- Sonic sparked debate and outrage when the chain added the pickle juice slush to its menu earlier this summer.
- Instead of feeding into the outrage cycle, we decided to try the beverage ourselves.
- The process of drinking the plutonium-green slush began with bafflement and ended in the loss of one's faith in one's own judgement.
Pickle juice, long a controversial byproduct of a universally loved vinegary delight, is having a moment.
Athletes are drinking it, bars are slinging it as a chaser, and most importantly for our purposes, Sonic is slushifying it.
In June, Sonic sparked debate and outrage when it added the pickle juice slush to its menu. Critical customers trashed the drink without even giving it a sympathetic sip, joining in a social media pile-on.
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Committed to our task as fast-food journalists, we decided to refrain from comment until we could get our hands on a pickle juice slush and come to our own conclusions. So, on a recent road trip, we stopped by a Sonic and placed an order that would force us to reconsider everything.
The process of drinking the plutonium-green Sonic slush began with bafflement and ended in the loss of one's faith in one's own judgement.
Here's how we experienced the transformative moments:
- Assume the drink will taste weird, like pickle juice.
- Take a sip, and have one's assumptions confirmed. It does, indeed taste like pickle juice, only slightly sweeter.
- Take another sip, and wonder why you are taking another sip.
- Repeat step No. 3 until the drink is gone.
- Realize that you in fact enjoyed the drink, wonder why, and leave feeling deeply unsettled, yet satisfied.
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
The spread at Sonic.
Why did we finish the drink? We cannot say.
Why did we enjoy it? Our brains cannot grasp what our hearts and tongues desire.
How has Sonic achieved such a feat? If forced to guess, we must say it is pure, sugar-laden sorcery.
Sonic's pickle juice slush will come off the menu later this summer, ending its great and terrible reign as America's most baffling fast-food beverage.