A soft drink popular among Aussies since the 1970s is being permanently pulled from store shelves across the country.
Coca-Cola has confirmed Lift — a lemon-flavoured carbonated drink — will be replaced with the new Sprite Lemon+ range.
“Lift cans and bottles will be phased out of stores by the end of 2022,” a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, which owns Lift, told Yahoo News Australia on Tuesday.
Coca-Cola South Pacific rebranded Lift in 2016 by launching its LIFT Hard Hitting Lemon, which boasts a lower sugar content.
The company introduced Sprite Lemon+ and Sprite Lemon+ Zero Sugar earlier this month and they are now available for purchase at supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations.
“We’re always evolving our product portfolio to provide more of what people want and we only introduce recipes we feel will bring more followers to our brands,” the Coca Cola spokesperson said.
“We believe our new Sprite Lemon+ range, including a Sprite Lemon+ Zero Sugar product, will be popular with existing Lift drinkers.”
Aussies upset by discontinuation of Lift
However, the move to axe Lift has caused outrage among Aussie consumers, some of which claim the drink is “irreplaceable”.
They have also criticised the inclusion of caffeine in the new Sprite+ range, an addition that was not seen in its popular predecessor.
“Change the name, change the label and add caffeine,” one woman joked in a TikTok of the new Sprite+ range on sale at Coles.
“Don’t be fooled!! It’s [definitely] not Lift, it’s like one thinly sliced lemon in sparkling water,” another person commented.
“NOOOOOOO it’s the only lemony drink that still had a kick. It’s so had to find a big bottle of lift,” someone else said.
Rumours about the soft drink’s discontinuation have been swirling online since July, with many workers in the service industry saying they had slowly seen their supply of Lift dwindle.
While consumers appear to be divided over which tastes better — Lift or Sprite+ — many agreed that their top pick would actually be competitor Solo, which is owned by Asahi Breweries.
“Solo is better anyways,” one man wrote on TikTok.
“Lift changed to a really tangy mix which killed it for me. Solo or pub squash is where it’s at,” another person said.
Extracted from Yahoo News