Review: Mike's Hard Dirty Lemonade: Fun To Say, Even Funner To Drink (I May Have Had A Few)

As winter turns to spring, the drive to chase that vitamin D with our favorite outdoor activities becomes all consuming. If your spring and summer plans are anything like mine, an essential part of those activities is enjoying a tasty drink that perfectly fits the vibes and flavor. There are plenty of boozy drinks that make sunlit days all the better — and just in time, Mike's Hard has something new to add to refrigerated alcohol cases. If you're a fan of the dirty soda trend, you're probably going to like this one.

A dirty soda mixes soda with flavoring like syrups and even coffee creamer. Soda shops are becoming increasingly popular and some fast food chains and even drink brands are offering their own dirty soda combinations. Dubbed Dirty Lemonade, Mike's brings flavors designed to easily integrate into all your picnics, golf, barbecue, and lazy beach days — but are they any good? I got an early taste of these fruit flavored drinks to determine if they need to be on your packing list for your upcoming adventures.

Mike's Hard sent a sampler pack of the brand's four new Dirty Lemonade flavors. My advanced taste test was a virtual one. I hopped on a Zoom with Stanten Jones, Sr. Manager for Taste the Difference, Mark Anthony Brands International. With Jones, I sipped and sniffed my way through the flavors, noting and assessing the tastes. 

I would decide if Mike's Dirty Lemonades were worth your time based on the tastes of the different flavors and whether or not they were enjoyable to drink. If the beverages ended up being tasty with an easy-to-drink quality, I figured they may be drinks you would want to try.

Unlike typical Mike's Hard Lemonade, the collection of Dirty Lemonade drinks are non-carbonated and highly flavored. The Dirty Lemonade comes in four flavors: Dirty Lemon Secret, Dark Cherry Brew, Very Berry Grape, and Pineapple Haze. Each drink is based on fruit but also comes with a burst of complementary, but surprising, flavors.

Dirty Lemonade Secret tastes like a remix of a classic lemonade. There's a smoothness to it that you don't find in typical lemonade, but I also noted spice from the hot honey flavors. That hot honey builds over subsequent sips but is never too overpowering.

The Dark Cherry Brew is a play on my favorite Mike's flavor. This one aims to be something like a cherry cola, but I tasted a drink somewhere between tart cherry juice and a cherry sucker. It's the kind of drink that longs for lounging on a boat's sunbed with nothing but waves and sun ahead.

For a take on very berry flavors, Mike's Hard Very Berry Grape is a play between mixed berry and grape. While mixed berry can often be confusing and even muddy, this flavor was heavily grape with a berry taste in the background.

The real star of the show? Pineapple Haze. This flavor was prominently pineapple but with coconut behind it. The balance was perfect with the flavor tasting like pineapple and tropical coconut, without becoming sunscreen. Bring this beverage to the beach this summer and you're guaranteed a tasty beach day, dripping in golden, pineapple goodness.

I was a little hesitant going into these flavors. I've had my fair share of boozy canned lemonade brands, and there are some truly awful options out there. Not to mention, I've come to expect dirty drinks to be largely creamy, and I wasn't sure how these would work with creamy flavors. Thankfully, Mike's plays with the dirty soda fad in the added flavors, not in coffee creamer as Taco Bell's dirty sodas do or with a cream soda element like Dirty Mountain Dew attempted, for example.

I enjoyed every flavor I tried, and if you like non-carbonated fruity drinks, you'll likely enjoy these flavors. They are very much worth a taste, and I can honestly say that I may have discovered my new favorite beach drink — especially in the Pineapple Haze flavor. Since they come in cans, they're even better for pairing with sand, salt, and sun.

Unfortunately, Mike's was unable to share much in the way of nutritional information for the new drinks yet, so like many malted beverages, the alcohol by volume (ABV) of Mike's Dirty Lemonade is the only real nutritional stat we have available. All flavors have an ABV of 4.5%. Regular canned Mike's Hard Lemonade has 5% ABV, just a little more than the Dirty Lemonade flavors. 

Though these drinks have a similar ABV to other similar beverages, they have nearly no alcohol taste. The extra flavorings (the dirty element) certainly help cover up some of that taste of alcohol.

Ingredient-wise, each of the drinks is a lemonade at heart. The Dirty Lemon Secret has flavoring to achieve a bright lemonade with some hot honey. The Dark Cherry Brew is achieved with flavors of cherry and citrus as well as spices. I got hints of cinnamon, but the description claimed this one to be closer to cola. The Very Berry Grape uses flavoring of such fruits to achieve its mixture of flavors, and the Pineapple Haze is largely a pineapple drink, but rounded off with coconut for a nice smoothness.

You'll find Mike's Dirty Lemonade wherever you currently find Mike's other collection of drinks, such as Mike's HARDER Tea. Mike's sent me a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans in a variety pack collection. This particular variety pack had three cans of each flavor, and is widely available where you might find other Mike's drinks. Prices may vary. Target, for instance, had a posted price of $18.99, but it was on sale at the time of writing for $16.99. To see if your favorite store stocks Mike's, you can hop on the store locator on the company's website.

If you want your drink in a 24-ounce can, you'll also be able to get the Dirty Lemon Secret and Dark Cherry Brew flavors in solo cans rather than part of a larger pack. Unfortunately, this means you'll need to get the variety pack in order to try out all four flavors on their own — but as enjoyable as each of these flavors was, I heartily recommend the variety pack instead of purchasing single big-boy cans.