lemonade

[Lynne Murphy]

Andrea said:
> Actually, some English use the term "lemonade" for "soda" in general.  The most
> popular soda is a lemon-lime flavor, but I don't think the term exclusively
> means that.  I think that doubles for German "Limonade" = "soda", but I'm not
> sure about Italian.

I've never seen 'lemonade' in British English (or South African) mean anything but
lemon soda (which is to say the same thing as 7up or Sprite).  It comes in bottles
marked 'lemonade'.  It's particularly important for mixing with Pimm's No. 1 Cup,
which can also be mixed nicely (I think better) with ginger ale.  So maybe some
people use 'lemonade' generally for the sweet mixers, but I've never seen any
evidence of it being used for coke or orange soda and such.

American-style lemonade is "still lemonade", but the fizzy lemonade bears no real
resemblance to American lemonade.  It's clear and tastes more like sugar than like
any citrus fruit.  Bitter lemon is, of course, something else again.  While I was
living in South Africa, Schweppes re-named "bitter lemon" as "dry lemon" in order
to boost sales.  It was nearly as common as Coke (a lot more common than Pepsi) in
places where you could by canned drinks.  The renaming seems to have been
particular to South Africa, though.

Whenever I'm in the States, I look for bitter lemon, but for the last 10 years or
so it's been impossible to find in supermarkets.  I did find it in Bellingham, WA,
which I guessed was because of its proximity to Canada.

Lynne