Lilt soft drinks are to be scrapped after nearly 50 years

The soft drink brand Lilt is to be scrapped after almost 50 years and rebranded.

The Coca Cola owned iconic pineapple and grapefruit flavour soft drink, famous for its ‘totally tropical taste’, will no longer be branded as Lilt. According to the company, from today, the fizzy drink will be rebranded as Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit, and will see new packaging.

Though the firm reassured people that its ingredients would not change. Fans of the drink took to social media to express their sadness and dismay, recalling memories of the fizzy refresher from their youth.

One fan tweeted: “Farewell sweet Lilt.” Another put: “Fanta ‘Grapefruit & Pineapple’ … I’m still going to call it Lilt. Just like I still call the chewy sweets in paper Opal Fruits!” And, a third wrote: “Farewell to Lilt. For some completely pointless reason they are rebranding it … Apparently nothing is allowed to be different these days.”

Launched in 1975, Lilt became a household name in the UK partly because of its advertising. A television advert in the late 1980s featured the ‘Lilt Man’, delivering Lilt from a ‘Lilt float’ on a Caribbean beach. And in the 1990s, the drink was promoted with advertisements featuring two Jamaican women, Blanche Williams and Hazel Palmer, who became known in the media as the ‘Lilt Ladies’.

Some Lilt fans had already guessed something was afoot when cans were redesigned last year using the Fanta font. Coca Cola, which owns a host of different soft drink brands around the world, said Lilt would no longer be sold under its current branding from Tuesday February 14th, while Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit bottles and cans were gradually rolled out across the UK.

Fanta brand manager Charlotte Walsham said.: “Our main priority with this announcement is to reassure Lilt’s loyal fan base that absolutely nothing has changed when it comes to the iconic taste of the drink they know and love.

“It’s just got itself a new name.”

Lilt was only ever sold in a handful of countries other than the UK including Ireland, Gibraltar and the Seychelles.