Surely this review of 7Up Shirley Temple can’t be serious

I don’t remember ordering many Shirley Temples as a kid. Whenever we had soda outside of our home, it was probably Sprite at McDonald’s or root beer at Friendly’s. (People rightfully praise the quality of a fountain Coke from McDonald’s, but I’d put a root beer from Friendly’s right up there too. The world is a less bright place now that Friendly’s has pretty much disappeared.)

I do remember occasionally ordering a ginger ale with grenadine, though, if we had access to an open bar at a cousin’s wedding. I had no idea I was ordering a Shirley Temple. I just liked getting a few cherries in a soda.

When pictures of 7Up Shirley Temple started circulating online a few weeks ago, several family members and friends reached out to me to make sure I knew about it. I did. So when I spotted a pallet of 7Up Shirley Temple while grocery shopping at the end of this week, I knew I had to bring some home.

Unfortunately, my Harris Teeter didn’t have the zero sugar version. I found a two-liter bottle of 7Up Shirley Temple, which seemed like a smarter purchase than investing in twelve cans. Did it live up to my memories of bothering a bartender at a wedding while “Shout” played in the background for the fourth time?

Where I found it

7Up Shirley Temple is supposed to be widely available. I first found it at Harris Teeter.

What I paid

I paid $3.49 for a two-liter bottle.

My thoughts

I can’t say I buy a ton of 7Up these days. Putting aside my addiction to Coke Zero (I swear I drink more water now), 7Up is now an outsider in the world of lemon-lime sodas. Coke has Sprite. Pepsi has Starry. (RIP, Sierra Mist.) When I was a kid, 7Up was ubiquitous thanks to it being Pepsi’s de facto lemon-lime offering. But that’s not the case in 2024. While I have a taste profile for Sprite and even Starry stored in my brain, I can’t say I have a baseline 7Up locked in there anymore.

That made tasting 7Up Shirley Temple a brand new experience. It’s not an offshoot of 7Up to me. It’s its own standalone soda.

When I opened the bottle, I immediately thought of Barq’s Red Creme Soda. I honestly don’t know what fruit that version of Barq’s is supposed to be, but I’m guessing there’s something in there that evokes the grenadine — sorry, “pomegranate and cherry soda” — in 7Up Shirley Temple.

The cherry taste of 7Up Shirley Temple is strong. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t remember what 7Up is supposed to taste like. But this soda feels more like pomegranate and cherry extract with 7Up tossed in to carbonate it. If you’re hoping for a hint of lemon-lime, don’t get your hopes up.

As someone who long ago stopped drinking non-diet sodas, I fully expected to be hit with that full sugar taste when I took a sip of 7Up Shirley Temple. That thankfully wasn’t the case. I’m not sure if 7Up maybe doesn’t run as sugary as a Coke would or if the fact that I poured this into a glass of ice cut that taste a bit. Either way, I wound up finishing up my small pour and refilled my glass. That’s a compliment, right?

Final verdict: A LUKEWARM BUY

I need to find the zero sugar version of 7Up Shirley Temple. While I enjoyed what I drank for this review, I’m not sure I’ll keep drinking the full sugar version that’s now sitting on our counter. (I should probably make it disappear before our daughter asks about it again.) Would the zero sugar version of 7Up Shirley Temple be something that I’d want to come to again and again? It’s possible. I did just find myself buying Sprite Chill Zero, a cherry-lime version of Sprite, for the second time.

I also have to wonder if Shirley Temple herself would approve of this version of 7Up. The actress had sued over the use of her name to promote the drink on several occasions.