L&P - "World Famous in New Zealand"

The Canterbury museum gave us a good introduction to genuine "kiwiana" (all things unique to New Zealand) and it also gave us the motivation to try something that's supposedly world famous here, a soft drink called "L&P" which stands for "Lemon and Paeroa." After walking around all day we stopped at a pop machine and bought a can to see what all the fuss was about.


Truth be told, it tasted like carbonated lemonade but it was refreshing nevertheless. I would compare it to Sprite or Seven-Up with a little extra lemon flavor. L&P is traditionally made by mixing lemon juice with carbonated mineral water from the northern town of Paeroa, thus giving the drink its name. Nowadays, it's manufactured by none other than Coca-Cola. L&P can only be found in NZ so we better take advantage and drink our fill while we're here.

Here's what it says on the back of the L&P can (there's lots of examples of Kiwi slang as well as the habit of attaching the word "as" on to words like in "Kiwi as" or "Sweet as.")

"World famous in New Zealand. There's nothing like L&P, a little Kiwi classic with loads of fresh taste. She's a legend our Lemon and Paeroa . . . and Kiwi as. There's heaps of stories to tell about this favourite fruity drop . . . but the important stuff is where it all started. Take a trip to sunny Paeroa, back in the good old days, where some local blokes found an awesome underground spring. Yup, right under their noses loads of super-fresh water. Fact is, water's water but it ain't L&P. It wasn't until some bright spark had the idea of putting something in it, L&P came to life. C-h-o-i-c-e! With a little bit of lemon and sprinkling of magic (our secret formula), the little kiwi beauty we know and love was born. And L&P today? It's still the original flavour, but now it's even better!"