Only 19% Of People Consider This Their Favorite Summer Drink

Summer is...well, not exactly almost here, unless you're really, really optimistic, or else you live in one of those southern or southwestern states where it's already 90 degrees in late March. Even if you reside in a more northerly climate, however, chances are you're so done with winter that you're already starting to Google lighter spring and summer recipes. Beverages, as well, are an important part of all summertime festivities. Important to stay hydrated, you know! So what's the official drink of summer? 

While foodie websites will probably try to convince you it's something like a rum-spiked basil-watermelon slushie, the fact is, most of us have our summertime standbys that we'll default to no matter what trends come and go. Mashed recently polled the general public, a decent-sized sampling of some 64,000 folks worldwide, and uncovered the not-too-astonishing news that lemonade is the favorite summertime drink of nearly half (46 percent) of people likely to respond to YouTube polls about food. Lemonade, it seems, is like the hot chocolate of the hotter months — while this cold-weather drink rules during the fall and winter seasons, it cedes pride of place to the colder, tarter drink once the last snow melts away. Iced tea and/or coffee came in second place with 21 percent of the vote, but in last place, surprisingly enough, came soda, only favored by 19 percent of poll respondents.

While soda's low ranking may come as a disappointment to many advertisers that want to portray their soft drink as an integral component of fun in the sun, coming in last place out of three isn't as bad as all that. Even lower down the list came all the write-in candidates proposed by the 14 percent, who chose to cast their vote for "Other." While 14 percent of 64,000 amounts to 8,960 (aren't calculators great?), fewer than 1,300 of those other-voting folks obeyed our directive to "comment option not listed above." Of the comments we did receive, a number of these actually duplicated one of the choices we did provide, perhaps adding a few embellishments as was the case with the person who said they liked "sprite, strawberries on bottom, topped off with orange juice or lemonade" or someone who specified "fresh lemonade from our giant, grapefruit-sized lemons."

Those who actually had a fourth option to propose, however, tended to fall into a few categories. Some wanted to mix the top two candidates to make an Arnold Palmer, others preferred something with a little more kick like beer or a cocktail (one even claimed to make — and drink — "Moonshine, from my own still"), but by far the most vocal were the contingent who opted for "just plain cold water." Perhaps not the most exciting beverage option, true, but at least it's healthy and cheap!