Sprite Chill review: Yep, that’s pretty icy

Sprite has had a number of flavor innovations over the years. You’ve got your basic lemon-lime Sprite. Lymonade, which leans more on the lemon. Tropical Mix, Cherry, etc. But the latest - Sprite Chill – adds something new to the mix with a “proprietary blend of cooling agents,” which aim to cool out your summer.

The main flavor in the soda is Cherry Lime, which seemed tried and true. After all, as mentioned Sprite knows what’s up when it comes to lime. They’ve got cherry on lock. Through the two together for a soda version of a Cherry Lime Rickey seems like a no-brainer. But those maniacs didn’t stop there. Nope. They added cooling agents, which immediately seems like they either stuck refrigerator coils in there, or Hugo Weaving is going to pop out of the bottle to ominously coo, “Good to see you, Mr. Sprite Drinker. We… Missed you.”

Dusty Matrix references aside, I wasn’t sure what strength of “cooling agents” we would get in this drink when I tried it. Too much mintiness and it could overwhelm the flavor of the cherry-lime, which I was looking forward to.

While I am happy to report that while the “chill” part of the drink is not like chewing gum and drinking a Sprite, the dominant sensation of drinking a Sprite Chill is indeed the chill, not the cherry or lime.

You’re starting with your basic Sprite here. It’s a good mix of bubbles, a little sweeter than other, similar lemon-lime sodas, and not necessarily what I will reach for anyway if I’m grabbing a sodie. But it’s a solid option, and of course a huge cultural icon as well as a drink choice.

On the first sip, you get hints of the cherry and lime, which tastes nice together – neither is very strong anyway – but that’s immediately overshadowed by the chill, which has the soothing feeling of a cough drop without, like mentioned, getting too minty. Subsequent sips skipped the cherry-lime entirely for the cooling feeling, which again, I did not mind. I intended to taste a sip or two, but found it generally more refreshing than a Sprite usually is – the sugar tends to dry me out rather than… Juice me up? Not sure that’s an expression, honestly, but there you go. So perhaps in that sense it was more successful as a beverage.

That said, I also like mint gum, so your mileage may vary.

Overall, I assume this is aiming towards having a refreshing, cooling drink in the middle of the summer. But, not to get all scientist on you, soda does not actually refresh you, and I can’t imagine the cooling agents do either. It’s like the whisky dogs on mountains giving you alcohol to warm you, but actually making things worse.

So: totally fine soda, not nearly as aggressive as it could have been on the chill. But here’s hoping Sprite releases cherry lime without the cooling agents next, because I would very much like to try that.

This Sprite Chill was provided by 7-Eleven to Guilty Eats.