Firehouse Cherry Limeade Soda at Sam's Club (Johnson City: to buy, place)

[tonypitt]

This might be the oddest question ever asked here, but after extensive Google searching turned up nothing, I thought I'd take this to the forum to see if anyone here local has any idea.

A few weeks ago I was getting a soda at the fountain in the Sam's Club Johnson City. I noticed that they had a spigot for "Firehouse Subs Cherry Limeade." I'd never tried this before, so I gave it a shot.

As an aside, my wife and I love Firehouse Subs, and we really wish one would open up somewhere locally.

So, this Cherry Limeade from Sam's was fabulous. It has now become my new favorite drink. I've gotten it about 4 times in last month since I don't go to Sam's that frequently.

A couple of weeks ago we were in Asheville and stopped a Firehouse Subs for dinner. I tried the Cherry Limeade from their Coke Freestyle machine. It was disgusting. It tasted nothing like what they have at Sam's Club.

In comparison, the Sam's beverage is a very pale pink. Imagine taking a bottle of Sprite and putting a few drops of red coloring in it. The beverage at Firehouse was roughly the color of Hawaiian Punch. The Sam's drink is really refreshing. The Firehouse drink was overpoweringly sweet. I have a sweet tooth and it was disgustingly sweet to me. (Google does turn up a lot of people complaining about how sweet Firehouse Subs's Cherry Limeade is, so I'm assuming this was authentic and not that the drink machine in Asheville was way off in its calibration.)

So it seems that Sam's Club Firehouse Subs Cherry Limeade is very different than the real thing from Firehouse. Considering that the soda machine tap has a professionally printed label with the Firehouse Subs logo on it, I'm rather confused about the huge difference.

So, my question: Has anyone else tried this at Sam's? If so, do you have any idea what it is? Is it mislabeled at Sam's and is not a Firehouse flavor? Most importantly, is there anyplace other than the Sam's Club to buy this locally? I'd love to find it in cans or such. I thought about asking a Sam's employee if I could see the product box, but it's always way too busy in there when I visit to ask that question.

Thanks for any ideas others have. (Next time you go to Sam's try this drink out and help me with my detective work!)

[Bones]

I have not tried it, but you could try this...


https://redhillgirl.wordpress.com/20...-limeade-hack/

[tonypitt]

Thanks, Bones. I've seen that one. It may be worth a shot, but I don't see how it could be like the one I'm fond of since it is not carbonated. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Tsumeone]

When they first added the flavor at Sam's they had tape over the firehouse logo. I'm thinking it's not actually the Firehouse brand, and the tape simply fell off.

[tonypitt]

Makes sense. Thanks

[DubbleT]

An old fanta facebook post says that they supply a cherry limeade syrup for Sams club soda fountains. It says it's not sold to the public in any form, but as it's an old post maybe it's available for purchase as canned or bottled drinks now?

[sprintuser2014]

According to a Wikipedia article I found it is indeed Fanta and is only available at Sam's Club and some Circle K fountains.