We Ordered the Pickle Juice Slush from Sonic. Here’s What Happened.

Is it sweet? Is it sour? Does it actually taste like pickles? You're about to find out!

There’s just something about pickles… I’ve been crunching them obsessively ever since I was five! That’s when my parents took me to Eppes Essen, a deli in Livingston, New Jersey, where the deeply green sour pickles were served in briny bottomless metal bowls studded with coriander seeds and peppercorns. (Psst: You might be able to recreate the flavor with classic pickle recipes like Grandma used to make.)

So I was thrilled when pickle-flavored potato chips landed on grocery shelves and was “pickled” pink when pickle ice cream became a thing. Now Sonic is on the pickle bandwagon with its brand new Snow Cone Slush flavor, Pickle Juice. I had to have one!

Finding the Pickle Juice

It’s hard to find a Sonic when you live in New York. (Thank goodness for Sonic copycat recipes!) But I was lucky enough to be in Chicago for the weekend, where there were two Sonic locations to choose from, and one was only a 7-minute drive from the airport. I could tell the nice man at the register seemed really pleased when I ordered my Pickle Juice slush, so I asked him if I was the first all day. He laughed and said, “No, ma’am! But you’re the first who didn’t ask for an add-in.” (By “add-in,” he meant lemon, strawberry, lime or pineapple flavoring, as well as candy add-ins like Popping Candy and Nerds.)

Nope, I’m a pickle purist, I told him, and he promptly went to get my pure Pickle Juice slush order.

How It Tasted

I was surprised that the color wasn’t the audacious electric green I was expecting. (To be honest, I was kind of relieved about that, actually.) It was more like the color of a homemade margarita. I was also surprised by the scent: pickles! But of course! Why should I have been surprised? I just didn’t think it was possible to capture that scent in a slush. But what was most surprising was how the flavor evolved as I drank it.

  • At first: The sweetness dominated
  • After a moment or so: As my tongue got cold, and perhaps my sweet-tastebuds fatigued a bit…there it was! Pickles! It tastes like pickles! Again, why should I have been surprised?
  • As the surprise element faded: Wait, is that salt? Perhaps a subtle hint of lime?

Ultimately, I’d call it sweet and tangy and super-refreshing, like a pickle-flavored margarita. (Hey, there’s an idea, right?) I would order it again—but maybe Sonic will bring it to the grocery store. Next, try this delicious cotton candy pickle.

Recipes to Make When You're Obsessed with Pickles
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Lauren Cahn
Lauren Cahn is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared regularly in The Huffington Post as well as a variety of other publications since 2008 on such topics as life and style, popular culture, law, religion, health, fitness, yoga, entertaining and entertainment. She is also a writer of crime fiction; her first full-length manuscript, The Trust Game, was short-listed for the 2017 CLUE Award for emerging talent in the genre of suspense fiction.