. The product also contains sweeteners in the form of Aspartame and Saccharin. Aspartame and Saccharin have both been tested and found to be safe, but I still like to keep my intake to a minimum. Excessive Sodium Saccharin consumption has been linked to bladder cancer in males and Aspartame is considered by some sources to be a cause of all sorts of things from rashes to behavioural problems.
~ FEELING HOT, HOT, HOT ~ There are several variations of flavour under the Lilt banner, but as I have not seen any of these in the shops I am not in a position to comment on their taste, but I am assured by the Coca Cola Schweppes website that they are available:-
* Lilt Pineapple & Grapefruit Z * The Z in the title stands for "zero added sugar" and has been introduced by Coca Cola Schweppes just this month in response to the consumer demand for great tasting drinks but without the calories. So I guess it's a "Lite" drink made to sound trendy by sticking a Z on the end. "Lite" is just so yesterday don't you know! You may be pleased to learn that Coca Cola Schweppes have also Zedded (made up word) some of their other brands:- Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite.
* Lilt Mango & Mandarin * Sounds lovely - anyone seen it or tried it ?
* Lilt Banana & Peach Flavour * Introduced in 2003 - not yet made it to the outer reaches of the southern of England - at least not in any of the shops I've been to recently.
~ PACKING A (RUM) PUNCH ~ And if you're allergic to soft drinks (and half pints) like my partner is, here are some cocktail recipes using alcohol and Lilt:-
~~ Tropical Life Saver ~~ ¾oz Midori melon liqueur ¾oz Malibu Squeeze of lemon juice Pour into a tall glass and top up with Lilt and ice cubes
~~ Sun Burst ~~ ½oz Vodka Dash of Triple Sec Pour into a tall glass, top up with Lilt and ice cubes and add a dash of Triple Sec for added pizzazz.
~ SUNSET ~ Now I must say it's a refreshing drink but, really, it's never going to transport you to a beach in the Caribbean and make you want to limbo dance naked across the sand. Sorry to the Lilt Ladiez and the Lilt Man, swigging from a bottle of Lilt is not going to magically teleport me to the Caribbean no matter how much you try and convince me with your colourful and gaudy advertising campaigns. It's nice...but it's about as tropical as Margate on a wet windy weekend in November. At the end of the day, it's just a refreshing fruity drink. You can try it, and you may well like it, but you won't hear any bongos or steel drums in the background.
~ THE SCIENCE BIT ~ Nutritional Information per 100ml: Energy: 85kJ/20kcal (About at about 50 calories per medium sized glass) Protein: Nil Carbohydrates: 4.6g Fat: Nil
~ FURTHER INFORMATION ~ Coca Cola Company Uxbridge UB8 1EZ
Tel: 0800-227711 Website: www.coca-cola.co.uk or www.coca-cola.com
Advantages: Not too fizzy, plenty of taste Disadvantages: Gross if not chilled
...I going to survive??
Lilt is one of those drinks thats been around for years, the sort that I pass by every day without much in the way of a second thought, despite the fact that I enjoyed it in my youth. lack of my above mentioned favourite tiple however forced me to experiment with new addictions so I gave Lilt a second chance.
My first encounter was in my local Kwik Save, where the white can with the flourescent green writing inched it's way ... ...afraid and in that department Lilt didn't let me down. Another pleasant advantage is that whilst Lilt is a fizzy drink, it doesn't leave me feeling bloated like some of it's rivals.
Lilt is also available in 500ml bottles and 2ltr bottles with prices varying in different stores.
The downside to this encounter of mine is that I have now been stripped of my consumer award for Coca cola, their sales have dipped dramatically and thouasands of redundancies ...
karen001 19.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lilt Pineapple and Grapefruit Drink
Advantages: good balance of sweetness and sharpness, interesting taste Disadvantages: quite high in sugar
...bitter - the fact that Lilt is carbonated does balance out any sourness. I don't know whether I can actually taste anything I could define as pineapple but it occurs to me that this could be the "sweet" flavour I detected. Overall, I find the flavour is quite well-balanced. It's not so sweet that it would get sickly if you were drinking it in hot weather, but then it's not sour or bitter to the point where those with a sweet tooth might be seriously ... ...The slightly misleading thing about Lilt - if you can call it misleading - is that (with the exception of the canned version) the bottles are a fairly vivid green. I must give the manufacturers credit for theming their packaging around that "totally tropical taste" they say Lilt possesses, because this bottle is the kind of green you'd expect to find on a parrot somewhere in a hot country! The only thing I have to wonder is, if anybody is put off ...
KateHurst 20.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lilt Pineapple and Grapefruit Drink
Advantages: its a really nice drink Disadvantages: coca cola own it.
Lilt is one of my vices. As you may have noticed fom my ops of late, I have a fair few vices, most of them fairly innocent. I really want to be eating healthily, keeping of the junk food, the soft drinks, but some products are just too tempting.
I won't drink colas, and I find many soft drinks vile - they are often sickly sweet and laden with dubious chemical flavours. One of the things that attracts me to Lilt is the fact that it does taste distincly ... ...you.) It's the taste with lilt - pure and simple. It tastes sweet and fruity, but not sickening. it does have a lot of sugar in, but if you are worried about this, there is a diet version, which is better for the teeth and the waistline. A word of warning though, the artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks can dry out your mouth and leave you more thirsty than you were in the first place -- your body has the liquid it needs, but your mouth feels ...
Bryn_Pearson 06.12.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lilt Pineapple and Grapefruit Drink
Advantages: Taste, healthier soft drink, easy to drink...and the taste again Disadvantages: Maybe too much pineapple
...online. After this review of Lilt the only one left to do is Tango, then this is over, a journey from Dr Pepper, through the Coca-Cola range to Tango, a fun journey have several have joined me for.
The drink sells it's self on the “Totally Tropical Taste” of pineapple and grapefruit, a fruit I adore and a fruit I think is overly bitter and sour. When I was, but a young boy, my mother would occasionally treat us to this, and from memory we used to ... ...the flat and cheap shop brand lemonade or in fact a good drink wouldn't have mattered, it was a treat and treats we're to be savoured as though they may never happen again. We were simple creatures really we may never have fully shown our appreciation but we did value (and still do) the efforts made by those around us.
As the second to last review, this has brought back memory's so sorry for that trip down memory lane it's just this review is a ...
iamasadlittleboy 01.08.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lilt Pineapple and Grapefruit Drink
Lilt is a pinapple and grapefruit fizzy drink which is made by the coca cola company ( well isnt nearly everything!)Lilt was released into the world in the 70's and proved to be very popular, killing off its direct competition. Although lilt is well known, not many people seem to drink this a lot, often choosing drinks such as coke or dr pepper instead. I am not allowed to have caffeine, so that rules out most drinks for me, as nearly everything ... ...yellow label, with the word lilt in green across it, with pinapple and grapefruit in the background. The bottle has a wierd design imprinted on the bottle, with ovals in the middle of it. I dont understand what it is, but its always been there! Everyone knows the slogan that goes along with lilt, the phrase- its totally tropical! But there is also this statement is written across the back-
"for total taste JUST CHILl!..Contains 5% pure pinapple ...
naomiuk 14.11.2001 (18.11.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lilt Pineapple and Grapefruit Drink
