What’s The Dill With The Pickle-Juice Slushies Coming This Summer?

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By Jenny Singer March 19, 2018

Drive-through chain Sonic announced that it will sell pickle-juice flavored slushie drinks this summer — but is this news sweet, or just half-sour?

The gimmicky, gherkin-y beverage will be available for a limited time at Sonic locations beginning in June. From what we can gather, the drink will be frosty, flavorful, and the color of snot during the height of cold-season. According to Food and Wine, who sent a brave writer to try the drink at the chain’s Oklahoma headquarters, the drink is “surprisingly delicious.”

Writer Maria Yagoda reported,”You won’t understand why, but you’ll keep going back for more sips, likely until it’s all gone.”

Pickle flavoring is not exactly the bread & butter (if you see what we did there) of the slushie business. And yet, isn’t there something refreshingly crisp about the flavor of a fresh pickle? Doesn’t just thinking of a pickle induce an even more intense mouthwatering than thinking of a cherry-flavored slushie?

Early Jewish immigrants popularized pickles in America and have continued the proud tradition of pickle-making and eating. It is due to Ashkenazi Jewish food traditions that garlic has become a common ingredient in pickle brine. No word yet on whether it will make it into the Sonic pickle drink, but we’ll find out in June, come rain or come brine.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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