Brandon Muramatsu

Lorina Lemonade

Sometime in the early 2000’s I found Lorina Lemonade at Piedmont Grocery. It quickly became one of my favorite drinks.

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Credit: Lorina

The Move to Utah

In 2004 when I began commuting to Utah, I was lucky that I didn’t have to give it up. But then I moved permanently in May 2005, and thought the small supply I drove out with me from California would be it! :(

That summer my friend Shelley mentioned that she’d seen Lorina Lemonade at Tony Caputo’s in Salt Lake City. But, except for the first time I stopped in, they were always out. Sometime in late 2005 I think I decided to look on the Web to see if I could locate a mail order place–I did, but it was really too expensive to consider ordering. Then…luckily, I found that World Market was opening in Park City.

Turns out they had just opened when I drove the 110 miles one way to go buy every bottle in the store. Yep, every bottle. From 2006-2008 I’d make two or three trips a year to buy them out. I bet that really wrecked havoc with their supply orders. So I had my Utah fix for Lorina Lemonade. (While researching this post, I found a blog entry on Your Heart Out from March 2007. Little did I know that Target stores in Utah also carried this from time to time.)

Different, But pretty Close

Trader Joe's = Lorina!

Photo Credit: Brandon

Trader Joe's ~ Lorina!

When I moved to Massachusetts, I did a quick search to see if there was a World Market out here (there’s not), or if there was a local distributor (there didn’t seem to be). Enter Trader Joe’s. Turns out Lorina is bottling Lemonade for them. Yay! (It’s the L on the bottle and on the boxes at Trader Joe’s that led me to this revelation.)

They’re a little different, but pretty close.

Lorina Trader Joe’s
Carbonated water, sugar, citric acid, arabic gum (stabilizer), ascorbic acid, natural flavor, glyverol ester of wood rosin (stabilizer), tumeric and riboflavin for color. Carbonated water, sugar, natural flavor (including lemon juice), citric acid, arabic gum, glycerol ester of wood rosin.

The Taste Test

Finally I was able to get a bottle of each Lemonade for a side by side taste test.

I was expecting the Lorina to be a bit tangier with the tumeric. Here I just misread/misunderstood the label.

According to Wikipedia:
[Tumeric is] a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine, for dyeing, and to impart color to mustard condiments. Its active ingredient is curcumin and it has a distinctly earthy, slightly bitter, slightly hot peppery flavor and a mustardy smell.

In medieval Europe, turmeric became known as Indian Saffron, since it was widely used as an alternative to the far more expensive saffron spice.

Turmeric. (2009, November 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:57, November 28, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Turmeric&oldid=328293243

Yes, I’ve thought that Lorina was more yellow in color than Trader Joe’s for a while now. And the ingredient list seems to prove that out.

The end result of the taste test, they tasted pretty much the same.

Taste Test

Photo Credit: Brandon

Taste Test

Oh, from a cost perspective, the Trader Joe’s is more cost efficient–you get more volume for the $5 per bottle (four servings instead of three).[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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