Sonic Pickle Juice Slushi (In which I take one for the team) - Various Locations

I heard the words “Pickle Juice Slushi” and I confess, I was hooked. As a bit of a food explorer, this promised to be a jaw-snapping delight and I was willing to travel to find it. So off I drove, 45 minutes from my mom’s home in Southern CT to Wallingford. Where I ordered my first pickle juice slushi. I had certain hopes but I knew there were a couple of ways Sonic could go: dill or sweet gherkin, half-sour or bread-and-butter. Inquiring minds wanted to know and I was keen to give it a try. OK. So it’s kind of apple-limey green. And, well, it’s a slushi. Then your first impression is of dill and then, rather too quickly for my taste, is an overwhelming sweetness. Dill & sweet. Sweet & dill. It was oddly thirst quenching and thirst inducing at the same time. I kept sipping. So here’s what I think: Sonic could have really gone out on a gastronomic limb and fully embraced the pickleness, the jaw-clenching pickleness of a fully brined dill pickle with just the teensiest hint of sugar. But no. They played it safe. Way way too much sugar and not enough pickle dillness. It should taste a lot like when you slurp up the last of the pickle juice in the bottle after you’ve eaten the very last pickle. However, this has given me an idea for a homemade version in which I just might add a soupcon of habanero to round out the flavor. Your thoughts are most welcome.sonic-pickle-juice-slush

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Wow, you really took one for the team!
Do you ever reuse pickle juice for other things? I marinated pork chops in Claussen dill brine recently and grilled. They tasted like…pickle pork chops. Bleh

Sometimes I use a splash in place of vinegar or lemon juice in something like potato salad, etc.

Impressive, loved reading your notes. I felt like I was in the car with you.:grinning:

I saw the tv ad and thought wow my kid would use that to bet another kid to drink it. Let Mikey try it!!

I have never been to Sonic. But, I do reuse pickle juice in a few cold salads. In college a buddy used it for the cold water portion in jello as a prank…yeah, blech!

Brava, food explorer.

aw, it’s too bad they didn’t get it right. I could actually see that working too if balanced! Thanks for the review, explorer.

LOL, this happened to me recently. I had some pickled ramps still in my fridge, and I found a recipe for a pickled-brined roast chicken. I marinated for 24 hours and when I roasted, it tasted a bit like pickle juice chicken. It wasn’t terrible, but not something I was shooting for. Maybe it was also the wrong flavor profile of the pickle juice, as I had a spicy, saliter version. I normally like spicy, garlicky pickles. Maybe 24 hours is just too long for something with so strong a flavor?

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