Why Chick-Fil-A's Lemonade Tastes So Good

That lemonade is one of the best items on the menu is not a Chick-fil-A controversy; it's a fact. Sweet, tart, and refreshing, it's the perfect accompaniment to your Original Chicken Sandwich and piping-hot waffle fries. You may have noticed that other lemonades just don't measure up. It's not your imagination, either. Chick-fil-A's lemonade is head and shoulders above its competitors because it is made fresh in every Chick-fil-A restaurant and Little Blue Menu location from high-quality ingredients. No preservatives, no artificial colors — just lemon juice, water, and sugar (or Splenda for diet lemonade).

Chick-fil-A's own website touts the chain's commitment to fresh-prepped food and high-quality ingredients. It's a commitment that customers love, judging by the fact that Chick-fil-A has held a top-three spot in USA Today's reader-voted ranking of American fast food restaurants for over 10 years. And the homemade lemonade clearly resonates with consumers, as Chick-fil-A reports it sells over 121 million cups of the stuff every year! It's a combination of quality and effort that makes CFA's lemonade a winner and keeps you coming back to wet your whistle.

Every morning, Chick-fil-A employees whip up massive quantities of both regular and diet lemonade as part of their opening prep. They use large plastic containers pre-marked with quart measurements, and precisely measure the quantity of lemon juice, sugar (or Splenda), and water needed to make either 11 quarts of regular or 10 quarts of diet lemonade at a time. These totes are labeled with the date, the day of the week, and the initials of the employee who made the lemonade, and then set aside for your enjoyment. This hands-on quality control guarantees that you are getting perfect lemonade every time you visit the drive-thru.

Good lemons are a big part of the secret to Chick-fil-A's scrumptious lemonade and Sunjoy drinks, which are a combination of sweet tea and lemonade. Employees used to juice fresh lemons by hand as part of the lemonade prep. Now, to save labor hours, the restaurant uses pre-squeezed lemon juice courtesy of Bay Center Foods. BCF creates fresh, food-safe lemon juice from over 1 million pounds of raw lemons every day using a high-pressure pasteurization technique and ships tens of thousands of cases to Chick-fil-A restaurants across the United States weekly. Eventually, a little bit of that lemon juice makes it into your cup, and you get to savor every sip of tangy happiness.