The Mistake You Shouldn't Make With Chick-Fil-A's Lemonade

So sweet, and tart, and refreshing is the lemonade at Chick-Fil-A that you might find yourself wondering why you're only enjoying this beverage alongside your chicken sandwich and waffle fries. If it tastes good slurped from a straw with your lunch, wouldn't it also be delicious with dinner tonight...and tomorrow night...hey, why not every night of the week? They do sell Chick-Fil-A lemonade in convenient gallons that you can stick in your fridge, after all.

We're going to stop you right there. While it's certainly true that you could bring home a gallon of the thirst-quenching sweetness, there's no way you're going to be enjoying that lemonade all week. We give you 48 hours max. That's because it goes bad, according to Chick-Fil-A employees discussing this topic on Reddit. Noted user SkipOldBaySeasoning: "It will just taste nasty after 48 hours."

This sentiment was echo by user DocVak, who added: "Honestly you're just wasting your money buying gallons at CFA."

There's a really good reason why the fast food chain's famous beverage goes bad so quickly. According to the Chick-Fil-A blog, the lemonade, which is made fresh daily, only contains three ingredients: sugar, water and lemons. Compare that to Minute Maid Lemonade, which contains these ingredients plus a handful of additional ingredients "to protect taste." 

Perhaps this is why CFA employees are given a very short window to serve the beverage. Redditor Mangler97 noted: "I'm a chick-fil-a manager and we are only allowed to serve the diet lemonade for up to 12 hours after its made, and regular lemonade is 24 hours. We have to throw it away after that."

So unless you're having a party that day, and plan to be serving Chick-Fil-A lemonade to half a dozen guests — or you're really, really thirsty, you're better off just buying the single serving and enjoying every single sip of it on the spot.