Coca Cola scraps Lilt after 50 years

Lilt, famous for offering a “totally tropical taste”, is being axed after nearly 50 years and will be rebranded as Fanta Pineapple and Grapefruit.

The tangy drink was launched in 1975 and was sold only in the UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and Seychelles.

The Coca-Cola Company said the drink will use the same formula when it becomes Fanta – with the first cans and bottles appearing in shops from today (14).

Coke executive Martin Attock said he wanted to reassure fans “absolutely nothing has changed when it comes to the iconic taste”. The company recently hinted at the move when the label design changed to bring it in line with the Fanta style.

“Keen Lilt fans may have spotted a gradual transition as the drink has made its way into the Fanta family over the past few months, with changes to its packaging and logo,” The Guardian quoted Coca Cola’s statement.

The company’s GB vice-president of commercial development said that the drink itself was unchanged.

“Our main priority with this announcement is to reassure Lilt’s loyal fanbase that absolutely nothing has changed when it comes to the iconic taste of the drink they know and love. It’s still bursting with tangy tropical flavours, it’s just got itself a new name,” the publication quoted Martin Attock as saying.

Launched in 1975, Lilt started gaining immense popularity in the late 1980s with its Lilt Man adverts. A decade later, the product was promoted by two Jamaican women known as the Lilt Ladies.